Diana Mabson smiled as she held the microphone up to Shawntee Wortham as they and others circled around the middle of the First Baptist Church gymnasium, singing passionately.

The ending song, “I Need You To Survive,” sent home the main message of the evening Thursday during the Of Thee, I Sing reveal: Clark County needs to unite to survive.

In March, I Was Here brought Ancestor Spirit Portraits to the windows of downtown Winchester.

The Clark County Community Foundation and The Greater Clark Foundation joined with I Was Here artist Marjorie Guyon and photographer Patrick Mitchell to create a unique new artistic project featuring Clark County residents, titled Of Thee, I Sing.

Attendees viewed the 21 images comprising Of Thee, I Sing during the reveal  Thursday at First Baptist Church on Highland Street.

The reveal was open to the public and allowed members of the community to see faces of people they know — family, loved ones, co-workers, neighbors and friends — who were models for each original work of art.

Syndy Deese, who helped the project come to Winchester, told the crowd following the reveal the original pieces will go to the Opera House Gallery where the artwork will hang on display through December.

“Visit the images, visit the Opera House, and make a point to share your voice when you see them,” Deese said.

Guyon said the idea for the project came from reading the 2017 Harwood Institute report, Waving the Community’s Flag, which Deese invited Guyon to read.

“What came through powerfully was the feeling of being unseen and unheard and a yearning for a shared humanity and a united community,” Guyon told the crowd.

The artists will replicate each original as a piece of public art they will install in locations throughout Clark County in 2020. Clark Countians will help choose the locations in the meantime.

Guyon said thanks to historical records documented in Lyndon Comstock’s book “Before Abolition: African-Americans in early Clark County, Kentucky,” the project at first transports viewers to Clark County in 1810, where a woman named Hannah gave birth to her first child, Daniel.

Hannah was enslaved, and her owner, Jeremiah, was Daniel’s father.

Near Christmas one year, Jeremiah took Daniel and his mother to the courthouse in downtown Winchester, where Daniel was torn from the arms of his mother and sold. He was 7 years old.

The pieces shed light on the fact people have no control over the circumstances of their birth, but people do have control over how people see themselves and their neighbors. The images are a reminder those whose ancestors faced circumstances like Hannah and Daniel are still fighting systems that hold African Americans back.

Guyon transformed photographs of contemporary Clark County resident into a series of pieces which tell the stories of Daniel and Hannah, and in turn serve as a representation of the stories of so many people throughout the American south.

“You are shockingly stunning, beautiful, holy and dignified,” Guyon told the crowd.

Of Thee, I Sing moves beyond the story of Daniel and Hannah into a depiction of who people could be … of how people can begin to see ourselves and each other differently, Guyon said.

Skylynn Burnam and Jane Burnam, models in the project, also spoke about the impact the project had on them during the reveal.

“I feel that we see each other the wrong way,” Skylynn told the crowd before reading a poem in the voice of the ancestor spirit. “And that’s part of the reason that there’s still division in the community and the world.”

Jane Burnam said the project has meant a lot to her.

“This project has created a desire in me to reclaim my love for music and art,” Jane told the crowd, adding it has helped to see the world differently. “… But now we have a question,  how can we address the brokenness and the wounds that slavery has created in America? We know where we were, we know where we were but no one really talks about where we should be. I say the change begins in you and me, the man in the mirror.”

Blanton Coates, vice chair of the Clark County Community Foundation, said he was lucky enough to be at one of the photoshoots.

“I’m proud to live in this community,” Coates told the crowd. “My hope is that we leave this community a better place for our children… this exhibit provides an opportunity to do just that, to place yourselves in the shoes of Hannah, in the shoes of Daniel and the shoes of your neighbor.”

Of Thee, I Sing is an invitation to create a community rooted in shared humanity.

“My hope is that people will see this project as an opportunity, a chance for empathy, a chance for healing, a chance for love to take precedence,” Coates said.

Pastor Marvin King ended the night speaking before others broke into song. He said he watched the community come into a shared space, a space that some people would not have gone if it wasn’t for this particular exhibit.

“I’ve watched you overcome the ideas that there are certain spaces that are only isolated for those that are rich, for those who are poor, those who are black, those who are white,” King told the crowd. “And I’ve watched art. I’ve watched the imagination of an artist and a photographer bring a community together, to transcend what has been the undercurrent of our community that has divided us for so many years…”

King said he hopes the community learns from this exhibit and taps into what makes Clark County so special.

“It is my vision, our vision as a community that we tap into what makes this community special, that we tap into the gifts, the talents, all the things that make Clark County what she is, and that we begin to value one another and see the story of Hannah and [Daniel]… that all of us have perspective and all of us have a place…” King said. “If you get nothing else out of this exhibit tonight, I want us to connect with people… to look at the story of these particular individuals and understand that that could’ve been any one of us…

“When we look around this gymnasium, when we celebrate the artistic expression, what I want us to leave here saying is: We are better together.”