She Died for Our Convenience
A choral haunting at paragon mill
“Hearing my parents’ names spoken aloud in the place where they had worked for so many years was very emotional. Though they were very humble people, I think it would have been satisfying to them.”
We are surrounded by ghosts. We hear their stories through the objects, buildings, and traditions they’ve left behind. She Died for Our Convenience was a one-night-only choral haunting concerning the women who worked from 1898-1960 in the textile mill at the Earnscliffe Woolen Mill/Paragon Worsted Co. on Manton Ave in the Olneyville neighborhood in Providence, RI.
On the evening of May 4, 2019 we encountered a large community chorus, led by Chrissy Wolpert, singing melodies dedicated to the women at the very place they labored. We endeavored to sing the songs to unsung labor, while remembering that we are all but tomorrow’s ghosts.
Video by Andy Russ
Photos by Maxwell Snyder
Directors: Jed Hancock-Brainerd & Rebecca Noon
Composer & Choral Director: Chrissy Wolpert
Assistant Director: Clara Weishahn
Costume Designer & Fabricator: Priscilla Carrion
Project Consultant/Button Designer & Fabricator: Emily Shapiro
Project Consultant/Sound & Documentation: Andy Russ
Tour Guides
Ronald Kevin Lewis, Hernan Jourdan,Tally Murphy, Rebecca Noon, Tyra Wilson
Thanks to Rhode Island College for support
Developed as part of the Providence Preservation Society’s Sites & Stories Explored initiative
Funding provided in part by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and private funders.