For the past five years, Choci Gray has hosted the Chitlin Circuit: an annual community event in Kinston that features stellar performances by some of eastern North Carolina’s most celebrated Black musicians. A year ago in February, three North Carolina Heritage Award recipients performed a set together at the Chitlin Circuit, Volume 5: Maceo Parker, Dick Knight, and Bill Myers. It was a full-circle moment for Gray, who had fallen in love with the music those artists make when she was a child.