Tacoma Refugee Choir Presents

Thank you for your support!​

Tacoma Refugee Choir's concert events, school residencies, and cultural workshops are offered free to ​our community. This is possible through the generosity of supporters like you. Our mission is to create spaces for authentic expression, interconnection, and healing through song and music—and our vision is to inspire a welcoming Tacoma that celebrates its diversity and looks to its immigrant and refugee communities for inspiration and leadership.

 

If you believe in this work and want to join us in our mission, please consider adding a recurring donation to your annual giving.
Every donation helps—no matter how big or small!

 

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Program Notes &
Artist Biographies
 

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LQ Lion Dance Team

 

LQ Lion Dance Team is an enthusiastic youth group who are committed to further themselves in preserving the art of Lion Dancing and to provide cultural enrichment through the art of Lion Dancing to their local communities and beyond. The LQ Lion Dance team is part of the Lieu Quan (LQ) Youth Group based out of the Co Lam Pagoda in Seattle, WA. The youth group was established in 1976 with the goal of developing our youth members to be positively contributing members of society based on the teaching and practice of Buddhism. It is from this youth group that LQ Lion Dance was formed as venue for the members to learn more about Vietnamese culture, to contribute to the community by performing, and to help support the youth group through donations. Since its beginning, LQ Lion Dance has never been a commercial business; we operate much like a non-profit and all the leaders are unpaid and all donations are to support the temple and organization.
 

Website: https://lqliondance.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lqliondance/?ref=embed_page

Instagram: lqliondance

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"Jambo"

by Teddy Kalanda Harrison

soloist/conductor: Marsha Mutisi

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"El espanol fue mi primer idioma"
from Vida: Breathing Between Shadows
by Gladys Rodriguez
 

Vida is a collection of poems about surviving the unthinkable - about depression, trauma, and the quiet miracle of still breathing. Through raw language and vulnerable truth, Gladys gathers the fragments of her story and offers them to the reader as proof that pain does not silence us forever. These poems are both wounds and testaments: a voice emerging from the dark, a reminder that life, even at its heaviest, is still worth carrying.​

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"Everyone from Anywhere"

by Orlando Morales
conductor: Kaelin Lor
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"How Long? Not Long..."

Excerpted from a speech delivered by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

at the State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama (1965)

recited by Prauper Jones

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"Lift Every Voice"

lyrics by James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)

music by J. Rosamond Johnson (1873–1954)

guest soloist: Dana Jackson
guest conductor: Erica Walker

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Daisy Abreu
South Regional Behavioral Health Director 
Consejo Counseling and Referral Service

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In 1978, Consejo was born out of a visionary work-study project directed by Dr. Gilberto Lucero, a professor at the UW School of Social Work, in which two latino master level students participated. They identified a critical need for behavioral health services within the Latino community in Seattle, Washington. At that time, there were no Latino-based behavioral health care organizations in WA State. 
 

 

Consejo became a pioneer in establishing the first bilingual and bicultural care organization dedicated to serve the Spanish speaking monolingual community. The mission was to improve mental health care access and break down cultural stigmas.

 

Over four decades later, we continue to lead the way in providing culturally and linguistically competent behavioral health services to the Latinx community, empowering and transforming the lives of our clients.

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"United Drumbeat"

by Sean Duncan, Laurie Johnson,
Joyce Davis, Erin Guinup

conductor: Perry Spring

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Sandesh Sadalge

Council Member, District 4 - Position 4
City of Tacoma

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Council Member Sandesh Sadalge serves as the District 4 Council Member for the City of Tacoma, representing much of East Tacoma and the South End since his

appointment in July 2024. He was elected to a full term in 2025.

Website: https://tacoma.gov/profile/council-member-sandesh-sadalge

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SL Cultura Project

founder/director: Lorena Solorio Lemus

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Nuestro propósito es enseñar a nuestras generaciónes nuevas el amor a la cultura por medio del baile. Follow SL Cultura Project on Facebook!​
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Carol Mitchell, J.D., M.A.
2025 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize Laureate

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The Institute for Black Justice was founded in September, 2020 by Carol C. Mitchell, a local attorney and social justice advocate.  Mitchell holds a Juris Doctor from Seattle University School of Law, a Master of Arts in Organizational Systems Renewal from Seattle University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Washington Seattle.  
 

 

Mitchell has more than 20 years of public sector leadership experience, having served most recently in Pierce County, Washington.  Mitchell's primary responsibility was to improve outcomes for individuals with behavioral health and substance use conditions who were caught in the grip of the criminal justice system.  Mitchell has significant organizational and human resources experience, having served as the Chief HR Officer for the Port of Tacoma, Chief Organizational Development and HR Officer for Metro Parks, Public Relations Officer for Pierce Transit, and as Executive Consultant for her own preventive law firm.   
 

 

Mitchell spent 17 years as the host of TV Tacoma's "CityLine," a Tacoma, WA based public affairs talk show.  Her volunteer activities include a Gubernatorial appointment to the Board of Trustees of Clover Park Technical College, Past President of the Fair Housing Center of Washington Board, member of the Palmer Scholars Board of Directors, and Past President of the Tacoma City Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc. 

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"Stand"

by Karen Drucker and Rev. Karyl Huntley
soloist/conductor: Annie Lane Ryan

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​“When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision,
then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” - Audre Lorde

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"La Vida Es Un Carnaval"

by Victor Daniel
soloists: Lucia Guerrero Flores, Chelsey Bunt, Cristian Romero, Linda Vanderbilt

 

"Everyone Can Love Someone"

by Trésor John, Nathalie Bajinya & Erin Guinup


 

Guest Musicians

Joey Phillips, drum set

Charles Brown, bass

Willie Garza, percussion
Audrey Stangland, trombone
Sidney Hauser, saxophone
 

Crew

Veronica Davis (Stage Manager)
Shadae Huff (Production Assistant)

John Huddlestun (Projections)

Sound and Mixing: Dmitriy Yemelyenov and PROFIGROUP LLC

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Rally Planning Committee

Iuliia Didkivska, Marsha Mutisi, Kate Modic, Diane Tilstra, Lucia Guerrero Flores, Caroline Brandau, Chelsey Bunt, Gail Brandt, Jeff Cooperman

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Special Thanks

Lincoln High School and Tacoma Public Schools
LHS Cheerleading
Tacoma Arts Live