Sweet Spirit + A Balm in Gilead musical extravaganza weekend

Name: Sweet Spirit + A Balm in Gilead musical extravaganza weekend
Start: 2025-03-29T14:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-03-29T16:00:00-04:00
Location: Second Congregational Church, UCC Greenfield, MA

Schedule

Sat Mar 29 2025 at 02:00 pm to 04:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Second Congregational Church, UCC Greenfield, MA | Greenfield, MA

The LAVA Center is thrilled to announce a collaboration with Música Franklin, Twice as Smart and Dr. Arthur C. Jones, founder of The Spirituals Project (Denver, CO), in two programs focused on the power of the Spirituals to help us learn, grow and heal together.
On Saturday, March 29, 2 p.m., the youth of Música Franklin and Twice as Smart will present Sweet Spirit: Songs of Joy, Peace, and Freedom, a program of vocal music under the leadership of Orice Jenkins and Gloria Matlock, with Dr. Jones joining Ms. Matlock in providing commentary on the history and significance of the songs.
On Sunday, March 30, 4 p.m. LAVA will present A Balm in Gilead: Songs of Resilience, Hope, and Healing. The Sunday program features Dr. Jones presenting a multi-media discussion of the history and meaning of the Spirituals, with music by Twice as Smart youth and a LAVA Community Choir — an ad hoc choir of any and all who love to sing together. Adam Matlock, music director, will lead the Community Choir in songs that illustrate key themes in Dr. Jones’s talk: Communal Identity, Welcoming & Inclusiveness, Covert Communication, and Contemplative Spirituality.
Both programs will take place at Second Congregational Church, 16 Court Sq., Greenfield.
Individuals and vocal musical groups (church choirs, community choirs, school choruses, etc.) are invited to register to participate in the Community Choir. To register, go to https://bit.ly/balm-in-gilead. Registrants will receive a link to audio files and lyric sheets to be able to learn/practice the songs prior to the performance weekend. There will be two rehearsals, including a dress rehearsal on the Sunday of performance.
“I am very much looking forward to this wonderful weekend of programming, in collaboration with Música Franklin, Twice as Smart, and the LAVA Center,” Dr. Jones notes. “The songs bequeathed to us by enslaved African peoples in America more than 150 years ago have so much to teach us about resistance, faith, survival and hope in the face of impossible odds. These Spirituals also model for all of us an ethic of compassionate humanity that is needed now more than ever. In my presentation on Sunday, I aim to help folks gain an in-depth understanding of these multi-layered gifts from the ancestors. On both Saturday and Sunday we’ll also get to experience that enduring witness through the inspired voices of singers spanning multiple generations, amplified by the power of communal singing!”
The personnel:
Dr. Arthur C. Jones is founder of the Denver-based Spirituals Project, an organization dedicated to preserving and revitalizing the Spirituals, through musical, educational, and social justice work centered around a community choir open to all. Its goal is to preserve and revitalize the music and teachings of the sacred songs called “Spirituals,” created and first sung by enslaved Africans in America in the 18th and 19th centuries and ensure that the Spirituals will be passed on for many generations to come.
Dr. Jones is currently Professor Emeritus of Music, Culture and Psychology at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver and former Clinical Professor of Culture and Psychology and Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence at Colorado Women’s College at the University of Denver. His book Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals, originally published in 1993 and revised and reissued in 2023, will be available for purchase on Sunday. His work is informed both by his expertise in African American and multicultural mental health and spirituality and his love of singing. He travels widely presenting workshops and programs that teach the history and meaning of the Spirituals, engaging his audiences in experiencing the healing power of singing in community.
Gloria Matlock, founder of Twice as Smart, has served countless roles in Greenfield, including as a board director for Stone Soup Cafe, coordinator for racial justice events and assisting early education through the “Twice As Smart” after-school program she has organized. She is an impassioned advocate for the rights of all children to quality education and respectful treatment. Her documentary film “Just Another Mile” focuses on two historically Black neighborhoods in the small city of Ravenna, Ohio, offering a lens on race in 20th- and 21st-century America. To tell this story, Matlock interviewed elders about their lives and the lives of their communities. She has led and taught workshops throughout the United States, including with her choir the Harmony Singers at the United Nations and locally at Second Congregational Church. With the Twice as Smart choir, Matlock passes to new generations the songs and wisdom she learned performing Spirituals as a child in Ohio. She was the recipient of the 2023 Greenfield Human Rights Award for all her contributions to our community.
Orice Jenkins, Executive Director of Música Franklin, is a recording artist, performer, educator and genealogy researcher from Hartford, Connecticut. His music has been featured in JazzTimes magazine and charted at #11 on the iTunes Jazz chart. Jenkins has performed extensively across all genres, including Hip-Hop, R&B, Jazz, Gospel and Classical music. He has helped many people trace their ancestors through his exhaustive research and ability to connect disparate and rare documents that bring to light the stories of enslaved and formerly enslaved people. He is the author of The Early County Massacre: Goolsby vs. the State of Georgia, which tells the story of two teenagers who survived a race massacre in 1915. Jenkins’ work has been featured in the Washington Post, Finding Your Roots and on the National Park Service website. He is a member of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and a charter member of the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage.
The young people of Música Franklin and Twice as Smart are youth from ages 6 to 17. They participate in after-school programs to learn music, academic content and skills four days a week. They are frequent performers at community events, festivals and gatherings. They have performed at The LAVA Center as part of the 2022 Peace and Social Justice in the Arts and Humanities series and as part of Reading Frederick Douglass Together in July of 2024. Their artwork and stories, “Why I Go to School,” were featured as a gallery display at LAVA in 2023 and subsequently at Greenfield Community College.
Adam Matlock works as an accordionist, composer and vocalist, exploring traditional music from Spirituals to Klezmer, Balkan to American Old-time and incorporates this into various projects as a composer, songwriter and improviser. He has performed in New Haven, New York, Boston and all over New England, North as far as Halifax and Montreal and South as far as Atlanta. He also works as a music teacher in the New Haven area. With deep ties to Greenfield, he has performed locally in programs for Racial Justice Rising and Twice as Smart, as a soloist and also joining his musician mother Gloria Matlock.
The LAVA Center is an organization whose mission is to provide opportunities in and through the arts and humanities to foster creativity and community.
The programs are made possible with support from the Markham-Nathan Fund for Social Justice, the Greenfield Cultural Crossroads District, Mass Cultural Council, Mass Humanities, the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, the Second Congregational Church and private donations. There is no charge, but donations are always welcome to help secure and sustain the collaborating organizations.
In case of a weather event that would preclude travel from Denver to Greenfield, the programs will be postponed to the following weekend.