Women of the Cross (WOTC) moves your spirits with their repertoire of original contemporary spirituals. Originating at Hartford’s Artists Collective in 1988, they have been uplifting audiences with their unique harmony since.
Each member draws upon her own background to create a unified sound with a universal appeal. As members of JDPP, Inc. they have performed with Judy Dworin in Stories of My Sisters and Flying Home, and most recently performed at the Hartford Stage Company in an evening of awareness about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
They will be participating in JDPP Inc.’s Moving Matters! Residency at York Correctional Institution in Niantic and will be back at Charter Oak Cultural Center next fall performing with the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble (JDPE) in Time In, a piece based on material developed with the York women.
WOTC performs throughout the region at a wide array of venues. They are available for performances, lectures, demonstrations, and workshops, and can be contacted through: lesliemanselle@yahoo.com or JDPP, Inc.: jdworinens@earthlink.net.
About the Artists:
Leslie Bird (Musical Director, WOTC) has been a singer all of her life. She sang in grade school through to college where she performed with the Manhattanville Collegiate Gospel Ensemble. During the 1980’s Leslie was a voice student at HARTT School of Music and at the Artists Collective. In 1988, Women of the Cross was founded at Artist Collective and began performing throughout the greater Hartford community. In 1995, Women of the Cross created an evening length performance piece under the artistic direction of Judy Dworin called Stories of my Sisters which they have toured to colleges, community and senior centers. In 1999 Leslie was the Musical director for Flying Home, collaboration between Women of the Cross, Sankofa Kuumba Cultural Arts Consortium and the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble. Flying Home was an exploration of racial identity and racism through song, movement, and storytelling. As musical director, Leslie composed original songs ad performed them with her spiritual sisters – Women of the Cross. She also led educational workshops with Judy Dworin and Christine Dixon-Smith, the Artistic Director and Associate Director for Flying Home. For two other JDPE productions, The Lost Dove and Starting Over, Leslie composed and performed original songs. In 2001, Leslie became a master teaching artist for the CT Commission on the Arts and has since completed several residencies in CT schools including; Margaret M. Generali School in Waterbury, John Lyman School, Middlefield: Edgewood School, New Haven; and Lyme consolidated School, Lyme, CT.
Elaine Hairston was born in rural Georgia and lived her early years in the segregated South. She moved to Connecticut in the early 60’s. During vocal training at the Artist Collective, she met Leslie Bird and Leslie Manselle. They later formed the a cappella vocal group, Women of the Cross (WOTC). The group has been singing together for several years. As a member of WOTC, she has collaborated with The Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble on several projects highlighting socially relevant issues of our time. She currently works as a Corporate Trainer specializing in computer software instruction.
Leslie Manselle has been making music since she was so little that she had to be placed on a piano bench to be seen. She grew up in The Salvation Army, a musical church, where she learned to read music, play an instrument and sing in the choir. Leslie has since conducted choir, band and created plays for children, at church. A former music teacher, Ms. Manselle worked with elementary school children to generate vocal, instrumental, dramatic and drill team productions. Leslie, an Urban Artist Initiative member, has performed her trademark ‘a skit and a song’ for churches, schools, community events and organizations. Leslie possesses a full three-octave range and utilizes the lower register in singing tenor for Women of the Cross.
