Cornell's Festival of Black Gospel celebrates 25th year, Feb. 16-18

By Franklin Crawford

The Festival of Black Gospel at Cornell will celebrate its 25th anniversary with 7 p.m. gospel performances Friday, Feb. 16, and Saturday, Feb. 17, in Bailey Hall.

Members of the Festival of Black Gospel's executive board, from left: Tiffanie Booker '01; McArthur Freeman, graduate student; Ericka Gibson '01; Miriam Paterson '01; Esther Kansinally '01; Mariah McElvoy '04 (seated); and Shayla Hudson '03, meet in the office that the festival shares in Willard Straight Hall. Frank DiMeo/University Photogaphy

The centerpiece of Cornell's Black History Month celebration and a premier regional event, the festival will present a Friday-night kickoff concert boasting three headline gospel groups: Touch, an a cappella quintet from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Tony Moore and Jehovah's Chosen, from Philadelphia; and Dickson Guillaume and the Haitian Interdenominational Mass Choir out of Brooklyn, back by popular demand, say organizers. Then that Saturday at 7 p.m., area choirs will join together for an evening of joyous music, making for a rapturous antidote to the mid-winter blues as well as a call to faith. A closing celebration service for the festival will be held Sunday, Feb. 18, at 5 p.m. in the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room, featuring guest speaker Rev. Hilliard Hudson of the Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago, Ill.

Tickets for the Friday night concert are $5 for all college students with an ID, $7 for people in groups of five or more and $8 for the general public. The Saturday and Sunday events are free and open to the public. Advance sale tickets are available at the Willard Straight Hall ticket office on campus, with other sites to be announced. For more information about tickets, contact Ericka Gibson, Festival of Black Gospel chair, at 273-2324; Miriam Paterson, co-chair, 257-3259; or the Rev. Cleveland Thornhill, 255-0626.

The Festival of Black Gospel (FBG) was established 25 years ago at Cornell during a period of racial tension and campus unrest. The founders, the Rev. Samuel Perry, formerly a pastor with Ithaca's St. James A.M.E. Zion Church, and the Rev. Jack Lewis, former head of Cornell United Religious Work, believed that gospel music possessed a universal appeal. The festival became a vehicle for unity, while making accessible an African-American art form relatively new to the secular public at that time. The response was overwhelmingly positive and the event has been enthusiastically supported by diverse audiences ever since.

While the annual gospel festival may be the most popular event organized by the 15 members of the FBG organization, it's just one of several activities the group sponsors throughout the academic year. FBG is, in fact, the name of a student-run entity and the festival is just part of its members' larger faith-based mission. FBG members also perform community service work by visiting area youth correctional facilities and public schools throughout the academic year.

"Each year the Festival of Black Gospel organizes quality productions that do much more than merely provide entertainment -- they carry messages of hope, love and salvation," said Octavia Mason, a senior in the College of Human Ecology and business manager for FBG. "I believe wholeheartedly in the importance of sharing this message with others, and FBG is an excellent means of doing so."

Here is more on the gospel groups in this year's festival:

• Touch, formed in 1997, has performed extensively at multicultural events in the South Florida region, including African-American Heritage programs at the U.S. Postal Service in Miami and the Broward Center for Performing Arts, among other venues. Members of the all-male quintet are accomplished soloists in addition to their ensemble work, and they include Andre Edwards, Keith Grant, Dwaine Bramwell, Steven Gunning and Dane Hurst.

• The Haitian Mass Choir embraces a range of musical influences, from Haitian folk songs to contemporary and traditional American gospel. Under the direction of Dickson Guillaume, the group's music is the vehicle for a passionate ministry aimed at the needs of young people. Now in its 10th year, the choir has developed programs for pregnant teens, the homeless and the disenfranchised.

• Tony Moore and Jehovah's Chosen are innovators of a new contemporary sound; the group, now in its fifth year, is not just another community choir. Jehovah's Chosen's first CD, Love Lifted Me, debuted on Philly Style Records and broke first-quarter recording sales for a new artist, and the single was in heavy rotation on syndicated and local radio stations throughout the United States. The group's sound combines funky secular rhythms and gospel lyrics with heavy horns and saxophone tracks to create what its members describe as a distinct "Philly sound." Funk, jazz, soul, gospel and rock fusion are deeply embedded in various songs, and as a result, the group attracts a versatile audience.