Sincerely Yours, Pauli Murray

Name: Sincerely Yours, Pauli Murray
Start: 2025-11-15T19:30:00-08:00
Location: Beverly O'neill Center Theater

Schedule

Sat, 15 Nov, 2025 at 07:30 pm

UTC-08:00

Location

Beverly O'neill Center Theater | Long Beach, CA

Pauli Murray saw what was possible before the world caught up.
You may not know her name yet,
But Pauli Murray shaped the world we live in:
Arrested for not sitting in a segregated seat--
fifteen years before Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks.
Wrote the words that helped end segregation.
Challenged sexism before “intersectionality” had a name.
Lived boldly queer in a time of erasure.
And believed in justice--even when it broke her heart.
South Coast Chorale and Trans Chorus of Los Angeles bring Pauli Murray's story to life in powerful harmony. Join us as we sing her name — and carry her legacy forward.
"Sincerely Yours, Pauli Murray" is a multi-movement dramatic cantata commissioned by GALA Choruses--including South Coast Chorale and Trans Chorus of Los Angeles--that tells the life story of Pauli Murray, an American civil rights activist, lawyer, poet, and the first Black person perceived as female** to be ordained an Episcopal priest. The work, with a libretto by Kim Hines and music by Steve Milloy, uses Murray's own words to illuminate her work for racial and gender equality.
**In her lifetime, only binary pronouns (He/She) were used as gender markers; while Pauli Murray used she/her pronouns, she may have identified as transgender and/or nonbinary if she were alive today.