ESPERANZA SPALDING’S
HOMEMADE FIELD OF LOVE

A communal cleansing at Carnegie Hall

Stepping out at night this winter requires real chutzpah because New York City is absolutely freezing, but you can always find small treasures that warm you through both the weather and these bleak political times. I was lucky enough to stumble upon one of the rarest on February 7: esperanza spalding brought her singular magic to Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Room, transforming the space into something closer to a friends’ gathering than a traditional concert. In this intimate, come-as-you-are circular setting, we were invited to settle in on mats, cushions, or chairs, pick up a percussion, and experience a soul-nourishing concert that felt equal parts music, meditation, and communal cleansing.

I know it sounds like any other kind of “new-age” or “healing/inner work” performance, but this one, believe me, was truly different. It is part of Carnegie Hall’s 2025–2026 Well-Being Concert Series and a Healing Arts New York initiative. Spalding called it a Homemade Field of Love, naming the thing that happens between people when music, love, resilience, justice, and community align, a temporary world built out of care. She was joined by Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, writer and host of the show, an independent scholar, educator, and self-described “Queer Black Troublemaker.” Her words and presence added depth and intention. With her warm but straightforward voice, she recited a few verses before guiding us into the life and work of legendary poet, essayist, teacher, and activist June Jordan, “The Poet of the People”.

More specifically, she spoke of June Jordan’s meetings with Fannie Lou Hamer, a giant of the Civil Rights Movement, during her trips to Mississippi in 1969 and 1971. Hamer’s ethic of radical love and empathy cut through Jordan’s understandable bitterness, permanently reshaping her political and spiritual life. While Jordan was a New York poet and scholar, Fannie Lou Hamer was a Mississippi sharecropper with the voice of a revival preacher who, after witnessing brutal injustice all her life, entered politics determined never to whisper. Gumbs alternated prose and verses, sometimes with music in the background, sometimes in silence, all perfectly woven.

Rounding out the music ensemble was Morgan Guerin on a gorgeous 1970s Fender Rhodes Mark I. Warm, smooth, and soulful in his interventions, Guerin filled the room with the Rhodes’ buttery low end and unmistakable glassy, bell-like highs, bringing a classic vibe to the evening. Eric Doob, on drums, defined shape and contour; laid-back but precise, he let the groove float. And, though she was just coming off a cold and her voice was faint, Esperanza Spalding carried the evening from beginning to end, juggling playing, singing, and talking with extreme grace. A virtuoso of rare charisma, she stitched jazz and funk into a whole, navigating unconventional phrasing with effortless poise.

We, the audience, found ourselves inside a singular musical ecosystem Spalding shaped exclusively for that night, and we were encouraged to sing along, play percussion, and dance. Tashae Udo and Kayla Farrish, NY based dancers and choreographers, helped us hold the rhythm, singing and weaving on and off brontë velez’s cozy set in a harmonic, fun flow. The lights stayed low and amber under Kate McGee’s direction, fitting the vibe perfectly, and we were also served tea, courtesy of Spirit Adams.

We walked away enriched, smiling, feeling connected, proof that well-being, like music, is something we create together, a real homemade field of love, not just good intentions and pretty words.

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photos by Jennifer Taylor

esperanza spalding
part of Carnegie Hall’s Well-Being Concerts
reviewed on February 7, 2026
for more info, visit Carnegie Hall and esperanza spalding

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on March 26, 2027, spalding will be doing another well-being
concert at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine