As the lights go down in the Sarasota Opera House , E. Keith Dubose strides onto the stage and takes the lectern. Dressed like a lawyer (Dubose is a lawyer), he leans into the microphone but what comes out bears little resemblance to legal argument, instead the words of Langston Hughes’ “Let America Be America Again” come tearing out in a defiant delivery serving as both condemnation and call to arms for a dream not yet fully accomplished. We Are Sarasota is back. Created by Judge Charles E. Williams, Charlie Ann Syprett of the SCBA Diversity and Inclusion Commitee and Nate Jacobs of Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, and not presented since its debut in 2012, We Are Sarasota unites residents from across the region, including more than 600 local students, for a night of performance and communion in celebration of the diversity that makes Sarasota great, and the battles fought to get there. Taking turns at the lectern, community leaders and legal figures told stories of judicial milestones, from Dredd Scott v Sanford and Plessy v Ferguson up to Obergefell v Hodges, remembered the heroes who fought for equality and recounted stories of protest and perseverance from Sarasota’s own past. Touching on everything from women’s rights to the Latino movement and the emergence of agism and student-led change today, Sarasotans from all walks shared the stage to declare themselves a proud part of this municipal tapestry.  “We shined our little light in the world,” says Jacobs, “and made a change that people won’t soon forget.”