The Dunbar Operas Fund is a 501 (c) (3) Non-profit organization founded in the District of Columbia. Our mission is to preserve, promote, educate and engage communities of the rich history and cultural legacy of Paul Laurence Dunbar through the dramatic arts.
After ten years of research, writing and performing, it has become ours to prepare for the premiere performance of the entire opera, Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadows: An Opera based on the Lives and Love of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore to rightfully honor this great American poet on his 150th Birthday, June 27, 2022.
About the Opera
The work, Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadows is titled after a volume of Dunbar’s poetry published in 1901. An original libretto was inspired from over three hundred letters Paul and Alice had written to each other. Excerpts from the letters, poetry and short stories, written between the two, are intricately placed within a tapestry of genres and echoes of Post- Reconstructed America.
The two-act opera extrapolates from the letters and poetry exchanged between the couple two years prior to their meeting. The two found themselves in love with the concept of a 'perfect love' after only six months of corresponding.
The work also addresses many of the social ills faced by African- Americans in post-slavery America. Along with the ideologies of this “double consciousness”, as expressed by W.E.B. Dubois in The Soul of Black Folks, 1903, and Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery, 1901, the Renaissance of Black Americans was fueled in the U Street corridor of Washington, DC more than two decades before the movement reached Harlem.
An endeavor of this magnitude would be virtually impossible to achieve without your generous support and financial commitment. Please consider making your pledge today!
Advisory Board Chair
James Pittman
James E. Pittman is a retired Senior Executive of the US Department of Health and Human Services, administering national mental health programs, and providing direction and oversight of St. Elizabeths Hospital, including the legislative transfer from federal to local DC administration and control.
In retirement, Pittman assumed a primary commitment in the planning for the LeDroit Park/Bloomingdale Heritage Trail, established the tax-exempt foundation for preservation and restoration of the Historic Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. House that is located in the Dupont Circle Historic District.
Mr. Pittman oversees the operations of the Dr. Lawrence E. Graves Museum of Dunbar History. He founded, and serves as Chairman of the Dunbar Alumni Federation, the non-profit umbrella organization of alumni classes that provides scholarships and other support of Dunbar High School students and graduates.
P.O. Box 56474 ~ Washington, DC 20040
Performance Highlights
from Beyond the Mask
from The Poet in Chicago
The original Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Washington, DC