“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

-Matthew 5:9 (KJV)

Choreography: Keith Lee (Premiere)

Music: “Peace" by Jasmine Arielle Barnes, text by Georgia Douglas Johnson

Vocalist: Crystal Glenn 

Piano: Thomas Getty

Costumes: 

supplied by the cast of Children’s Peace March

Dancers from Charlottesville Ballet Academy:

Anna Charles Blackmon, Lucien Drake, Meredith Fleming, Narumi Furukawa, Ailyn Green, Ysolte Green, Zoë Hawkins, Nadia Howard, Noelle Howard, Arlo Johnson, Eleanor Johnson, Georgia Johnson, Juliana Kelly, Walker Kretlow, Ariyah Miller, Christi Natania Montero, Lucrecia Mullins-Aviles, Alana Renshaw, Andrei Salerno, Polina Salerno, Tigerlilly Schornberg, Bouziat Leilani Sherman, Semsati Farrah Sherman, Solveig Stewart, Kate Thompson, Aliyah Gabrielle Uchi, Atarah Danielle Uchi 

Jasmine Arielle Barnes (b. 1991) is an Emmy Award-winning composer and vocalist whose genre-blending works have been performed by leading orchestras, opera companies, and artists worldwide. A proud Baltimore native and product of public arts education, she is deeply committed to expanding access to the arts. Her music reflects a devotion to storytelling, cultural heritage, and innovation. Charlottesville Ballet is honored to present "Peace," her setting of poetry by Georgia Douglas Johnson, as the score for the inaugural choreographic work created for students of the Keith Lee Dance Fund.

Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880–1966) was a prolific poet, playwright, and leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Atlanta and later based in Washington, D.C., she authored more than 200 poems, 28 plays, and 31 short stories. Following her husband’s death in 1925, Johnson began hosting Saturday evening “S Street Salons” at her home, bringing together key Black artists and intellectuals of the era—including Langston Hughes, and Anne Spencer. Her gatherings helped sustain the cultural energy of the Harlem Renaissance in the nation's capital, and she nurtured generations of artists and thinkers through her home and her words.

Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Peace" (1922)

Peace on a thousand hills and dales,

Peace in the hearts of men

While kindliness reclaims the soil

Where bitterness has been.

The night of strife is drifting past,

The storm of shell has ceased.

Disrupted is the cordon fell,

Sweet charity released.

Forth from the shadow, swift we come

Wrought in the flame together.

All men as one beneath the sun

In brotherhood forever.

With gratitude to composer Jasmine Barnes and UIA Talent Agency:

Charlottesville Ballet is honored to feature “Peace” as the score for this inaugural work choreographed by Keith Lee for scholarship recipients of the Keith Lee Dance Fund.