Lift Every Voice

Date: April 25, 2016

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (National Lakeshore) welcomes the Bright Star Touring Theatre of Arden, North Carolina to the area for two free performances of “Lift Every Voice: The Black Experience in the Heartland.” Everyone is invited to experience this very special production on Saturday, May 14, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. at the State Theatre in Traverse City, Michigan or at a 6:00 p.m. performance at the Mills Community House in Benzonia, Michigan. This play is for everyone, but will be especially enjoyed by youth studying American history.

The National Park Service and Bright Star Touring Theatre teamed up to produce “Lift Every Voice: The Black Experience in the Heartland.” The 60-minute play is designed especially to celebrate the National Park Service’s Centennial and the many Black Americans who made a difference in the American Midwest. 

Watch the pages of history come to life with interactive scenes from the first black homesteaders reaching Nicodemus, Kansas to the Little Rock Nine on their first day of school. Meet famous leaders, groundbreakers, and heroes such as Charles Young, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington Carver in this engaging and educational performance. Audiences will learn about many great national parks throughout the Midwest, such as Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois, Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka, Kansas, and Homestead National Monument of America in Beatrice, Nebraska. This production also includes empowering songs such as “Oh Freedom,” “I’m Gonna Eat at the Welcome Table,” “For Lincoln and Liberty too,” and “Home on the Range.”  

Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVx-aqAICF4 to see the “Lift Every Voice: The Black Experience in the Heartland” promotion video.

For more information about the State Theatre’s performance, call the box office at 231-947-3446 or go to https://www.stateandbijou.org/. For further information about the Mills Community House, call Michelle Leines at 231-882-0591 or go to www.millscommhouse.org.