The Willow Hill Heritage and Renaissance Center (Portal, Georgia)  is sponsoring a concert to benefit the youth of Bulloch and surrounding counties through LEAP – Leadership Education Arts Program. This event honors the 140th Anniversary of the Founding of Willow Hill School.

 

The outstanding and legendary  SANDRA REAVES-PHILLIPS will be  performing

Saturday, September 13, 2014 at 7:30 PM

Statesboro High School
10 Lester Road. Statesboro, Georgia 30458

Ticket Prices:
$15 Adult; $12 Student; $10 Groups of 15 or more.

 

 

It is a Concert of Faith, Courage, Pride and,Endurance.

What more can be said when your are fighting for the privilege  to have an education.  Some times we forget or  even take for granted how hard it was for people of color to obtain an education.  The Willow Hill School was organized in 1874 in Portal, Georgia by former slaves bearing the surnames, Riggs, Parrish and Donaldson. At its closing in 1999, it was the longest active school in existence in Bulloch County, Georgia. In 2005, the school building and the property went on the auction block. With just under two weeks and very little money, but armed with an undying faith in God, the founders’s descendants hoped to get the school back where they believed it belonged, in the hands of people connected to the founders. This is the ever lasting  legacy of the Willow Hill Heritage and Renaissance Center.

 

 

The founding of the Willow Hill Heritage and Renaissance Center and its future operation as a museum and community resource is an effort to preserve a piece of American History. This museum will serve to educate and expand the current knowledge of Black History in the 21st century.

 

SANDRA REAVES-PHILLIPS

This international actress-singer has starred on Broadway and theaters in RAISIN, ROLLIN’ ON THE TOBA, LOW DOWN DIRTY BLUES, AND LATE GREAT LADIES OF BLUES, JAZZ AND GOSPEL; featured in films, LEAN ON ME AND ROUND MIDNIGHT; and participated in CHRISTMAS at the VATICAN ’99. She was winner/nominee for the Broadway Drama League, Helen Hayes, Chicago Joseph Jefferson and Audelco Awards. This Drama/Concert, directed by Georgia Theater Hall of Famer Mical Whitaker, embraces the story of Willow Hill School, founded by former enslaved people in 1874 and operated until 1999.