CHICAGO – DuSable Museum will host a one-night-only concert featuring performances by the incomparable Walt Whitman & The Soul Children of Chicago, along with their special guests from Sweden Voices of Unity. This unique partnership between The Soul Children of Chicago and Sweden’s Voices of Unity truly demonstrates the mission behind The Soul Children of Chicago’s mission to reach the nations and inspire people around the world through music. 

On Friday, May 18^th Walt Whitman & The Soul Children of Chicago will premiere their latest project, Soul Stories. Soul Stories is a series of webisodes inspired by some of the life-changing circumstances that Walt Whitman & The Soul Children of Chicago have witnessed and experienced over the course of their 30-year history. Under the vision and direction of Walt Whitman, Jr. and E-Tre Productions, Soul Stories was created and developed to share inspirations of hope and demonstrate ways today’s youth can conquer life’s challenges and turn adverse situations into stories of hope, triumph and inspiration. 

Walt Whitman & The Soul Children of Chicago plan to release Soul Stories both nationally and internationally.  For more information and ways your company can participate in this youth outreach effort, please email soulchildrenmedia@gmail.com.

Habakkuk Music And Blackgospelpromo.Com Partner For New Gospel CD Series

The Best Indie Tracks, Yesterday, Today & Forever: Got Gospel?

-- Fourteen Track Compilation Features Tunes By Vickie Winans, Lisa Page Brooks, Youthful Praise, Marvin Winans, Canton Jones, Rance Allen And Others --

Veda Brown's BlackGospelPromo.com has had the desire to create a compilation CD of gospel songs to market via her firm and now the time has finally come.

"I've been wanting to do this for years," says Brown, who is based in Philadelphia, PA. "So many of my friends in the industry have stepped up and allowed us to use their songs for this project and I'm grateful," she continues. "Indie labels and artists have become a major force in music so we've selected some of the best indie tracks to create a must-have CD compilation."

Habakkuk Music has signed on to release, not just one installment, but a series of compilation CDs with BlackGospelPromo.com. The first CD is entitled, Got Gospel? The Best Indie Tracks, Yesterday, Today & Forever. The project hits stores June 5, 2012 and features this exciting mix of both evergreen and future classics:

1. God is Great - Ricky Dillard and New G
2. Lord, You're Mighty - Youthful Praise featuring J.J. Hairston
3. I Want To Say Thank You - Lisa Page Brooks
4. Window - Canton Jones
5. No Looking Back - Damita
6. I Give Myself Away - William McDowell
7. You That I Trust - The Rance Allen Group
8. The More I Seek You - Gail Holmes
9. Big - Valencia Lacy & Unquenchable Worshippers
10. Send Your Rain - Clint Brown featuring Marvin Winans
11. Alright - Gerald Scott
12. Mario Winans' "Overcomer" Remix - Vickie Winans
13. Be Like You - Cheneta Jones
14. The Best Time of My Life - Bryan Wilson

The set is the second release in Habakkuk Music's Got Gospel? Six Sounds of Summer marketing campaign that launches with Cheneta Jones' debut CD, Transformed, on May 22nd. Other CDs in the summer series include new albums by Clint Brown, Gerald Scott & Company, Lisa Page Brooks and Valencia Lacy & Unquenchable Worshippers. To learn more about Habakkuk, visit www.habakkukmusic.com for more information.

Chicago, IL – Kathryn Baker Kemp, a Chicago resident, is a retired music director, administrator and educator. She traces the journey of gospel music from its indigenous roots in Africa to the genres shaped by enslaved Africans and their descendants in America. Dr. Kemp, a licensed minister, has witnessed the power of gospel music and its message throughout her life.

Make a Joyful Noise!: A Brief History of Gospel Music Ministry in America tells the story of the resiliency of an African American people who worshipped their God with praise and thanksgiving - even in the midst of brutal oppression - through music. This book shows how music - gospel music in particular - has been a vehicle utilized over the years by people of African ancestry as a personal treasure, an expression of joy, a call for freedom, and a source of release despite oppression, Jim Crow laws, segregation, and racism.

The legacy of Dr. Thomas A. Dorsey and Rev. James Cleveland is honored through the gospel organizations they founded. The National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, Inc., the first gospel organization, was founded by Professor Thomas A. Dorsey, and the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc., was founded by Rev. James Cleveland, a mentee of Dr. Thomas Dorsey.

Part One of the book concludes with discussions of the future of gospel music and references some major secular events that highlight its widespread appeal. Interviews with evangelists, composers, songwriters, musicians, gospel artists, ministers of music, and members of the Gospel Music Workshop of America, Inc. express the richness of this heritage in Part Two of this work.

Make A Joyful Noise! is a valuable resource that provides first-hand accounts of the impact and importance of gospel music to America.

For more details about the book, visit www.joyfulnoisepress.com