Well, yesterday morning had me, clearing mental space for the gathering of many faithful musical souls willing to share in the Junction Arts Festival Gospel Sing-Along. First to arrive was our gifted accompanist, Fred Crossley, who immediately sat down and started to play. Fred has been spending a lot of time in Caribbean of late, so it was great to renew our musical liaison. Secret revealed, Fred is an original Art of Praise-r. He and I began the journey together in 2001, as a direct response to the "art of war" coverage we were being bombarded with on every media back then. The obvious twist on the words came out of reasoning over what we needed to hear more about. Substitute the word “war” with “praise”, and we had a title for our concept of a community choral collective: The Art of Praise Choral Collective. AOP, for short.The next person to arrive at the Junction Arts Festival site was sweet little sixteen-year-old lyric Soprano from down the junction alley. Following on her heels was a sixty years (plus) Alto from Scarborough. Two tenors, another Soprano, three more Altos, and when all was said and done, we ranged in age from four to seventy four: ten adults, two youth, and three kids...now that's a community of voices! Performing as Moyo Family Peace Chorus, we caused quite a stir as we walked west from Indian Grove to the Pacific street main-stage. We moved at a relaxed pace, as we are Mom's with wagons to move our children, elders with bicycles, and everything in between.
We arrived at the main stage to find out that the first act had canceled, leaving nothing prepared for us, but we soon made quick work of getting the sound personnel on-side. We thanked them for their speedy service, as in no time at all, Fred's instruments were amplified. Soloist Amai Kuda's libation solemnly blessed the stage and invited our ancestors to join us in song, and then one by one we joined her at the microphones moving smoothly from Yoruba land to the southern US. We then traveled to the Caribbean, and on to original gospel songs penned right here in the Junction.
As mentioned the group before us were a no-show so we figured we would have to work hard to get folks off the streets and into the sequestered stage area. No worries…as the first few notes filled the air the people flowed right in. Not a full house, mind, but a greatly vivacious gathering of folks who revel in making a joyful noise. And a joyful noise is exactly what we accomplished in the Junction as we lifted many others to free their voices, hands, legs and "tushies" in happiness for having awoken up that Saturday morning.
We closed our shared experience with an old favourite, "This Little Light Of Mine" as our eight-year-old soloist, Haven, sang "even in my schoo-ool", his pledge to let his creative light shine. That pledge is mine. It’s also the pledge of everyone else that refused to keep silent that Saturday morning.
