At NC Opera, mezzo soprano Denyce Graves brings Mary Cardwell Dawson's story to life

瓜神app

Arts & Culture

The word "Due" read from top-down and "South" left-right, with the U shared between them. Reminiscent of a compass.

Due South

At NC Opera, mezzo soprano Denyce Graves brings Mary Cardwell Dawson's story to life

By Leoneda Inge,

Stacia Brown

Published December 12, 2024 at 10:20 AM EST

Did you know that, in 1961, years before the passing of the Civil Rights Act, President John F. Kennedy appointed a Black woman from Madison, North Carolina to the National Music Committee?

Many people don鈥檛! And North Carolina Opera hopes to change that with the opening of its latest production, .

Dawson was an opera singer, a voice teacher and the founding director of the National Negro Opera Company, still considered to be the most commercially successful Black-owned opera company in America.

The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson follows one fateful night in 1943, when the company鈥檚 scheduled performance of Carmen on a floating barge is threatened by both inclement weather and segregation.

World renowned mezzo soprano Denyce Graves stars in the the title role and joins Leoneda Inge to discuss her work and Dawson's legacy.

runs from December 13 through December 15. Tickets begin at $25.

Guest

Denyce Graves, world-renowned mezzo-soprano, U.S. Global Music Ambassador and founder and artistic director of the Denyce Graves Foundation

Due South

Leoneda Inge

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of 瓜神app's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at 瓜神app as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda鈥檚 work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital 瓜神app Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.

See stories by Leoneda Inge

Stacia Brown

Stacia L. Brown is a writer and audio storyteller who has worked in public media since 2016, when she partnered with the Association of Independents in Radio and Baltimore's WEAA 88.9 to create The Rise of Charm City, a narrative podcast that centered community oral histories. She has worked for WAMU鈥檚 daily news radio program, 1A, as well as 瓜神app鈥檚 The State of Things. Stacia was a producer for 瓜神app's award-winning series, Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon and a co-creator of the station's first children's literacy podcast, The Story Stables. She served as a senior producer for two Ten Percent Happier podcasts, Childproof and More Than a Feeling. In early 2023, she was interim executive producer for WNYC鈥檚 The Takeaway.

See stories by Stacia Brown