Outreach Opportunities Touch Hearts

Jan/Feb 2014 | As usual, the holiday season was a busy time for outreach performances around town. In December, One Voice and our ensemble, Sotto Voce, performed seven of these “run out” engagements, bringing holiday cheer and an LGBTQ-affirming face and voice to local nonprofit organizations, community events, businesses and several assisted living and hospice communities. Here’s a look at two of those engagements.

“… bring a voice back to HIV in Charlotte.”

On December 1, the chorus was honored to be part of a World AIDS Day event called “The Voices Project.” Presented by Wells Fargo, the project was a collaborative theater production developed by RAIN (The Regional AIDS Interfaith Network) and the Mecklenburg County Health Department as “a community platform to bring a voice back to HIV in Charlotte.”

According to RAIN, the project grew out of a sense that the impact of HIV is not as prevalent a part of our public conversation as it once was, even though new people are infected with the illness every day. The hope was to bring the community a little closer together with personal stories of friends and family who are infected with HIV. It featured local notables as story-tellers—including Dr. Ronald Carter, President of Johnson C. Smith University, community leaders and several radio personalities such as Cheryl Patterson of V101.9 FM WBAV and Matt Harris of the “Matt & Ramona Show” on 107.9 The Link. Each one shared the story of someone living with HIV or a remembrance of those who have passed.

One Voice opened the presentation with two songs celebrating life and connection.

Holiday cheer for youth in need

On Decemeber 10, One Voice began our annual holiday gathering by caroling at The Relatives, a transitional house for youth in need of safety and shelter. The Relatives serves as the Safe Place agency for Mecklenburg County and the surrounding area, ensuring that young people in need have access to immediate help and supportive resources. We sought them out and offered to carol as a meaningful extension of this concert season’s emphasis on home and homeless youth (See story).

That evening, One Voice entertained the youth and staff while they ate dinner. Chorus members also brought supplies for the house (as a replacement for our usual Secret Santa gift exchange). Says One Voice singer and Board member Kym Randall Jones, “We had a great time singing for them, and it felt good to provide necessities for the house.”

One Voice President Liz Fitzgerald sums it up well, “The house was packed with kids sharing a wonderful meal together, the office was filled with donations from chorus members, and the greatest joy was catching some of the kids singing along with us when they heard a favorite carol.”

Want to see? Check out this brief photo album from these two events.