Here are a portion of the performers who will give their talent to the first Save the Land: Black Farmers & Landowners Benefit & Rally on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m. in the rural farming community of Tillery where the 1930s New Deal Tillery Resettlement Farms is located.

The event, the first of its kind, is being held to bring awareness to the continued struggle of Black Farmers and Landowners and to raise funds to support the establishment of a monetary fund to support them. The event will also serve as a call to action among supporters of Black Farmers in the ongoing Pigford class action lawsuit.

Chrystal Redding, also known in the music world as Crystal Clear, is an attorney and administrative law judge by training, but a music songwriter and performer at heart.

Crystal Clear is a native of Halifax County and 1984 graduate of Southeast Halifax High School.

She is the granddaughter of the late Matthew and Florenza Grant, the daughter of Evangeline Grant Redding Briley and niece of Gary R. Grant.  Crystal Clear returned to her musical roots by cowriting and performing on the first CD of Christian hip hop artist Ahnu.

The CD is entitled, I Am Ahnu and is produced by Andre Bright.

Crystal Clear is from a family of musical and dramatic artists. Her mother was one of the first African American female television show hosts and producers in the Southeast, and her uncle, Gary Grant, was one of the first African American actors in the Utah Shakespearean Festival.

The Mighty Men of Valor have been singing for the last two years and herald from several churches in the Scotland Neck area. The group has a motto of One God, One Sound.

Mr. Blues, Ermitt Williams of Johns Island, South Carolina has roots in the Tillery area known as Slashes.

He is a Jazz/Blues singer and actor, who was born and raised in Harlem. He now resides on Johns Island, which he considers his home.

He has been singing as long as he can remember. He has been acting off and on for the last 15 years, played in many off Broadway plays such as The Love Story by Mime Perfect, starred as Temptation in Temptation, Some Body is Calling My Name, and the Carlie Towns play called the Diary Frum De Neck Gullah/Geechee Matriarchs.

He sings a style called Jazz Blues, a mixture of blues and jazz.

Mr. Blues has performed with the world famous Charles Ward Ink Spots, Bronx River Jazz Band, Samuel Brown’s Big Band Experience, Andy Kirks Foundation Band, Bob Cunningham, the 3 Bs, Larry 88 Keyes, Les Kurtz quartet, Bross Townsend Trio, Oscar Rivers, Howard Brown, A Touch of Class, Barry Calimese Quartet, his own band A New State of Mind, and Ann’s Caldwell Band.

Brimming with compelling songs and seamless harmonies Together Siobhan and Michael Bowers of Washington, DC, paint dynamic and colorful stories with rich original, contemporary and traditional music. Like their performances, Siobhan (pronounced shhh-vawn) and Michael's first recording together, Dreamers, Lovers & Outlaws, is filled with gracious and gritty stories and observations of the human experience. Both Michael and Siobhan have individual reputations earned from five collective recordings, national touring and radio play reaching international levels prior to their partnership; their collaboration brings out the best in each.

Minister Malachi Kemp is a native of Philadelphia and has given 17 years of service to the Army North Carolina National Guard. He has been deployed to Iraq and Egypt and was called to the musical ministry of gospel rap during his tour. Malachi has a smooth, unique style, and his music is filled with poetic flare, all based on the Word of God. Malachi is an ordained minister under the leadership of Dr. George N. Cooke of New Beginning Prison Ministries, Inc. Malachi is also one of the new and upcoming artists with Mad Praise Music Publishing.

The Fruit of Labor Singing Ensemble, their songs and music was born out of the struggle of organizing African American workers in the “Black Belt” region of North Carolina and the South.

More than twenty two workers, at various times, have participated in this dynamic cultural workers organization.  Recruited from workplace and community struggles, they have captured in music oppressed peoples’ and the working class’ history of community and workplace struggles. They have created more than 60 songs, some cataloged in their four CD’s: Workers Want Fairness, Weapons of Mass Construction, Your Silence Won’t Save You and their 25th anniversary CD Workers Stimulus Package.

The Fruit of Labor’s music has been performed before countless rallies, picket lines and marches. It has also been heard in concert halls, schools, colleges, workplaces, churches, communities, Juneteenth and Kwanzaa celebrations and on radio stations nationally and internationally. They have performed before audiences throughout North Carolina, in Maine, Connecticut, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee and Washington, DC. The members of the Fruit of Labor are community activists and union organizers who believe that cultural organizing should be central in the movement to build power for working people.

For additional information, contact the BFAA office at (252) 826-2800 or the CCT office at (252) 826-3017.