Chicago Area’s Jesus of Nazareth an Institution by Dennis Day

Among Chicago-land’s array of attractions, the passion play Jesus of Nazareth has become a “must see” theatrical event. The passion play is directed by Steve Munsey, pastor of the Family Christian Center, a mega church located 30 minutes outside Chicago in Munster, Indiana that has attracted nearly10,000 members. Several years ago Munsey’s church erected a permanent set depicting Old Jerusalem, which spans nearly 100 feet. From this elaborate set, Munsey directs a cast and crew of 2,000, bringing the story of Jesus of Nazareth to life in a manner resembling today’s big-budget Broadway productions. Actors and volunteer crew, make-up artists, seamstresses, carpenters and the hundreds who help make the play a success year-end and year-out are passionate in their zeal for the project’s mission to share the story of Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

Pastor Steve, as he is fondly known, is a charismatic figure who possesses a flair for dramatic illustration. He is often seen in different roles as a fervent evangelical fundraiser on TBS and CBN television channels. His long running production of Jesus of Nazareth was first staged in an outdoor amphitheater in the Seattle Washington area where a version of it continues to be seen today.

The Chicago-area passion play production features a variety of unique theatrical highlights that entertain and dazzle an ever-growing diverse audience comprised of every conceivable demographic classification, religious denomination , ethnic background from urban and rural America, attracting conservatives and liberals.

Matinees and weekend night performances of the passion play begin in February and run until after Easter. Theatergoers arrive by bus caravan, church van, or in family recreational vehicles. Youth groups, singles, and couples seeking a departure from the normal weekend dating regimen flock to Jesus of Nazareth each season. Steel workers, farmers, lawyers, clergy and VIP entertainers and politicians like former Vice President Dan Quayle and Oprah Winfrey have been among those to view the stunning Mid-West production. They come in droves from towns large and small, mostly throughout the mid-west but also from points vastly farther away. Through word of mouth each year the crowds are attracted and they come expecting to see a dazzling theatrical spectacle.

Live camels, horses, period chariots, cascading waterfalls, and fireworks explosions simulating earthquakes as Jesus is crucified are featured. There is even an obligatory Hollywood style chase scene employing electrifying aerial stunts as a thief attempts to escape amidst a crowded street scene. Biblical or historical revisionism, Mmmm? I’ll leave that to theologians to figure out. Great theater? Definitely! The verdict is in. Jesus of Nazareth is a hit, attracting larger audiences each year.

Many viewers leave the experience strangely aware that they have experienced a wonderfully engaging medium, the theater, for translating a familiar biblical account into something viscerally powerful that becomes for some spiritually transformative and perhaps for others purely interesting entertainment.

During one the play’s early incarnations, I had the honor of being chosen from an open casting call to play a principal role as Pontius Pilate – a first for an African American. This season, I plan to attend a performance of Jesus of Nazareth, but this time as a spectator not an actor. When the curtain closes I’m sure I’ll continue to ask myself the same rhetorical question for which neither Pontius Pilate, I, nor anyone since has found a definitive answer, “Truth! What is truth”? If you plan to visit Chicago in the next two months, do yourself a favor and check out Jesus of Nazareth.

Something to Think About in Trying Times

“Your life is a sacred journey; and is about change, and growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way. You are on the path…exactly where you are meant to be right now and from here, you can only go forward, shaping your life story into a magnificent tale of triumph, of healing of courage, beauty, of wisdom, of power, of dignity, and of love.”

Quote from Caroline Adams

Here’s a daily meditation to consider for those seeking self renewal daily in order to live each day anew: “Create in me a clean heart Oh God and renew a right spirit within in me.” Psalm 51:10 King James Bible version, have a great week!

A Legacy We Need To Remember by Dennis Day

Tonight, January 30, at 5:30p.m. CST/6:30p.m. EST, CBS national network news will profile the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a group of young co-ed singer/scholars from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, whose legacy dates back to Fisk’s founding as a historically Black College (HBCU) in 1866.

On October 6, 1871 the Jubilee choral tradition was born with the initial tour of the Fisk University Jubilee Singers. The group’s national tours and international celebrity helped save the financially strapped college and amassed funds to build the first permanent educational structure and symbol of Black higher education in the south, Jubilee Hall. Jubilee Hall is now a national landmark.

In 1872 the Fisk Jubilees were invited to sing at the World Peace Jubilee Festival in Boston with the largest choral group and orchestra ever assembled. Amidst the huge throng of performers, it is said that the singers found difficulty hearing and following the conductor in Boston's mammoth coliseum. The massive combined choirs began to loose their pitch and direction. But not the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Their musical acumen, perfect pitch, and crisp diction shone through like a beacon sufficiently anchoring the colossal musical production and thus saving a performance that may have been otherwise doomed. According to a Boston Globe review at the time, the FJS received a standing ovation. Hamburg hats were flung into the rafters.

