The Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers (DCJS) is a community chorus named in honor of civil rights pioneer Dorothy Cotton, a resident of Ithaca, New York, who served as education director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She continues today to spread her message of freedom and hope to people around the world through song.
Established in 2010, the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers is patterned after the famous Fisk Jubilee Singers, a group of ex-slaves who were students at the Fisk School of Nashville, Tennessee, and knew the traditional slave songs of their people. Fisk School was established in 1866 for the education of the recently freed African-Americans—barely six months after the end of the Civil War.
The Negro Spiritual has an honored place in American History as the voice of a uniquely American experience—the perseverance and triumph of an oppressed people with an indomitable spirit, who had an incomparable ability to sing through their anguish with steadfast faith in a God above, and with a joy and sorrow unparalleled in our history. It is the mission of DCJS to raise our voices once again in these words and harmonies and to reach for these redemptive powers in our own times.
The concert will feature guest artist, Sally Ramirez . Sally is a singer, actress, writer, producer, teacher, and vocal coach whose music covers the range from jazz to folk. She has performed in musical theater, operettas, and jazz venues throughout the country. Sally has performed on stage, on television (“The Young and the Restless”, PBS’ “American Family”), and on radio, and she has performed solo and back up on the CDs of many artists in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Ithaca.
The concert will also feature Trumansburg’s own, Geoff Peterson, in the moving spiritual Deep River. The concert is sponsored by the:
Tompkins County Tourism Program – Community Grant Celebration
The Concert is Free and Open to the Public
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