SUBMISSION DETAILS
The deadline for submitting letters for the March 26 workshop is March 24.
The deadline for submitting letters for the April 22 workshop is April 20.
Letters can be uploaded to the Durham Symphony website below.
Files may be Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Please do not submit PDF files.
The Durham Symphony will limit its use of the letters solely for the purposes described in this project and we’ll seek permission before any additional uses.
DATES AND LOCATIONS
Her Voice Matters Workshops
Thursday, March 26 Pauli Murray Center, 2PM
Wednesday April 22 Hayti Heritage Center, 7PM
Concert
Wednesday, May 6 Carolina Theatre, 8:00pm
Please review the guidance below before submitting your letter
GUIDANCE FROM JAKI SHELTON GREEN
As you are thinking about writing your letters, please do not censor your voice or over-think your writing process. This is not a writing competition with critical judges but rather an invitation to think about deep self-love and the women who have walked among us as nurturers, guides, community builders, and sages.
You may want to make a list of all the questions you ever wanted to ask America as a child… I would ask how can I love a country that does not love me back? You might want to start by giving America a face or an image and inviting her to sit in front of you as you compose your letter.
As our country begins its 250th year of independence, I’ve been thinking deeply about what it means to be a Black American woman in this moment. I’ve been calling in more than just reflections but also asking America if she were starting from scratch today, what would she build? What would she stand for? Who would she include? I started reflecting on how America has broken my heart but also where I can still see the light. I reflected on what I still have hope for and what I’m willing to give.
This project seems so vital and full of the necessary Medicine that is needed for all of us to keep rising together. In the spirit of allowing ourselves to dig deep into our minds and spirits for the letter writing that will possibly be daunting, overwhelming, or emotional for many of us… please remember to breathe and exhale with the celebration of your brilliance, the worthiness and importance of your voice, your resilience and immeasurable contributions.
Allow your letter writing to flow naturally, authentically, without reservation, or apology. Do not self-edit as you are writing the letter. Please remember that we as Black women, present and past, are like trees with deep roots and long, sheltering branches.
Through the centuries, Black women have walked a long, treacherous road with strength, intelligence, grace, and unmatched courage. We have given birth not just to human life but to movements. We have kept families intact, built businesses, and battled odds to make a way out of no way, and we continue to do the same today. It’s not enough to say we paved the way; in many ways we were/are the way.
America has always had a special place in the world as a nation that did not judge you for failure but encouraged you to keep going and keep growing. But it seems that in recent years Black women have exhausted themselves trying to help America do the same.
Black women have a long tradition of creating our own spaces where we can show up as a whole person, and not just as a woman or just as a Black woman. I hope the spaces we create for Her Voice Matters will be spaces of purpose, intentional pause, and compassionate non-judgmental truth-telling.
Suggested Prompts
These are only suggested prompts. There are many other contexts or perspectives you may think of as you journey with your letters.
What love letter(s) have you not written to yourself that America needs to hear?
Write the Letter to America that you are afraid to write.
Write the Letter to America that is full of rage.
Write the Letter to America you wish you didn’t have to write.
Write the Letter to America on behalf of your ancestor(s).
Write the Letter to America on behalf of your daughters, granddaughters, unborn generations.
Write the Letter to America telling her how you reckon with her world through your creativity, using art as a tool of protest and resistance.
Write the Letter to America asking her for an apology.
Write the Letter to America asking her to acknowledge you and your foremothers for showing America the power of defending freedom, defining freedom, working under life-threatening conditions beginning with enslavement to this present moment.
Write the Letter to America telling her how you honestly feel about being an American.
Write the Letter to America regarding your feelings about the Declaration of Independence.
Write the Letter to America that offers grace for her awful behavior.
Write the Letter to America telling her your plans for creating change in your community as she celebrates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026.
Write the Letter to America reminding her how Black women have had to create spaces for ourselves when no one else was interested in prioritizing our unique existence in American society.
Write the Letter to America holding her accountable for the ongoing plight of Black women experiencing being misunderstood, harmed, gender-based violence, erasure, marginalization, and invisibility.
Write the Letter to America holding her accountable for the perpetuation of the intersectionality of racism, sexism, ageism, systemic issues, the historical legacy of trauma, and the other forms of oppression that we experience.
