PVCC to host musician, documentary filmmaker Horace Scruggs for two events

Piedmont Virginia Community College will host two programs with Horace Scruggs focused on African American history and culture during Black History Month.

Scruggs is a musician, conductor, composer, educator and documentary filmmaker from Palmyra.

A film screening and concert highlighting his latest work will take place Feb. 20-21 in the V. Earl Dickinson Building main state theatre.

On Friday, Feb. 20, PVCC will offer a screening of “Engraved: Finding Family at Oak Hill Cemetery” at 7 p.m. Admission to the film screening is free.

“Engraved” will be shown as part of PVCC’s Films Talk Back series and will include a discussion with Scruggs following the film.

The documentary chronicles a community’s determined efforts to identify and honor individuals buried in unmarked graves at Oak Hill Cemetery, a Reconstruction‑era African American burial ground in southern Fluvanna County. Located at West Bottom Baptist Church, the cemetery was established for enslaved and newly emancipated people who lived and labored on nearby plantations.

The documentary highlights the perseverance, family bonds and community commitment central to preserving these often-untold stories of rural African American life.

On Saturday, Feb. 21, Scruggs will lead a musical journey exploring the evolution and impact of gospel music through live performance and storytelling at 7:30 p.m.

The “Gospel Music: A Song for All Times” concert will illuminate gospel as an art form deeply rooted in African American history and shaped by spirituals, the blues and pivotal cultural movements from the Jim Crow era to the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. Scruggs will be joined by the Black Voices Gospel Choir of the University of Virginia, along with featured vocalists Precious Anderson‑Bland, Gail Scruggs and Rev. Xavier Jackson. Musicians Wilbert Harris and David Smith will also perform.

Admission is $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and students. Tickets are available online or by calling (434) 961-5376.

Learn more about the PVCC Fine Arts and Performance season at pvcc.edu/performingarts.