Pure Joy

All this week the joyous songs have been ringing through my head. Last week was the Gospel Workshop, and this week the music and the feeling are still there, giving me peace and joy in these troubled times. Combined with the equally sustaining Walk for Peace and the skills I learned from the Venerated Monks who achieved such a resounding following; my week has been filled with both joy and peacefulness.

I am well aware of the horrors that abound in this world and most particularly in the country I call my own, but thanks to these two events I am no longer quite as consumed by them. I will continue to advocate for what I believe to be morally and constitutionally important. My last piece was about what I learned following the Walk for Peace. Today I was going to write about the Gospel Workshop, but I’m not sure I can improve much on what I wrote last year, so if you missed it here it is again.

Pure Joy, the Gospel Workshop

Oh the joy. The pure resounding joy. The joy of one hundred voices singing as a unified whole, casting their praises and threatening to raise the roof right off it’s rusty old hinges.

That was the scene last night as Bobby Lewis, the charismatic preacher from Harlem led almost one hundred very different souls to become one. The gospel workshop hit its full stride last night as inhibitions, stresses, and concerns fell before the magic of music.

The gospel workshop in the small Alaska capital city nestled among the mountains and bordering the sea is an unusual event. Several years ago Bobby and his talented gentle accompanist, Eustace Johnson, brought the “medicine” to Juneau. Every February Juneau residents of all persuasions, colors, backgrounds, nationalities, genders, religious beliefs, and non beliefs come together for the magic medicine that fills the soul. Led by this inspiring, immensely talented man from across the continent they spend less than a week learning the words and music that fills the old armory with glory. There’s just no other word for it….unless the word is joy, pure unadulterated joy.

On the first gathering on Monday night newcomers timidly walk into the old armory which has become the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. It’s a musty old barn of a place, but that’s another story. For now it’s what we have. As people find seats in what they hope may be their singing section, they suddenly become aware of this big black guy with the fancy shoes, the baseball cap and overcoat, who is bear hugging people right and left as if they are his long lost friends. And indeed many are. They have been taking part in these workshops for years, and it is absolutely impossible not to be drawn into the beautiful aura of this exceptional man. The joy pours off him and infuses the very air around him as he dances down the aisle.

By Sunday afternoon, the timid singers have overcome their fear of exposing themselves, their fear of forgetting the words or the music to ten or more songs that they have learned by rote in less than a week, and they are belting out the joy, the medicine, as Bobby calls it. They become one with the talented local leaders of song who have auditioned and been chosen for the passion they impart as they lead an equally impassioned group of singers.

The concert is held together by a group of short readings between pieces, and the whole thing comes together like magic. It is really more a celebration than a mere concert and It is enjoyed by sold out crowds in the two Sunday afternoon sessions. The magic, the joy, the “medicine” is there for anyone who chooses to come and is lucky enough to get a ticket.

In these days of fear and uncertainty this week has been a welcome respite and a recentering for many. We are so grateful to have these inspiring talented people in our midst.

Thank you Bobby Lewis and Eustace Johnson. And thank you to the many Juneauites who make it all happen.