Write the Letter to America demanding that she apologize for attacking us when we speak out loudly about the injustices faced by Black women, men, children, and families and when we provide leadership against these injustices by creating and supporting social justice movements.
Write the Letter to America that demands answers regarding housing and employment discrimination, educational disparities, medical apartheid, voting issues, police violence, etc.
Write the Letter to America to inform her that you are no longer in love with her.
Write the Letter to America explaining the conditions for reconsidering a love relationship with her.
Write the Letter to America asking when she will choose to love me?
Write the Letter to America including the common themes of hope and unity, social justice, healthcare and economy, education and future, gratitude, grace, generosity, forgiveness, and call to action.
Write the Letter to America insisting that she be better.
Archival References for Inspiration:
Our Durham foremother Saint Pauli Murray wrote, “If anyone should ask a Negro woman in America what has been her greatest achievement, her honest answer would be, I survived.”
She also wrote, “I have been cast aside, but I sparkle in the darkness. I have been slain but live on in the rivers of history. I seek no conquest, no wealth, no power, no revenge; I only seek discovery of the illimitable heights and depths of my own being.”
Pauli Murray validates our letters to America in these words: “As an American I inherit the magnificent tradition of an endless march toward freedom and toward the dignity of all mankind.”
In your Letter To America, how does Pauli Murray instruct you to question America about universal human rights, spiritual integration, and resilient hope?
How does Pauli Murray guide us to confront America for trampling our visions for inclusive justice and spiritual transformation in our Letter to America?
According to Pauli Murray “hope is a song in a weary throat!” How do we make sure our throats are not weary as we carry on this mission of holding America accountable on behalf of our foremothers and unborn daughters?
“ Ain’t I A Woman Speech” by Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) delivered at the 1851 Women’s Convention, Akron Ohio
“Well children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man… when I could get it… and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me? And ain’t I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? (member of audience whispers, “intellect” ) That’s it honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.
What would be your “And Ain’t I A Woman” letter to America?
James Baldwin once said, “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
In his March 7, 1965 New York Times essay The American Dream and the American Negro, Baldwin ends the essay with this passage:
It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them. Until the moment comes when we, the Americans, are able to accept the fact that my ancestors are both black and white, that on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity , that we need each other, that I am not a ward of America. I am not an object of missionary charity; I am one of the people who built the country… until this moment comes there is scarcely any hope for the American dream. If the people are denied participation in it, by their very presence they will wreck it. And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West.
From the grave, Baldwin’s words feel almost prophetic in this season of grave uncertainty. What would be your Letter to America echoing Baldwin’s broader theme of loving America enough to demand it live up to its ideals and address its failures?
How would your Letter to America address interconnected fate, stressing that America’s safety depends on Black liberation?
How would your Letter to America demand truth and reconciliation to confront its history and the “lies” told about Black people, past and future?
What language would you use in your Letter to America that uplifts and helps us all find strength in our heritage, while simultaneously asking America to acknowledge their profound resistance to our struggle?
How do we use James Baldwin’s words in our Letter to America to fuel our relentless criticism, born from the insistence that our nation can and must become what it claims to be?
Mother Teresa (voted as the most admired person of the 20th century) said,
“I was asked once why I don’t participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro peace rally, I’ll be there. Perhaps our ultimate aim should not be simply to create an anti-racist nation, but a pro-humanity one. Perhaps it is only then that we will have collectively achieved the American dream… the one enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among those are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
And fret not that the whole world is watching this moment of your epic failure. Because in fact, the whole world is hurting, the whole world is reflecting, the whole world is seeking. They wish to stem their own racism too. They wish to cultivate their own humanity too. For they, too, dream the American dream, of forging a society that grants to all its people the rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
So lead the way, America. Show the world how to become the best version of yourself. Soar, bald eagle. Future generations are waiting in your wings.
If these words by Mother Teresa resonate with you, how would they shape, guide, instruct, or take form in your Letter to America?
Thank you everyone for considering our invitation. We are hoping that you will accept our invitation to collaborate on Letters to America – 50 th Anniversary Project of the Durhan Symphony Orchestra. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Jaki Shelton Green jakisheltongreen@gmail.com