Balloon Boy Story of the Day and Choir Rehearsal

The story of the day today was the 6 year old boy who was thought to be caught in a homemade balloon flying craft earlier this afternoon. It was such a bizarre story to hear about! I was very surprised to hear that a family had built this large aircraft from scratch - it was a 5 foot high and 20 foot long object. There was footage online of the balloon flying 50 miles in the air because everyone thought the boy was still in it. The sibling of the boy said that the boy took off inside the balloon in their house. Longmont, Colorado had to shut down one of their busiest airports to help save the boy and even the military got involved. The Colorado Army National Guard sent a UH-58 Kiowa helicopter and was going to send a Black Hawk UH-60 to try to rescue the boy. They also were working with pilots of ultralight aircraft on the possibility of putting weights on the homemade craft to weigh it down. An operation of this sort is not free; apparently the the Black Hawk helicopter was in the air for nearly three hours and the Kiowa helicopter was airborne for about one hour. The Black Hawk costs about $4,600 an hour to fly, and the Kiowa is $700 an hour. All of this media attention and cost came down to the boy being home the whole time. I was very relieved to find out that he was alive and safe. He ended up hiding in a cardboard box in the garage because his father had yelled at him earlier and for getting in the compartment earlier. It was such a wacky story, but I'm glad it ended well.

I also had choir rehearsal today at First Presbyterian Church. We sang "Jordan's Angels", "The Clouds' Mist", and "Halleluyah". We also sang Kirk Franklin's "My Life, My Love, My All". "My Life, My Love, My All" is one of my favorite songs of Kirk Franklin's. I especially love singing the alto part. I am a soprano, but the alto part of this song is particularly beautiful. It adds such nice harmony to the song. The words are also very simple, but easy to relate to. I love a lot of Kirk Franklin's music because of his choir and the words of his songs. My favorite song of his song, "Now Behold The Lamb". It's a Christmas song, but I can hear it any time of the year. I love the piano in the beginning of the song and the lead singer who begins sings with so much feeling. It quickly gets me into the Christmas spirit!

Overall, choir rehearsal was good tonight. We got through a lot of the music that we wanted to do. We are planning to go out for karaoke tomorrow at Duets. I'm going to take pictures because it's going to be a lot of fun! I'll post pictures in the next blog post.

FPC Choir and the Pastoral Installation Service in Connecticut

On Sunday, September 20, I performed with the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn Choir at First Congregation Church in Stamford, Connecticut. Reverend Dr. Cari Jackson, a previous interim pastor at First Presbyterian Church, was being installed as the Senior Pastor at First Congregation Church. It meant a lot for our choir to sing at her installation in Connecticut because she had been at our church for over 2 years and we all had a special bond with her. Pastor Cari has a way with words. Her sermons are so easy to relate to, you would think she was speaking to you personally. All kinds of people, young and old, all from diverse backgrounds, could relate to her words. It's amazing, actually, how well she could speak about God and his existence in our life. One phrase that she always closed with us was, "God is as close as your very breath. Breathe deeply and know that God's presence is with you".

Pastor Cari is not your typical pastor. She is a black, female, lesbian reverend who holds not only a Ph.D., but also a law degree. She is a lover of words and she writes poems when she is not preaching. The choir rode in a bus to the church in Connecticut and it took a little over an hour to get there. It was fun riding together in anticipation of the service. We really didn't know what we were getting into; we didn't know how the other church would be or how they would react to us. The First Congregation Church was established 365 years ago, in 1635. They had years and years of white pastors at the church. This service would be the first time that they had a Black, female, and gay pastor installed as Senior Pastor. It was truly a historic service. Read the press release.

During the service, we sang "Come, Let Us Worship the Lord", "No Ways Tired", "Order My Steps", and a few other hymns. I co-lead "Order My Steps" with Bertilla Baker, a great singer and actress. Bertilla has been a lead singer for the choir for many years and is a beloved member of the church. LaChanze FordJour was at the service and performed a song. She was the winner of the 2006 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a musical for her role of Celie in the Broadway Musical, The Color Purple. She performed, "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me" and it was excellent! Her voice was so full and dynamic and she really connected to the song. Also, after the service, LaChanze and her husband, Derek Fordjour, both complimented me on my performance of "Order My Steps". They were both really impressed at my delivery of the song. It was nice to get such a compliment from LaChanze.

