There’s a Bright Side Some Where - A Juneteeth Community Sing

May 28, 2011 - PRLog -- This year, Friends of Negro Spirituals will be among the organizations in America celebrating Juneteenth.  Friends of Negro Spirituals, a 501 (c) (3), Oakland, CA based Negro Spirituals preserving organization, will present a wheel chair assessable, uplifting benefit program called There’s A Bright Side Some Where – A Juneteeth Community Sing on Saturday, June 18, 2011, 3 PM – 5PM, at the West Oakland Senior Center, 1724 Adeline, Oakland, CA.

The celebration will feature Bay Area’s own renowned Wendell Brooks. Brooks is a song leader; vocal music and history instructor at Berkeley High School, professional Baritone soloist; slave documents scholar, and a Negro Spirituals expert. Brooks will give an eye-opening talk on life experiences slaves portrayed and envisioned in their slavery songs and will sing slavery songs along with the audience as the community.

Other highlights will include Donna Vaughn’s sharing her great, great, great grandmother’s memories of Union Yankee soldiers who she saw close up in North Carolina; former community activist and actor Norman Brown’s reading the Emancipation Proclamation; and musician Dr. Martian Jones’ demonstrating a musical street cry of a New Orleans vendor of bygone days; selling blackberries and other goods from wagons, carts or on foot was a way of earning money in years following slavery

Individual admission tickets for adults in advance are $15.00 and $20.00 at the door; $10.00 for youth over 13; and are free for children under 13.  Check or money order for tickets should be made out and mailed to: Friends of Negro Spirituals, P. O. Box 71956, Oakland, CA 94612.  Requests for tickets and information may be obtained by calling 510 869 4359 or emailing fns3@juno.com.                                      

Join us for this one of a kind benefit and Juneteeth celebration- There is a Bright Side Some Where- A Juneteeth Community Sing!