African-American Schoolhouse Musem Documents 20 Stories & Records 17 Performances

At Saturday’s event at the African-American Schoolhouse Museum in Worton Point, the Museum documented 20 Story Gatherings and recorded 17 music performances of traditional and original music from Kent County, MD artists.  They project March 2010 as the release date for the CD containing these records. The lead song will be “Stand on the Mountain”, written by Kent Countain, Pam Ortiz. Pam shares a very moving story prior to the recording of the piece, saying that it was written in honor of a friend, Maurice Miles from Gaithersburg, MD., who in 1963 (despite challenging circumstances), made his way, with much determination, by bicycle from Rock Creek Park to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. delivery that national address; I Have a Dream.

Miles being so moved by the experience he spoke of it to his church congregation again and again for several years. Ortiz was also a member of that Church, before moving to Kent County with her family. She copyrighted the song in 1997, originally in the folk genre. In Saturday’s rendition singer Jerome McKinney of Butlertown, MD. delivered a soulful and stirring version arranged and performed by Sombarkin’, a powerful trio of singers lead by the Schoolhouse Museum’s founder/director Karen Somerville; Ortiz accompanied on keyboard.

The list is already long for request copies of the yet to be titled CD. Anyone interested in getting on that list can leave a request for the Schoolhouse Museum compilation by leaving their contact information at the museum site www.aasmhc.org, send and email to somersinger@peoplepc.com or call 410-810-1416 ext. 1.