A three-part event, featuring New York’s Sing Harlem choir and celebrating the cultural impact of gospel music, is coming to Foo Foo Fest. WSRE PBS will present the Joyful Noise! Gospel Celebration from Friday through Sunday, Nov. 8–10, with three distinct events in downtown Pensacola.
The main event will be a regional gospel music competition from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Pensacola High School auditorium. In addition to featured performances by Sing Harlem, Solomon Bozeman and the Sounds of the Gulf Coast, the dance troupe Soulful Movement: Spirit of Excellence and the Dixon After Hours Performing Arts Academy, local music groups and choirs will sing for top honors.
The Saturday afternoon event will be bookended by a private student workshop at Dixon School of Arts and Sciences on Friday, Nov. 8, and a Sunday gospel brunch at Lily Hall on Nov. 10.
Emceeing Saturday’s Joyful Noise! Gospel Competition will be WEAR’s Sue Straughn, Pastor Lonnie Wesley from Greater Little Rock Baptist Church, Pastor Larry Watson Jr. from Englewood Baptist Church and Rameca Vincent Leary, Community and Special Initiatives director at Pensacola State College and host of the “Connecting the Community” and “Pensacola State Today” television programs on WSRE.
“The gospel genre is such a unifying force and its cultural impact on our community in particular is something to be celebrated,” said Jennifer Knisbell, director of WSRE PBS Development & Community Engagement. “The PHS auditorium can seat 15-hundred people, and we hope to pack the house!”
Knisbell got the idea for WSRE’s Foo Foo Festival proposal back in February when the “Gospel” documentary series from Henry Louis Gates Jr. premiered on PBS and the station hosted a successful preview screening of the film with performances by local choirs.
“Our audience was clearly uplifted. That event was so well-received and such a feel-good experience that we knew we should do more,” said Knisbell, “and Foo Foo Fest is a perfect match with its mission to highlight Pensacola’s cultural diversity.”
Knisbell said that the Joyful Noise! Gospel Competition has been modeled after national competitions like How Sweet the Sound in Atlanta but more of a friendly competition for local exposure and to share the same stage with Sing Harlem.
Sing Harlem, an award-winning choir of national renown, was established by the Mama Foundation for the Arts to positively impact young people. Under the direction of Ahmaya Knoelle Higginson, the choir is an influential force in the New York gospel scene, performs across America and has starred on “America’s Got Talent.”
On past trips to New York, Knisbell had seen Sing Harlem perform during their regular Sunday gospel brunch appearance at the Red Rooster Harlem, a restaurant owned by PBS chef Marcus Samuelsson.
“With our community’s positive response to the ‘Gospel’ documentary, it appeared to me that the stars had aligned for the perfect opportunity to apply for the station’s first Foo Foo Festival grant and bring Sing Harlem to Pensacola,” said Knisbell.
Theater producer, playwright and broadcast personality Vy Higginsen created the choir’s founding organization Mama Foundation for the Arts in 1998 to promote African American arts and culture and help reestablish Harlem as an artistic and cultural center.
Judging WSRE’s Joyful Noise! Gospel Competition on Nov. 9 will be the mother-and-daughter team of Higginsen and Higginson, music educator and blues preacher Eric Dozier, musician Gino Rosaria, former NFL player Fred Robbins and Donte Sheppard, Studer Community Institute Early Learning Development program manager.
For an opportunity to perform and compete, local music groups and choirs are encouraged to sign up online before Sept. 30 at wsre.org/events.
The Joyful Noise! Gospel Competition will be a free event and open to the public. In addition to the music and dance performances, there will be food trucks and a short film screening of the “Gospel” documentary.
WSRE will round out the overall Joyful Noise! Gospel Celebration with a champagne brunch featuring a full-concert performance by Sing Harlem from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 10.
The brunch menu will be curated by Brother Fox Executive Chef Darian Hernandez and served, church social style, on the lawn at Lily Hall — the boutique hotel whose landmark structure was built in 1928 for the Mount Olive Baptist Church congregation.
Event information and updates can be found at wsre.org/joyful noise.