The World House Choir will travel to the Chillicothe, Ohio, on Thursday evening, February 8, to sing a Black History program with the NIA Men’s Chorus inside the Chillicothe Correctional Institution (CCI). NIA Men’s Chorus was founded over a year ago at CCI and is also under the direction of WHC artistic director, Dr. Catherine Roma.
Each choir will perform four or five pieces, A member of NIA will read his essay “Pondering King’s Dream,” and two other members will perform Sam Cooke’s classical piece, “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Dr. Kevin McGruder, associate professor of American History at Antioch College, will deliver the keynote address: “Applying Martin Luther King’s Definition for Peace Today.”
Over the last ten years, the World House Choir has performed in several Ohio prisons including Warren Correctional, Madison Correctional, London Correctional, Dayton Correctional, Marion Correctional, as well as Chillicothe. The level of excitement and energy is palpable when the groups perform for each other. The concert is open to the general prison population at CCI. To top off the whole program Bishop Todd O’Neal will lead congregational singing from the piano, singing such selections as “This Little Light of Mine” and “We Shall Overcome.”