Castle of our Skins is a Black Arts institution dedicated to fostering cultural curiosity and celebrating Black artistry through music. In classrooms, concert halls, and beyond, Castle of our Skins invites Black heritage and culture exploration, spotlighting both unsung and celebrated figures of past and present.

Castle of our Skins is deeply aware of the lack of equity in composer representation on concert stages and the omission of important stories and figures in Black history. It is this lack of equity that Castle of our Skins seeks to change by challenging inequities with cultural representation.

In partnership with the Clemmons Family Farm, Otter Creek Music Festival is proud to present this internationally acclaimed, Boston-based ensemble as they perform their program, At Home.

"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself." - Maya Angelou

At Home honors the past, place, people, and present tense of the historic Clemmons Farm in Charlotte, Vermont. Paying homage to the Farm’s beginnings as one of the rare African-American owned farms in the US during the civil rights era, the people and land that have shaped it, and the commitment to preserve its legacy well into the future, Castle of Our Skins will perform a variety of string quartets by Black composers, past and present.

Daniel Bernard Roumain - “I made up my mind not to move” from String Quartet No. 5: Rosa Parks
Shelley Washington - Middleground
William Grant Still - Lyric Quartet
Fred Onovwerosuoke - Fanfare
Adolphus Hailstork - Variations on Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

This stunning program will be performed inside the beautiful Barn House, overlooking 122 conserved acres of organic agricultural meadows and forestland, and views of the Adirondack mountains on the historic Clemmons Farm, owned for sixty-one years by African-American couple Jackson and Lydia Clemmons (both born in 1923). The Clemmons farm was purchased by Vermont’s major Black-led arts and culture nonprofit organization- Clemmons Family Farm, Inc.- in 2023. It is an official site on the Vermont African American Heritage Trail.

This performance is funded in part by a grant from Vermont Humanities.

Castle of our Skins

Saturday, July 27th | 7:00p | Clemmons Family Farm | Charlotte, VT