On Saturday, October 27, 2018, The Atlanta Opera and the Atlanta BeltLine invite you to join Our Walk to Healing: An Immersive Performance and Processional. The collaborative performance takes place on the Atlanta BeltLine’s Westside and Eastside Trails surrounding Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado’s “Atlanta and the Civil Rights Movement: 1944-1968” photo exhibit. The event will feature narration from historian and curator Dr. Sims-Alvarado and musical performances from soprano Jayme Alilaw and soprano Minka Wiltz.

Attendees are invited to celebrate survival and healing with the performers by dressing up as little or as much as they would like in attire reflective of the Civil Rights Movement era. The events will take place on the Westside Trail and Eastside Trail on October 27. At 10 a.m., the processional will begin at the White Street trailhead of the Westside Trail and last until approximately 12 p.m. After a lunch break, the event will continue on the Eastside Trail at Ponce City Market at 1 p.m. until approximately 3 p.m.

This performance is a part of the “Belting on the BeltLine” series funded by a Collaborative Innovation Grant awarded earlier this year to The Atlanta Opera and the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership by The Home Depot Foundation and the Georgia Center for Nonprofits (GCN). “Belting on the BeltLine” is designed to bring free opera performances to open air locations and schools along the Atlanta BeltLine.

The Atlanta BeltLine uses public art to elevate the stories and creative cultures of communities surrounding the old rail corridor. The convergence of these projects celebrates the influence of African-American women on the operatic and musical landscape of America, as well as reverence for Atlanta’s role in the Civil Rights movement. 

“Art on the Atlanta BeltLine is constantly seeking ways to make high art forms free and accessible to the public,” said Miranda Kyle, Arts & Culture Program Manager at Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. “Teaming up with The Atlanta Opera is a great way to bring this art form out of the opera house and into the public space.”

“Atlanta and the Civil Rights Movement: 1944-1968” opened on July 7 and will run through December 1, 2018. It is based on Dr. Sims-Alvarado’s book by the same name. The exhibit is presented across four miles of the Eastside and Westside Trails, making it the longest outdoor exhibition on civil and human rights in the United States.