MONDAY MUSING: THE SOUND OF FREEDOM?

MONDAY MUSING reflects on a new musical program, FREEDOM, in Little Rock presented by the River City Men's Choir, which has a lot of very talented male, mostly senior musicians who use their vocal cords as their instrument- 

Some have been participants for over 3 decades as you can see...

"Freedom" features a female guest soloist, Satia Spencer,  who truly delivered the soul. Even the choir let loose as much as they could. It was awkward. As I scoured those enjoying the free concert in St James sancturary, most had white hair and as you can guess, were white. The only black male in the balcony around me was Satia's big brother. 

It still amazes me that such a large choir in the South has perhaps one member who is not a white man.  Little Rock is the capital of Arkansas with a large black population. How are there not black males who'd try out for the choir? 

After the concert, I commented on how ironic to have black gospel songs in the program with only one minority member.  My friend commented that one of their black choir members had moved, but he was often featured. Whoa! 

THIS is 2026 and we are sitting in a program about freedom and the faces definitely don't reflect the country we live in... We can usurp others' music yet truly reflect the political climate of those white, protestant men running the White House... G-d help us.

More performances: Monday the 20th at 7pm

                                  Thursday the 23rd.  7pm

St James United Methodist Church

321 Pleasany Valley Dr.

Little Rock, Ar 72212