3/21/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Yolanda Adams

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Yolanda Yvette Adams is a gospel singer, record producer, actress, and radio host on WBLS. Adams has won four Grammy Awards, sixteen Stellar Gospel Music Awards, four of the Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards, one American Music Award, seven NAACP Image Awards, one Soul Train Music Award, and five BET Awards. On December 11, 2009, Billboard Magazine named her the No. 1 Gospel Artist of the last decade. Continue reading

(Repost) 7/25/21 O&A NYC GOSPEL SUNDAY: Inez Andrews

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Inez Andrews sings Mary Don’t You Weep with fellow Caravan members Albertina Walker, Dorothy Norwood, Dolores Washington and Shirley Caesar. And rare footage of a live performance of Let The Church Roll On performed by Andrews and The Andrewettes. Continue reading

3/8/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Dottie Peoples

GOSPEL SUNDAY

Dottie Peoples has been a star in the gospel music industry for more than 30 years, since she was nine years old. Called the Songbird of the South by Atlanta WAOK radio announcer Brother Esmond Patterson, Peoples won the top four honors at the 1995 Stellar Awards with her album, On Time God.

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On Time God

 Peoples’s 1995 album, On Time God, would change her role in gospel music. At the Stellar Awards, she won Female Vocalist of the Year for traditional music, Choir of the Year for traditional music, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year for On Time God. That same year, Peoples would receive a Vision Award by Bobby Jones Gospel of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and Gospel Today Magazine. On Time God would also win the Atlanta Gospel Choice Award for Song of the Year.

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In 1999, God Can and God Will: Live In Atlanta became her ninth album. She sang songs from the new release to an audience of 4,500 at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia. An inspiring 225-member choir backed her performance.

Oh What A Time

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God Can

3/1/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Ledisi- Be Grateful, Tell The World I Love Them, Thank You Lord and Precious Lord

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Ledisi has shared her gift at Walter Hawkins Tribute Concert (Be Grateful), Andrea Crouch Final Funeral Service (Tell The World I Love Them) The Potter’s House (Thank You Lord) and Selma (Precious Lord).Ledisi has shared her gift at Walter Hawkins Tribute Concert (Be Grateful), Andrea Crouch Final Funeral Service (Tell The World I Love Them) The Potter’s House (Thank You Lord) and Selma (Precious Lord). This talented recording artist, songwriter and actress played Mahalia Jackson in the historical drama film, Selma. First name means “to bring forth” or “to come here” in Yoruba.   Continue reading

2/22/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: The Canton Spirituals

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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The Canton Spirituals are regarded as pioneers in the genre of traditional gospel music. Founded in Canton, Mississippi in 1943, the original Canton Spirituals were Reverend I.S. Watkins, Claude “Bubba” Nichols, Warren G. Ward, Isaac Bolton, Eddie Jackson, Theo Thompson, Roscoe Lucious and founder Harvey Watkins, Sr. (December 5, 1929 – November 16, 1994). The present group is fronted by Watkins’ son, Harvey Watkins Jr., and consists of Cornelius Dwayne Watkins, Billy Voss, David Curry, Merlin Lucious, Shannon Lee, and Rodrick Jones.

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2/15/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: BeBe and CeCe Winans

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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BeBe (Benjamin) and CeCe (Priscilla) Winans are the seventh and eighth of “Mom” and “Pop” Winans’ ten children, most of whom have had gospel music careers. Together, they have received several awards, including three Grammys. While BeBe and CeCe were in high school, four of their elder brothers formed the successful Gospel music group The Winans. Continue reading

(Repost) 2/25/16 O&A NYC DANCE: Mourner’s Bench- Talley Beatty Choreographer

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Talley Beatty choreographed and performed Mourner’s Bench in 1947. It represents the anguish and loss for former slaves, now free men, killed during the Reconstruction Era at the beginning of the rise of the Klu Klux Klan. Beatty explained to me, “People were murdered by the Klan and at daybreak their relatives would find their bodies in the fields still covered in the morning dew.”

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2/1/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Excerpts from Alvin Ailey’s Revelations

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Revelations tells the story of African-American faith and tenacity from slavery to freedom. This enduring classic is a tribute to that tradition, born out of the choreographer Alvin Ailey’s “blood memories” of his childhood in rural Texas and the Baptist Church. Continue reading

1/25/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Gospel Mime

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Mime has developed into another mainstream form of religious expression for members of the black church. In recent years, the black church has taken up the art form, reinterpreting pantomime and combining it with a Christian message. The gospel mime trend ignited in the 1990s as K&K Mime, twin brothers Keith and Karl Edmonds from Pittsburgh, began to popularize the art form. Continue reading

1/11/15 O&A Gospel Sunday: Andraé Crouch

GOSPEL SUNDAY

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Andraé Crouch died on Thursday, January 8, 2015 after being admitted to the hospital last weekend following a heart attack. The Grammy-winning gospel singer, songwriter and choir director graced songs by Michael Jackson and Madonna and movies such as The Lion King. Continue reading