This image is of Peggy (R), then a 19 year-old SNCC member, next to future civil rights icon, Dr. Dorothy Cotton (L), after a 1962 church burning in Georgia—the state that Peggy's great-great grandparents, William & Ellen Craft, famously escaped from enslavement nearly 115 years earlier...
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THURSDAY, 9.25.25
Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely
Dr. Dorothy Cotton
"FROM EMMETT TILL TO SNCC & BEYOND" BENEFIT ON 10/11/25 @ 8:30 | "RING SHOUT"
I have some new special words to share... On SATURDAY, 10/11/25 @ 8:30 pm, I'm performing original poems as part of the "FROM EMMETT TILL TO SNCC & BEYOND: WORDS + MUSIC + ART BENEFIT to support the renowned Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, please get your tax-deductible tickets here. This special event is commemorating the 70th Anniversary of Emmett Till's murder AND the 65th Anniversary of SNCC's founding. As many know, both events are pivotal in my life—Emmett's murder elevated my activism as a teen, and my joining SNCC expanded it... My performance includes a new poem I wrote exclusively for the Benefit and a poem I wrote as a young woman in SNCC... This benefit means a lot to me not only because of the subject matter, but Highways has been an artistic home for me, and I hope you're able to support it. If you can't attend, please donate here or bid on some wonderful art in the Online Silent Art Auction here.
The next special word is that I've been requested to keep on my home page the CBS Sunday Morning segment with me and acclaimed author, Ilyon Woo of The Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Master, Slave, Husband, Wife (Simon & Schuster)—about my great-great-grandparents William & Ellen Craft. Finally, downthread is the poem I performed this past Saturday at the Gospel Brunch, "A Ring Shout For Gospel"...
A RING SHOUT FOR GOSPEL
by Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely
Come sing with us
Come clap with us
We’re on a Gospel Train
Let the music of our ancestors
free us from any ..and all our chains.
Oh, the codes we shared
In the holds of ships
on that Middle Passage so long ago
were the bonds that we forged
and the rhythms we carry
no matter wherever we go.
Oh the secrets we kept
And the tears that we wept
The songs we sang and, lo
The promises we made
That we never would break
No matter where ever we were sold.
We carried our music so deep in our hearts
As we stomped and clapped and shouted
in those deep back- woods circles…. so late at night
But our survival we never doubted.
We praised our God, with ring shouts, spirituals and story
In our tongues we sang of struggle, grace and glory
Through our Calls and Responses… most especially through our hymns
we circled, and shouted and danced in night
asking God for the strength in our weary bones…. in our every single limb.
But the words of the Gospels dispelled any doubt
(On those chain gangs, in prisons and worse)
That we would one day claim our FREEDOM
That slavery was designed to reverse.
So despite our tears ….for so many years
our voices are raised high in song
The Holy Spirit that dwells so deep in our spine
Would never allow the oppressor success
in blocking access to our God or The Divine.
So let us today, beat drums, link arms, ring gongs,
Lift voices in harmony, and song
For The Gospel Ring Shout lives on…. in each of us
For we know to whom we truly… belong!
Amen and Hallelujah!
© 2025 Peggy Trotter Dammond Preacely. All rights reserved.