NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Mrs. Rosetta Miller-Perry has supported both Shen Yun Performing Arts and her local youth from the beginning. Each year the newspaper she founded and publishes, The Tennessee Tribune, brings a group of students to see Shen Yun.

As part of her engagement with the community, the publisher, a longtime civil rights activist and philanthropist, finds ways to expand the horizons of young students. “Well, we work with them and we take them to cultural events, and this is one of the major events that we bring them to, which they enjoy, and we do other things with the girls.”

The group of about ten girls seemed happy and absorbed during the performance. Mrs. Perry and other adults sat with them in seats in the orchestra section. She said, “Oh, they love it, we bring them back every year.” She said that she, too, enjoys the experience, “Oh, yes.”

Shen Yun tells stories from China’s 5,000 years of civilization, including contemporary stories of courage and persecution. According to the Shen Yun website, “Over its past 60 years of rule, the communist regime has treated traditional Chinese values, centered on the idea of harmony between heaven and earth, as a threat to its existence.”

Mrs. Perry was a field representative with the Civil Rights Commission (USCRC). She was assigned to cover the Memphis Garbage Strike in 1968, according to The History Makers. Dr. Martin Luther King gave his Mountaintop speech to the 1968 Memphis strikers the night before he was assassinated.

Mrs. Perry later became Nashville Area Director of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Speaking of the contemporary stories in Shen Yun, Mrs. Perry said, “Well, I think that’s necessary.”

“Those of us in the news world, we know the score about those things, but they are also gorgeous.”

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.