The Center for Community, Heritage and the Arts joins with Nouveau Sud and Wanderlust Theatre to present a special preview of Threads, a new folk musical reimagining the 1929 Loray Mill Strike.

In development since 2023, Threads explores race, class, gender, and activism in the American South. The story centers real-life heroine Ella May Wiggins—a Gastonia textile mill worker and single mother of nine who helped lead the strike and was murdered by vigilantes. Her protest ballads, later covered by artists like Willie Nelson and The Chicks, anchor an exciting new score that brings history to life in the very place it unfolded.

Initial "works-in-process" presentations of Threads took place in May 2024, and progress has continued. For this event on December 11, select scenes from the musical will be interspersed with conversations about Ella May Wiggins, textile mill history and the 1929 strike, the role of folk music in the labor movement, and the role of the arts in storytelling and heritage practices. 

PANELISTS:

Alexander Brooks (Historian, Gaston County Museum)
David Goldfield (Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History, UNC Charlotte.)
Kentley Hester (Historian, Gaston County Museum)
Kristina Horton (Ella May Wiggins' great-granddaughter; Board, Ella May Wiggins Memorial Committee)
Larry Moore (Board, African American Museum of History & Culture at Loray Mill)
Robert Whalen (Emeritus Professor of History, Queens University of Charlotte)

CREATIVE TEAM:

CarlosAlexis Cruz, movement director
Mark Dillon, music & lyrics
Sequina DuBose, vocal director & creative producer
Laura Hope-London, director & creative producer
Nan-Lynn Nelson, book
Randy Redd, music & lyrics

This event is FREE, but please register here.