'A Change is Gonna Come: Musical Journeys Through American Race Relations'
Come for an afternoon of music and a great way to end February, Black History and Community Unity Month in Oak Ridge.
Multiple community organizations join to make this free concert available. The greater Oak Ridge community welcomes Eric Dozier to the Historic Grove Theatre, 123 Randolph Road, Oak Ridge, Saturday, Feb. 29, from 4 until 6 p.m. Light refreshments will be served and a question-and-answer with the artist will follow. The program is free to the public, and free will donations accepted.
From the small rural town of Bakewell, Tenn., where he was born, Dozier has brought his love of music to the world. He has traveled throughout the United States and Canada, and toured internationally since the age of 12. It was a critical encounter in the Czech Republic, a far cry from Bakewell, that prompted him to pursue his calling. This led him to recognize the true power of music to heal hearts.
Of himself he says: “I am a cultural activist, anti-racism educator, and itinerant blues preacher leveraging the power of music to promote healing, justice and racial reconciliation.”
Dozier is a music educator, cultural activist and recording artist who uses music to engage communities in dialogue about racism. Encouraging people in finding and lending their voice to the ever-emerging story of humanity lies at the heart of his work. He is committed to “Uniting the World One Song at a Time.”
A graduate of Duke University and Duke Divinity School, Dozier is currently pursuing a doctorate researching the effects of Black Gospel Music on communities outside of the Black Church.
Over the last 30 years, he has served as the musical director for the World Famous Harlem Gospel Choir, partnered with the award winning Children’s Theatre Company of New York City, been a featured artist at the United Nations, and a workshop leader at the Festival of Voices in association with the University of Tasmania Conservatorium of Music. Through these collaborations, he has been honored to share the stage with the likes of Harry Belafonte, Red Grammer, and even Nelson Mandela.
Dozier currently serves on the Education Curriculum Development Committee for the forthcoming National Museum of African American Music to be built in Nashville, Tenn. and has recently launched the Young People's Freedom Song Initiative, a community supported grassroots music education movement.
Equal parts live performance and lecture, “A Change Is Gonna Come: Musical Journeys through American Race Relations” is a unique way of experiencing the impact of music on American culture, identity and social progress. Through his wealth of experience working with groups of all ages and his unique blend of down and dirty blues, socially conscious soul and spirit-fueled gospel music, Dozier takes you on a journey as he shines a light at the crossroads of music and American race relations by performing songs and discussing key musical figures and themes from the abolitionists, Civil Rights, labor and anti-war movements, as well as other contemporary voices of change both within the U.S. and internationally. By the end, participants are guided to understand what it means to be an active and creative advocate of diversity and equity imbued with a renewed sense of mission and commitment to becoming the change they wish to see.
We hope that participants will:
• Gain a greater understanding of why race issues are as they are;
• Increase their knowledge about the impact of race on their personal and work relationships;
• Explore personal insights on how popular culture has influenced their own self-concept;
● Examine the often overlooked “Other Tradition” of multiracial cooperation and draw inspiration from this dynamic model of social progress;
● Learn to appreciate the role music has played in shaping past and present society by examining the personal and cultural forces that have inspired various artists and their songs;
● Experience viscerally the unifying force of group songs, not just by hearing them, but by singing them together!