For Pauli Murray, gender, race and sexuality could not be separated. Her understanding of intersectionality and refusal to separate her identities fueled her legal work and activism. If
intersectionality is understood as interconnected systems of discrimination or disadvantage, Pauli Murray’s life defined the meaning of the word.

Far ahead of her time, Murray experienced her sexuality as a deeply complex and often painful struggle. She identified with feelings that didn’t fit conventional gender or sexual norms of her time. In the early twentieth century, s/he viewed herself as a mix of genders “maybe two got fused into one with parts of each.” Privately, s/he often identified as male “one of nature’s experiments; a girl who should have been a boy.”

The World House Choir is part of a national commission project to bring the story of Pauli to life. Titled, Sincerely Yours, Pauli Murray, this 60-minute dramatic cantata in ten movements is scored for chorus, two soloist/narrators, piano, and optional band. Musical styles of the ten movements follow the periods of Pauli’s life starting with music of the 1920s, including references to Civil Rights songs and some of Pauli’s favorite Classical works, up to music of the 1970s and ‘80s.