By Xiomaris Legarreta
Herald Intern
Diamond King, also known as Cindy I. Philemon, represented her hometown of Sanford in McDonald’s Gospelfest 2026 “Roars Back to Broadway” at Palladium Times Square in New York City this past Mother’s Day weekend. The three-day performance included a talent competition and gospel concert, produced and directed by Emmy Award-winning producer and director, A. Curtis Farrow. It is notorious for being the nation’s most preeminent gospel celebration with performers including Tony Award-winning actress, Jennifer Holiday, and Grammy-winning singer, Le’Andria Johnson and The Clark Sisters.
King competing as the eldest soloist in vocal competition was proof that it is never too late to pursue a passion. She holds Sanford close to her heart as the people who surrounded her helped shape her into the woman she is today.
“Hearing them introduce me and sharing with the world that I represent my hometown Sanford, Florida is one of my dreams finally coming true,” King said.
King was born in Sanford, Florida. Performing began for King when she was just five years old and she would repeat after her father, when he would sing the tune of “You are My Sunshine.”
“He would let me touch the strings on his guitar and when my mother heard me singing around in the house, I was put in the children's choir with no vocal training,” King said.
King was adopted by her aunt and spent most of her childhood in Norwalk, Connecticut. She performed in various school performances in the ninth grade, including Guys & Dolls and Lil Abner. She moved back to Sanford at 17 years old and continued pursuing the arts when she joined the school choir at Seminole High School.
“It was very difficult for me because I went from being popular to starting all over in a city to a school where no one knew my name, but I did,” King said.
Creative Sanford Inc., a non-profit that managed community theatrical productions of the Celery Soup: Florida’s Folk Life Play, pushed King’s performing career to take flight. She played the lead role of Claudia in their first production called Touch and Go. The play was centered on the citizens of Sanford and their perseverance to overcome hardships including the decline of Sanford’s celery industry and the closure of Naval Air Station Sanford in the 1960s.
“What makes it all worthwhile is sharing who the characters are in the story and singing the feelings in the story,” King said.
King has continued support in her Sanford community in Goldsboro and has growing support in New York through Zoe Ministries Church and many other organizations. She is a member of the Brooklyn branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Action Network (NAN) House of Justice, NAN’s Women's Auxiliary, and NAN’s Change Choir.
“I never bore children, but I have been a mama in the lives of my community, family, and friends,” King said.
King wrote a fiction novel called Trapped From Within which takes place in Sanford. She is also the playwright of The Goldsboro Bridge New Edition which highlights the story of Goldsboro in Sanford, second black incorporated city in Florida. Her participation in the Gospelfest is not the only way she is paying homage to her roots as an artist and she plans to continue honoring her upbringing in future projects.
“I cried when I was getting ready to go on stage because representing Sanford was something I’d always wanted to do,” King said.
