![]() ![]() She was honored posthumously during the 2007 Gateways Music Festival. My mother, who had only a third grade, one-room schoolhouse education, took lessons also and learned to play the classical composers. At ages 4 and 7, my parents kept the home in Cleveland, Ohio, but took my brother Elwyn and me to Boston during the school year to study in the New England Conservatory’s preparatory division. I heard Marian Anderson, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler and others. Recordings of great musicians were played in the home on the old hand-cranked Victrola. My parents, Albert and Estella Adams were amateur church musicians who played both violin and piano. Now my legal name is Armenta Adams Hummings Dumisani, but I prefer to just be addressed as “Miss Armenta.” I think mom had the best name for me. “Araminta” was Harriet Tubman's given name also. Having been born in crisis, I was then named "Armenta." That was a misspelled version of “Araminta” which is on my birth certificate. That was the night Joe Louis, the great black hope of the sports world, had been knocked out by German boxer, Max Schmelling, who reportedly made disparaging remarks about Black people. ![]() Seventy-nine years ago, my mother was rushed to the hospital to give birth to me a month prematurely. As its founder, allow me to share with all of you some of the experiences that helped in its creation. Thank you for coming to make the Gateways Music Festival a success. ![]() AN OPEN LETTER TO THE GATEWAYS MUSICIANS IN 2015 ![]()
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