Common Woman Chorus T-shirt Fundraiser for SONG, El Centro Hispano, and SpiritHouse Features “Say Their Names” Graphic

The idea all started in summer 2020 with Jess Moon Higginbotham, a singer, artist, board member, and equity/inclusion team leader with Common Woman Chorus (CWC), a Durham-based LGBTQ+ and allies community chorus committed to social justice. Jess’ vision, passion and creativity came together with Common Woman Chorus singers’ eagerness to make a difference during this chaotic year, and the T-shirt fundraiser for racial justice organizations SONG, El Centro Hispano, and SpirtHouse was born. 

Jess’ original “Say Their Names” design, developed in the spirit of the Black Lives Matter movement, is featured on Common Woman Chorus T-shirts, also including the CWC logo in nine inclusive pride flag colors. Jess says: “I created the ‘Say Their Names’ piece as a means of doing something during a time when the very act of leaving one's house endangers others, when all the while, in the isolation and chaos, Black lives, one after the other, continue to be senselessly and violently taken.” 

Jess describes the graphic further: “This is a different kind of wall, one that unites rather than divides. It is gray bricks of despair and anguish and powerlessness and anger, transformed by art into remembrance, love, hope, vibrance, power, and music.” Jess was devoted to ensuring the names were incorporated into the piece with love and respect: “For the names, originally, I'd used a font with a somber, respectful tone, but it felt too cold, too impersonal. They deserved better, and so I wrote each name by hand, whispering it to myself and spending several minutes with each of them, learning their ages; their nicknames; the ways that their lives were cut short. Etching love and heartache into every letter. Night after night, writing, erasing, and re-writing until it was beautiful enough to memorialize the person to whom it once belonged.” As the artwork progressed, so too did the loss: “Too many names, and as the time passed, more lives were taken and more names were added. Eventually I ran out of space in the word "NAMES", and so I started adding them to the "SAY THEIR". This piece is finished now, but it's incomplete, and will remain so until the day comes when the violence stops and there are no more new names to add.”

CWC encourages the community to participate in the T-shirt fundraiser, ongoing through 2021, where $10 from each shirt purchased will go to support  SONG, El Centro Hispano, and SpiritHouse. Big Frog, a local Durham business, is managing online sales and production of these unique T-shirts at: https://commonwomanchorus.itemorder.com/sale. Tees start at $25, and are available in unisex or semi-fitted ladies’ styles and white or silver grey colors, with “Say Their Names” graphic, CWC logo, or both. CWC logos are available in nine different inclusive pride flag designs. Upon purchase, orders may be picked up at no cost at Big Frog, or shipped for $10. Embroidered CWC logo hats are also available.

SONG (Southerners on New Ground) is a home for LGBTQ liberation across all lines of race, class, abilities, age, culture, gender, and sexuality in the South. SONG builds, sustains, and connects a southern regional base of LBGTQ people in order to transform the region through strategic projects and campaigns developed in response to the current conditions in our communities, through leadership development, intersectional analysis, and organizing.

El Centro Hispano is a Latino nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the community, building bridges and advocating for equity and inclusion for Hispanics/Latinos in the Triangle Area of North Carolina.

SpiritHouse uses culture, art and media to support the empowerment and transformation of communities most impacted by poverty, racism, gender inequity, criminalization and mass incarceration; through grassroots programs, cultural organizing and community collaborations.

Why Common Woman Chorus? CWC’s mission is to be a beacon for justice, equality, and love through the healing power of music. Prior to COVID, CWC held spring and fall choral concerts, featuring music with social justice themes, and appeared at community events such as Durham Pride and OutRaleigh. In Spring 2019, CWC held a major concert “Quiet No More, a Celebration of Stonewall 50” at Carolina Theatre in collaboration with Triangle Gay Men’s Chorus. The events of 2020 served to strengthen CWC’s commitment to equity and inclusion. In March the pandemic silenced our singing, ended in-person gatherings, and had us cancel our 2020 concerts. In June, the Black Lives Matter movement took on even more urgency.

CWC’s spring 2020 concert would have been a fundraiser for SONG and its voter registration and education efforts. Mandy Carter, co-founder of SONG and longtime Durham social justice activist, was set to play a leading role as a speaker for the concert focusing on voting rights and tearing down walls. Mandy shared: “Activism weaves the work of changing hearts and minds and changing policy. My journey of activism has been inspired by my love of music and passion for coalition building. That's why I'm happy to be collaborating with CWC on their journey toward equity and inclusion.”