Cambridge Chronicle, 1/15/03

Joyful Noise Gospel Concert

To Celebrate MLK Legacy in Song

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

Community leaders and gospel musicians will join their voices this Sunday at 5 p.m. at Sanders Theatre for an uplifting, all-encompassing and vibrantly reverent tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Celebration of the Life and Work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be presented by the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, artistically directed by George Thorn and hosted by Boston Globe Director of Public Affairs BMaynard Scarborough. Appearances by Cambridge Mayor Michael Sullivan, CMAC Executive Director Shelley Neill, State Senator Jarrett Barrios and the Reverend Jeffrey Brown of the Union Baptist Church in Central Square will precede performances by gospel ensembles the Union Baptist Church Choir, the Silver Leaf Gospel Singers, Michael Payne and Redeemed Praise and The Joyful Noise Mass Choir, as well as vocalist Tawana Frazier.

“It’s important to remember that in addition to his work as an equal rights activist, Dr. King was also a Baptist preacher,” said Thorn, who serves as Minister of Music at Union Baptist Church. “Thus, paying tribute to him through a gospel music concert is very fitting.”

This will be Thorn’s third year as Artistic Director of the Joyful Noise event. “The staff of the CMAC and I have been working for the past nine months planning this year’s concert,” he said, promising that it will be one of the best and most comprehensive thus far. “The Joyful Noise concert presents local ministries from Cambridge and Boston that have a profound understanding of how gospel music can lift spirits and provide encouragement,” he explained.

Sullivan will give the welcoming address; Neill will discuss CMAC’s activities and mission and will also introduce Barrios, who will discuss King’s legacy of bringing people together as well as his own vision and hopes for his agenda as a senator.

Brown, Andover Newton Theological School graduate, pastor of Union Baptist Church (located at 874 Main St., across from Toscanini’s), was a founder of the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation, an ecumenical coalition of both clergy and lay leaders seeking to mobilize the Christian community with regard to issues that affect black youth. He has spoken at national gatherings on varied social and religious topics, has received many community awards, and is presently writing a book on the role of faith-based institutions in confronting violence and strengthening the community.

The Union Baptist Church Choir, led by Thorn, comprises 30-40 people ranging in age from 9 to over 70. “We do a variety of traditional and contemporary gospel music,” said Thorn. The group performed in the 2002 River Fest and at the 1998 Boston Gospel Awards Show at the John Hancock tower. They have also appeared at Colby College in Maine as well as in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

A predominantly Black congregation founded in 1878 largely by descendants of slaves from the South and Nova Scotia, its current membership is about 600; 300 usually attend Sunday services.

The Boston-based Silver Leaf Gospel Singers, the oldest gospel quartet in Massachusetts, have been together approximately 60 years, and have performed in the Central Square World’s Fair. Michael Payne and Redeemed Praise, based in Mattapan, is a youth community choir which stems from various area churches. Tawana Frazier, who sang at Mayor Menino’s August gospel festival, recently sang the song “Expectations” on renowned gospel vocalist Freda Battle’s CD Serious Praise.

The event’s host, Atlanta native Bmaynard Scarborough, has a B.A. in English from Morehouse College and resides in Milton. Prior to the Globe, he served as Senior Vice President and Director of Inner City 100 at the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. A past Director of External Affairs at Boston Ballet, he was Director of Public Affairs for Morgan Memorial during its Centennial Celebration between February, 1989 and May, 1991. He has held public relations positions with the Massachusetts Port Authority and the City of Boston's Mayor's Office, is a Board Member of the Boston Idea Group, the Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center, and is affiliated with the Boston Association of Black Journalists and African Americans in Advertising.

Thorn, who is orginally from Shreveport, Louisiana, said that he didn’t directly witness any of the civil rights events, since he was born in 1966. However, he has always observed a sharp contrast in the cultural atmosphere of the Boston area. “In Louisiana, everything is still black and white,” he said. “I never remember anyone in Louisiana referring to themselves as anything but black or white.” Thorn, who holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, serves as the program director for the Black Church Capacity Building Program, a program of the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, located in Roxbury.

“Dr. King and I are Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity brothers,” he noted. Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest Black fraternity in the country, was founded in 1906. “Dr. King spoke at the Union Baptist Church while he was in school at B.U.,” he said.

Thorn and his staff mailed out about 6000 postcards announcing the event. “Last year’s event drew over 900 people, and we hope for even more this year,” he said.

A Celebration of the Life and Work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Joyful Noise gospel concert will be held on Sunday, Jan. 19 at 5 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University. Tickets, $20/$15 for students, children, seniors and CMAC members, are available through the Harvard Box Office, Holyoke Center Arcade, 1350 Mass. Ave., Harvard Square, by calling 617-496-2222 (TTY 617-495-1642, or by visiting www.fas.harvard.edu/~tickets.