woman. My mother was born on St. Helena Island in South Carolina in 1935. She came up to New York at the end of the great migration as a young woman. She came north for work, like a lot of folks from the South did at that time. The difference with our family is that the legacy of land was important. So the goal was to come north to be able to work long enough to retire and move home comfortably. Not to stay.
In 1998, I found myself putting a chamber ensemble together called Psychochamber Ensemble. I realized much later on that that was me trying to re-create the sense of fellowship that I felt as a girl in Catholic school, doing liturgical classical music. I missed that fellowship, that space of the sound. But now I could just do it without Sister Mary Immaculate and feel safe.