Overall, the service was a real success. Pastor Cari got the recognition and celebration that she deserved. First Congregation Church is entering a new chaptor by installing Pastor Cari and are headed towards real change. In the history books of First Congregation Church, installing Pastor Cari was like the inauguration for President Obama. I am glad that I was able to witness such a great historic event.

Final Summer Concert Series Show at First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn

On August 20, I performed a mini concert at FPC to conclude their summer concert series for the year. The concert series included hymn sings, where the choir would sing songs from the hymn, an art show, guitar band, brass band, and a mini orchestra. All of these concerts took place outside on the steps of the church in Brooklyn Heights. Brooklyn Heights is a quiet and quaint area of Brooklyn, so our music series was very conspicuous. They were a lot of fun, however! The weather was really nice for most of the series. We also had wine served and sweets like brownies and ice cream. It was a nice way to fellowship outside and enjoy the summer nights.

My concert was particularly interesting. We had started about half an hour late because of technical difficulties. When I arrived to perform, I was surprised to see already a full house! All of the rest of the summer series started 10-15 minutes late because we were waiting for a crowd, but at my concert everyone was ready to see me! I was really excited to see all of the support. After we had the music ready for the show, I started rockin' and rollin'. I sang original songs, cover songs, and some gospel songs. I opened with "Keep Walkin' On" and everyone loved it. I also sang "You Gotta be" by Des' Re and "Shackles" by Mary Mary. I also sang "Sista Girl", a song that I wrote. People in the neighborhood who walked by the church stopped and listened to me. There was one group that stopped and listened to my entire concert! I was very happy to draw such an audience. A blogger for Brooklyn took a picture of me and mentioned me in their blog. You can check out the blog here: http://mcbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2009/08/final-music-concert-at-first...
Overall, it was a wonderful experience. People were still talking about the concert weeks later.

National Anthem at the USTA Eastern Family Day Grassroot's Challenge

I had such a great time singing for the USTA Eastern's Father's Day Family Grassroots Challenge!! I had to get up really early in the morning to prepare. I got up at 5:30am in order to get ready to sing later. I was planning to sing around 8am, but it ended up being around 9am. Everything was so hectic; the tech crew was still looking for the mic around 8:30am, the players were still gathering together to meet for the opening ceremony, and everything had to be in place to start the opening ceremony.

The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis center, where tennis greats such as Venus and Serena have played, is such a huge place that the coordinators had to have walkie-talkies just to get around. Even with these devices, it was still hard to communicate. I had been practicing the National Anthem for the past few weeks before the event. I practiced for so long because I forgot about how difficult the song is!! I had sang the National Anthem at other sporting events in the past felt very comfortable with the song, however, I needed to brush up on a few parts of the song. I decided to sing the song in the Key of G, which gets up to a high D. I'm a belter, so I had to belt out that high D multiple times and that takes practice!! However, on Saturday, it went well and there were no issues. Everyone loved my rendition of the song. I don't think people were expecting such a strong voice from someone like me that early in the morning - I blew them away!! The event coordinators recorded the whole ceremony! See the video here:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1BYdxcXPY&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3]

I was a little nervous that the whole event was going to be cancelled because on Thursday night, the weather had forecast rain all weekend long and the event coordinators were starting to think about cancelling. However, on Friday they decided to go forward with the event and see what happens. It was clear that morning when I sang the National Anthem, but later that afternoon, it did start to rain. It's too bad it rained because it was an outdoor event where parents and children played against each other in tennis. I hope that they had enough time to enjoy the tournament before the rain started.

