Local performer one of engines behind celebration of black history at Palace

Sitting atop a small secretary near the front door of Barbara N. Howard's Albany home is a large, blockish, all-caps rendering of a single word: "INSPIRE."

Out in the lobby, actors portraying Frederick Douglass and Paul Robeson will perform monologues and answer questions as people arrive.

Inside, the program will include Donna Boykin and the Capital District Liturgical Dancers; young ballerinas Gigi Robinson and Leah Magee; Christian rapper Dontae Jones; Theresa Chaires, rendering sign language with music and movement; spoken-word artist Danielle Colin; Prince Sprauve and his Told By Us media students performing rap; spoken-word artist and poet Danielle Colin; saxophonist Lionel Hamilton; and a special Gospel Gala Choir drawing members from several groups.

[...] on the program: a swing dance performed by cast members of "Ain't Misbehavin'," the Fats Waller musical that ran at Albany Civic Theater earlier this month with a cast that included Fields and Howard.

Sitting in her dining room on a recent Monday evening, the table before her covered with posters and photos from her career, Howard tells a story that has her beaming before she even starts it.

The jazz vocalist, gospel singer, storyteller and actress is a veteran of regional and far-flung stages — performing in England, around the country and in such local productions as Schenectady Light Opera Company's 2012 staging of "Caroline, or Change."

At home in West Hill, Howard watched musicals on TV and sang while washing dishes, appreciating the acoustics at the kitchen sink.

At SUNY Brockport, she studied business; in 2012, she earned a master's in education from Grand Canyon University and now teaches sixth grade at Arbor Hill Elementary School.

For years, she says, the stage was pushed backstage as she focused on raising her two daughters with her husband, Ronald, pastor for the Blessed Hope Worship Center.

With her first role in an Equity production: