Fall Concert: Sincerely Yours, Pauli Murray

Join Common Woman Chorus for our performance of "Sincerely Yours, Pauli Murray" on Saturday, December 5th. The multi-movement dramatic cantata by Black Composer Steve Milloy and Librettist Kim Hines, as well as Dramaturg Jane Ramseyer Miller, honors the life and legacy of the Reverend Doctor Pauli Murray: a multi-racial Black, LGBTQ+ individual and 20th-century human rights activist, legal scholar, author, poet, and Episcopal priest. We're partnering with the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice, which is housed in Murray’s childhood home in Durham, and we are thrilled to present this work in the historic Hayti Heritage Center.

Also featured at each performance will be an engaging panel discussion with Angela Thorpe-Mason, Executive Director of the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice and Rosita Stevens-Holsey, Board Member. Angela Thorpe-Mason is a cultural heritage leader, public historian, and scholar based in Durham, North Carolina. For a decade, she has worked to share stories of the Black Southern Experience, and to amplify histories of marginalized communities, in archives, museums, and historic sites. As Murray Family Matriarch, Ms. Stevens-Holsey, niece of the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, uplifts Murray's legacy through her company Preserving Pauli Murray.

Through music and storytelling, we invite you to celebrate Murray’s extraordinary legacy and reflect on the ongoing pursuit of justice, equality, and belonging in our community.