Final plans are falling into place for the June 20 – 30 Trouvères Youth Choir Civil Rights Tour.
“There is a growing movement among choir directors to offer the healing power of music through choral concerts,” youth choir director Jenny Tisi says. “So I drew up this big wish list of places I wanted to go — from California to the East Coast. It was way too big. Then I called Mike (Kinman), said this is an idea I have, what do you think? And he was just like ‘I’m there. Tell me what I need to do.’”
From there Jenny, Mike and a group of youth met and came up with a ten-day tour that will include forty-one choristers and fourteen adults filling one bus for a Civil Rights Tour of the South.
They’ll take a red-eye to Atlanta, landing at 6:00 in the morning on the 21st, then drive to Montgomery where the first place they go is the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, also known as the Lynching Memorial. Then they’ll drive to Birmingham, Selma, New Orleans, Memphis, Ferguson, and St. Louis.
Besides touring iconic civil rights movement locations and museums – and visiting Ed and Hope Bacon for a pool party and dinner – they will give four performances: in Birmingham; in Selma at Brown Chapel AME Church where Hosea Williams and John Lewis gathered marchers before crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday (then the youth will cross the bridge together with Ed and Mike!); in Memphis, at the Civil Rights Museum where Dr. King was assassinated, and in St. Louis at Christ Church Cathedral where Mike served at Dean before coming to All Saints.
Each hour-long concert will be divided into four sections:
1) Praise
2) How do we praise God when… (naming slavery, the assassination of Dr. King, hurricanes, and homelessness)
3) There is Healing
4) There is Unity
At each venue guest speakers are built into the concerts, including Black Lives Matter leaders speaking at the concert in St. Louis.
The Trouvères will be hosting a Tour Send Off Concert here at All Saints on Saturday, June 16 at 3:00 p.m. All are welcome!
Keep all involved in your prayers for a transformative experience as we send them off with love – and look forward to hearing their stories when they return!
