I thank Arlecia Simmons, who authored the Oct. 20 letter “
Make Duke Performances more inclusive
,” for both her praise of Duke Performances and her important questions regarding our efforts to reach—in this particular case—the black community.
We wrestle on a regular basis with how to best reach all the various segments of Durham’s population. These efforts are ongoing, and their successes are seen incrementally. Those efforts do include much more than press releases, Web sites and e-mail announcements; for example, weekly advertising in North Carolina Central University’s student paper Campus Echo, announcements and collaboration with WNCU FM 90.7, based on NCCU’s campus, and WSHA FM 88.9, based at Shaw University in Raleigh and advertising during Tom Joyner’s morning show on WFXC FM.
We did, as Simmons’ suggested, distribute complimentary passes to local churches and schools, an activity we engage frequently. As a result, local church-goers and school teachers represented a large portion of the audience on for the performance of the Don Byron New Gospel Quintet.
But I don’t, here, intend to simply roll out a list of our marketing efforts as some sort of “proof” and dismiss Simmons’ concerns. Her concerns are valid, important and vital to the work we do.
These concerns are particularly valid to us here at Duke Performances, because we do see ourselves as actively and energetically engaged with the community-wide discussion regarding Durham’s history, identity and future. It is this dedication that has driven our choice to dedicate significant blocks of programming to the historically rich musical landscape of the region in which we live. This has included innovative thematic programming that embraces jazz, gospel, blues, string band music, indie-rock, americana, country and bluegrass. We are unique among university presenters in our emphasis on place—in this case, Durham—as the foundation of the most adventuresome and innovative work we offer.
Our recent presentations of The Hallelujah Train and Don Byron New Gospel Quintet at the Hayti Heritage Center represent some of our proudest moments as a presenting organization with regard to enaging this area’s rich cultural heritage. It was an enormous privilege to use the Hayti Center—a gorgeous, acoustically pure space, and formerly St. Joseph’s African Methodist Episcopal Church—for these projects. It is, as you note, always incumbent upon us to find new ways to communicate about the programming we are presenting, especially when Duke Performances’ works in new spaces. This learning process is incremental and I would like to think that we are, with each performance, getting better at it. I would also suggest that the businesses around the Hayti Heritage Center make an effort to know about the events taking place at that Durham treasure.
Lastly, while we understand that the Durham and Duke communities both suffer the pains of the past, we are not offering programming at off-campus venues in a attempt to heal racial divisions in our community. Although such healing could and would be a spectacular by-product of our work, we are first and foremost dedicated to presenting great performance in the most appropriate available venues and making it available to the broadest cross section of audience. I think we can always do better at making all segments of our community feel included and invited, and we will do better, but I’m awfully proud of the work we’ve done thus far.
Aaron Greenwald is director of Duke Performances.
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