Inclusion and Outreach Statement and Goals

Women’s Voices Chorus is guided by the principle of belonging. To belong is to have access to power, respect, and the joy of shared expression, and we are driven by the desire to share these riches. We believe both that members of WVC should be able to experience a sense of belonging in our chorus and that WVC should belong in and to the local community.

What does this mean?

We want to be grounded in our community, with relationships and representation that connect us to the people who live in the Chapel Hill-Durham-Raleigh area. We want to support the local community materially as well as by offering a place for creative expression. We want to honor and strengthen the relationships chorus members have with local community members and organizations. In addition, the demographics of the chorus would ideally reflect those of the community, with age, ethnicity, race, sexuality, gender identity, and physical and neurological characteristics all generally in the same proportions as the demographics of the area. This kind of representation would affirm that we are a place where any singer can belong. We recognize, however, that a variety of factors influence who auditions for a community-based chorus, and we cannot control all of them.

We want to pay attention to factors that influence our chorus’s demographics and continue to ensure that we are inclusive wherever we can be. This includes educating ourselves about historical and societal areas of exclusion. For example, recognizing that women have not historically been allowed central roles in Western choral music, WVC has sought to promote music by and for women through performance and commissions, as a way to address a historical imbalance. Similarly, we recognize that nonwhite singers were explicitly excluded from community choruses in our local area within living memory, and many choruses have remained primarily white even after desegregation. We also understand that individuals have felt unwelcome in choral institutions because of their sexuality, religion, and other aspects of their identity.

What are our goals?

The WVC board has created the Inclusion & Outreach Committee to address exclusion and belonging within the chorus as well as to foster our relationship to people in the Chapel Hill-Durham-Raleigh area, and this committee is guided by the following goals:

• To try to discover aspects of the culture in WVC that may seem to be self-evidently right ways of operating to the majority, but that may keep minoritized singers from feeling at home, paying special attention to areas of historical exclusion.
• To suggest and help to implement adjustments that we believe will help all singers feel able to belong without disproportionate effort.
• To materially support local inclusiveness, both by doing business with minoritized individuals and by making donations to organizations working to make our local community a place we can all truly belong

What actions are we taking to achieve our goals?

In the past three years, we’ve done a lot to work toward our goals. Here is some of what we’re doing:

• Community Outreach Fund: Each semester, chorus members vote to select a local nonprofit organization whose work aligns with our values and with the theme of our music. We prioritize organizations whose work our members are already involved in, honoring and building on existing relationships. For example, for our concert Coming Home, we raised funds for Families Moving Forward, an organization addressing the needs of local families experiencing homelessness.
• Negro Spirituals Royalties Project: Recognizing that the creators of spirituals were enslaved and cannot be recognized and rewarded the way other composers can, we have adopted the practice of contributing to the music education of minoritized youth whenever we sing spirituals.
• Education and Awareness Raising: To help members reflect on how we can best facilitate a culture of inclusion, we have facilitated presentations and discussion for the chorus during our retreats and sponsored several outings and events, like attending The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson and screening American Fiction.
• Patronizing Minoritized Businesses and Musicians: Our goal is to hire musicians and businesses owned by minoritized individuals when we can, at least at a 20% rate.
• Mini Concerts: We perform small “preview” concerts at locations where we can connect with individuals who would not otherwise be able or likely to see our music, such as at retirement communities.

Creating a culture of belonging takes intention and dedication, and while not all factors influencing inclusiveness are under our control, we affirm our commitment to this ideal. Here’s to belonging!