2-944-921 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

How Long Brethren?, [193-]. 'Federal Theatre for New York City Presents - [Helen] Tamiris - in Four Solo Dances - Based on Negro Spirituals - And A Triumphant Return Engagement of How Long Brethren? - 49th St. Theatre...Poster Div. of Federal Theatre N.Y.C.'. Tamiris' best-known concert piece, How Long Brethren (1937), depicted the despair of unemployed Southern blacks and was danced to Lawrence Gellert's "Negro Songs of Protest" sung by an African American chorus. The Federal Theatre Project, created by the U.S. Works Progress Administration in 1935, was designed to conserve and develop the skills of theater workers, re-employ them on public relief, and to bring theater to thousands in the United States who had never before seen live theatrical performances.