It was also really nice to see Michelle Paterson, the Governor David Paterson's wife, speak during the opening ceremony. She spoke about her platform on the importance of leading healthy lives through physical activity. She had her bodyguards there of course, but her demeaner was very approachable and sincere. It was nice being able to share the stage with someone like her!

Jami Jackson Supports the AIDS Walk NY 2009 Campaign

The AIDS Walk NY event in May turned out great!! There were so many people there! The AIDS Walk said that there were 45,000 people walking and it definitely looked like that many. The people came in heaps and walked along Central Park. It was amazing seeing so many people in 1 location walking. And everyone was so happy to be there! The people were very diverse, all colors, ages, sexual orientation, etc. Most importantly, everyone seemed happy to be there. I also saw a lot of old friends there, some of whom I haven't spoken to in years. There was rain at first that started in the early morning, but it cleared up by the time the walk started at 10am, thankfully! I didn't have to worry about the rain cutting my performance short. It was also really cold outside. It was only in the 60s, but the wind was whipping and the sun peeked beyond the clouds. Even still, I had a wonderful time performing. Everyone really enjoyed the music and some were even dancing in the street. "Keep Walkin' On" was especially fun to perform. Although most of the walkers had never heard of the song, almost everyone immediately started to dance and sing to it. It was really a perfect song for the event. I ended up raising $535 for the campaign and my team, LIFEbeat, raised $16,795.79! The total 2009 funds raised to date for the AIDS Walk NY were $5,603,409!! It was such a positive experience raising money for the AIDS Walk. I'm so glad that we were able to raise this much money, especially in these economic times. With these funds, we will be able to help someone living with HIV/AIDS in the city and hopefully, be one step closer to a cure.

The Are You Living Your Purpose? Learn How Volunteerism Is The New "Green" show

I had a really great radio interview for the BlogTalk Internet Radio Show (the fastest growing internet audience) called, "Caviar and Chitterling" tonight at 8pm (EST). Caviar & Chitterling, a spin-off from TaylorMade Media's critically acclaimed "As Powerful As You Want To Be" PR Boot Camp, hosted by PR Expert, Karen Taylor Bass. Caviar & Chitterling empowers African-American entrepreneurs, small biz owners and individuals to implement real PR strategies to grow their biz, revenue and contact base and at the same time get involved with the issues that impact their communities.

Last night's show was entitled, "The Are You Living Your Purpose? Learn How Volunteerism Is The New "Green" and we talked about my professional singing career, the motivation for "Keep Walkin' On", and my message to others to stay motivated in life. It was a great show! I had so many things to say about working in the business of music and social media tips. I also had great questions from the audience. I really hope that my interview helped someone else become more motivated to work toward their goals. Here is the podcast of the show to listen:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Caviar--Chitterling/2009/05/13/Are-You-Living-Your-Purpose-Learn-How-Volunteerism-Is-The-New-Green-

Enjoy!

The Are You Living Your Purpose? Learn How Volunteerism Is The New "Green" show

I had a really great radio interview for the BlogTalk Internet Radio Show (the fastest growing internet audience) called, "Caviar and Chitterling" tonight at 8pm (EST). Caviar & Chitterling, a spin-off from TaylorMade Media's critically acclaimed "As Powerful As You Want To Be" PR Boot Camp, hosted by PR Expert, Karen Taylor Bass. Caviar & Chitterling empowers African-American entrepreneurs, small biz owners and individuals to implement real PR strategies to grow their biz, revenue and contact base and at the same time get involved with the issues that impact their communities.

Last night's show was entitled, "The Are You Living Your Purpose? Learn How Volunteerism Is The New "Green" and we talked about my professional singing career, the motivation for "Keep Walkin' On", and my message to others to stay motivated in life. It was a great show! I had so many things to say about working in the business of music and social media tips. I also had great questions from the audience. I really hope that my interview helped someone else become more motivated to work toward their goals. Here is the podcast of the show to listen:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Caviar--Chitterling/2009/05/13/Are-You-Living-Your-Purpose-Learn-How-Volunteerism-Is-The-New-Green-

Enjoy!