By Jane Ramseyer Miller, One Voice Mixed Chorus

One of the most important impacts of One Voice’s Out In Our Schools program this year was giving youth a chance to interact, rehearse, sing and perform with LGBT and allied adults. Music is a powerful tool to dispel stereotypes and erase fears and phobias and we see this happen in every school where we perform. The choirs in each school were small and having 80+ adult voices added to the student choirs was quite powerful for these students who are fairly new to choral singing.

“Once every voice combined it was AWESOME!” – HS student

Vocal activist, Melanie DeMore joined One Voice to provide workshops in seven schools. She taught the art of Gullah South Seas “stick pounding” which combines step movement, pounding large sticks in rhythm and singing at the same time. It took One Voice singers months of practice to become comfortable with all three activities at once and then working in schools to help teach youth what we had learned was really exciting.

“My favorite part was that the One Voice singers were so welcoming and friendly. The concert was fun and energetic. Seeing them allow younger kids to sing and pound with them was amazing.”  – Community of Peace Academy student