SONGS FOR MARY the Album About Mary Cardwell Dawson – LIVE on all streaming platforms.
Special thanks to everyone who helped save this story.
First, the house called out. The onetime headquarters of the National Negro Opera Company, the Queen Anne-style house in Pittsburgh desperately needed restoration, so much so that the National Trust for Historic Preservation had named it one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places.
Boston designer Dawn Carroll wanted to aid the preservation effort. But as she learned more about the house once known as Mystery Manor, Mary Cardwell Dawson, the woman behind the National Negro Opera Company, also called out to her. Dawson was an unsung Black cultural hero whose name and work needed restoration, too. What started out for Carroll as a THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY fund-raising effort grew into a musical passion project, ‘Songs for Mary’.
In addition to her work as a designer and songwriter, Carroll is also dedicated to encouraging mentoring through the Over My Shoulder Foundation, a non- profit she co-founded with Grammy award-winning singer Patti Austin.
The mission is to fuse the worlds of Music Mentoring & Design.
Shining a broader, inclusive light on historically marginalized communities is essential for those of us committed to preserving and sharing a more accurate account of our nation’s history.
Mary Cardwell Dawson’s contributions to this country’s cultural history are impressive in their own right and need to be added to the larger culture narrative. By preserving and amplifying her exceptional accomplishments and lived experiences as a black woman during a particular period in our history,
Dawn Carroll’s comprehensive, timely and inspiring project would enable us to more deeply understand and appreciate a relatively unknown dimension of this unique community.
-Vin Cipolla, President and CEO of Historic New England https://www.historicnewengland.org
