Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray: civil rights activist, lawyer, poet and ordained priest. Pauli was born in 1910 and today would have likely identified as transgender or nonbinary. She was arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus in Petersburg, VA 15 years before Rosa Parks; and she organized restaurant sit-ins in Washington, D.C. 20 years before the Greensboro sit-ins. She was one of the most important thinkers and legal scholars of the 20th century, serving as a bridge between the civil rights and women’s rights movements.
GALA Choruses brought Pauli’s story to life with a 10-movement dramatic cantata by composer Steve Milloy, libretto by Kim Hines, and Jane Ramseyer Miller as dramaturg. River City Mixed Chorus (Omaha) was the lead commissioning chorus along with choirs from across the U.S. (view the list of commissioning choruses).
Read more about the commission in CityBeat (10/29/2025). Find upcoming performances here.
