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| To Be Young, Gifted And Black Performed by Nina Simone
To be young, gifted and black,
In the whole world you know
Young, gifted and black
When you feel really low
Young, gifted and black
Oh but my joy of today Note: "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," written in 1969 by Nina Simone and Weldon Irvine, Jr., was inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's play of the same title.
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Young and gifted talent takes command of SJA’s stage with the appearances of Cameron Hughes, Britney Delaney, S’sence and Chantel Winne, four up and coming Twin Cities’ talents. Hughes, a high schooler from Robbinsdale—recommended by Rambo—already is familiar to Twin Cities’ audiences from Penumbra Theater’s Black Nativity and according to Chouinard, “a phenomenal singer.” Stevie Wonder, blown away from hearing him from a tape, had him flown out to be a special guest at a Christmas Toys for Tots Rally in Los Angeles that Wonder hosts annually. Playfully defending his choice to invite Cameron’s mother, Tonya, who will sing with her son, Chouinard replied, “You know as long as we’re lingering in intergenerational story-telling land we might as bring her into the mix as well.”
The other youth performers include Britney Delaney, a recent high school graduate who is a spoken word artist. She has worked with One Voice Mixed Chorus and with Gospel sensation Robert Robinson and plans to offer her own performance piece along with two just added to the lineup, S’sence and Chantel Winne. All three have been nationally recognized in spoken word and poetry slams across the country.
Chouinard feels that these four artists will make a great fit for the MLK program at St. Joan’s. Looking for young people, he elaborated, “who have something to say and whose voices would compliment the message that we bring to our celebration of our MLK holiday. So we are choosing to focus on the subject of youth, the gifts they bring to the table and their particular challenges as they grow into adulthood and take over the reins of responsibility in our community. What do they have to say? What are their hopes and dreams? What do they see as difficulties to their time? The challenges of unemployment and poverty, the fracturing of communities, the environmental crisis and what sort of impact that’ll have. It’s important to celebrate the particular gifts of energy, vision, optimism and hope that young people bring the table and to hear them talk about these things in their own words.”
The SJA MLK Tribute concert has been an integral part of the SJA Concert Series since 2001, an idea which derived from Chouinard’s The Singer’s Voice radio broadcast in 2000 which paid homage to Martin Luther King, Jr. To keep it fresh and relevant, however, is of concern to Chouinard who continues to host the event and accompany on piano. “We’re going to change up the opening of the show a little bit. We’re certainly going to give the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. their due. We’ll include the voices of younger artists in the mix as well,” offered Chouinard. Not just MLK oratory speeches but other pivotal ones regarding economic issues will be looked at. Something new that will bring attention to this year’s concert is MLK’s commitment to the struggle against economic injustice. Chouinard concurred, “He had a lot to say in the last years of his life about the tangled knot that ties together economic oppression, racial oppression and war and we find ourselves now in 2008 in a somewhat analogous situation where we’re handing over millions of dollars a day in an effort to make war. We can talk as much as we want about the effort to create economic opportunities as long as the machine of war operates to the benefit of wealthy few. Our talk of economic injustice also has to take into account just how these things are linked: war, poverty and race.”
Selections from the song itinerary include SJA Choir’s special request “Love Train” with Bruce Henry; some Stevie Wonder tunes; James Taylor’s tribute to MLK “Shed a Little Light” as well as some old spirituals. The SJA Choir will be involved with a number of selections and will expand their 60 plus size to involve talented young singers for the concert. The band lineup led by Dan on piano will include his brother Bill Chouinard strumming bass, Dean MaGraw playing guitar along with the return of Daryl Boudreaux on percussion.
Michael: “Now Dan, what have you personally taken away from doing these MLK tributes since 2000?”
Dan: “I’m reminded how difficult it is over the years to pull together a concert during the holiday season and get people together in one room in the month of December and early January. It’s always a challenge. It is a bit of a nerve wracking way to pull together a show, but that aside…[He fondly reminisced about a recent dinner conversation with Rambo, Henry and Bryant] All of these reflections of growing up black in the United States and how things have changed and how they’ve remained the same. It was an occasion for me to reflect on what a privilege it has been for me to sit and hear these stories and to get to know these people and to get to work with them as fantastic musicians. It’s a very rich sort of assignment that I get to do every year with this concert. I consider myself lucky to have it and I always learn from it and I always grow as a musician and as somebody who cares about the history of all of us in this country struggling to find the right ways to live together.”
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Dan: “It kind of does.”
The SJA Concert Series is a wonderful opportunity to raise monies for St. Joan’s Care Fund and music programs.
To purchase tickets online click here.
Or in person, go to the vestibule before or after 9 & 11 masses on Sundays.