During this period the famous Czech composer Antonin Dvorak became interested in African American music. In an 1893 interview in the New York Herald, Dvorak is quoted as saying, "In the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music." Many Jubilee groups emerged over the years as well as other excellent HBCU choirs and developed magnificent choral traditions, but many historians concede that the FJS were the originators, cultural trailblazers, and first group to introduce the world to slave songs and traditional Negro spirituals. The group dignified Black musical excellence, arresting an original American art form from racial mockery and vicious stereotypes of minstrelsy.

The FJS often endured Jim Crow segregation and extreme hardships and ridicule in their American tours. But they received universal critical acclaim and artistic acceptance in their European tours, causing some singers to expatriate – a trend that continued among Black artists throughout much of the twentieth century. Diehard supporters like humorist Mark Twain and Brooklyn Reverend Henry Beecher Stowe (brother of Uncle Tom’s Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe) repudiated the racist naysayers and encouraged the nation to recognize the grace and beauty of its own indigenous art form.

Since 1871 the FJS have been traveling the world, performing on every continent before royalty, government heads, and adoring concert audiences. Their music and sacrifice offer an example of self-reliance, perseverance, and the power of music as truly a universal language. As the nation approaches the Annual observation of Black History month in February, let us not forget the doors of opportunity that were opened by these courageous and talented young African Americans. They carry on a tradition that continues but is too often under appreciated. (c)D-Day Media Group

Reflections on Howard Zinn by Dennis Day

Howard Zinn, a progressive voice for racial equality and social justice for more than half a century, died Wednesday in Santa Monica, California. He was 87. An historian, shipyard worker, civil rights activist, World War II bombardier, and best selling author, Zinn inspired a generation of high school and college students to rethink American history.

In June 2007 I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Zinn during the Harlem Book Fair, an annual event that encourages children and families to read and value books and learning as a means of cultivating the “life of the mind.” Our interview was conducted amidst paparazzi during my work as a consultant with a film crew shooting an historical documentary film about the Harlem Renaissance and the changing racial and cultural dynamics of Harlem in the twenty-first century.

The film, a work still in progress, is produced and directed by the award-winning African American Filmmaker William Greaves. I was impressed by Dr. Zinn’s candor and vigorous mind. He struck me as one resigned to the pursuit of intellectual honesty and open to debating those of differing ideological points of view. Dr. Zinn taught at a number of prestigious institutions, including Spellman College, and historically Black college, where he was chairman of the history department. Marion Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund and Alice Walker the novelist were among his students. Dr. Zinn was also an active member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and marched for civil rights with his students, an act that angered Spellman’s president and was reportedly caused his termination for insubordination.

Howard Zinn’s productive literary years followed during his tenure at Boston University, producing the antiwar books “Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal” (1967 and Disobedience and Democracy” (1968). An Associated press obituary of Zinn asserts “Few historians succeeded in passing so completely through the academic membrane into popular culture. He gained admiring mention in he movie “Good Will Hunting”; Matt Damon a neighbor and admirer of Dr. Zinn appeared on a History Channel documentary about him; and Bruce Springsteen said the starkest of his many albums, “Nebraska,” drew inspiration in part from Mr. Zinn’s writings. As for me I drew from his example a greater self-assuredness that the power of one’s moral convictions can and do make a difference worth pursuing despite the status quo.

Dr.M.L. King Jr.Holiday Made by People Power

Ethnic minorities, women, the poor, gays, workers, disabled and oppressed people the world over owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the life and sacrifices of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on whose shoulders I, President Obama , and so many others stand. His moral stance against war and violence as a solution to armed conflict in general and the war in Viet Nam in particular remained consistent in his own moral fiber until his untimely death on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. One of the proudest moments in my life was to march up Constitution Avenue in Washington DC in 1982 and again in 1983 arm and arm in lockstep led by Stevie Wonder, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, and Representative John Conyers along with thousands of everyday people, clergy, and an array of stars, celebrities, labor, and political leaders petitioning the US congress to enact a national holiday honoring an American hero and citizen who represented at his core the essence of the meaning of freedom, justice, and equality for all people. Our efforts were victorious. Today our nation honors one of its most outstanding sons, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. RIP.

© 2010 D-Day Media Group

My Remembrance of The Honorable Percy E. Sutton

As one who lives in the Village of Harlem, I've come to know and experience life here as an astounding rainbow of humanity – people of all colors, ethnicities and backgrounds reside, work, and visit daily. One of the most brilliant stars to shine in Harlem's multi-cultural mosaic was the Honorable Percy E. Sutton, who passed away December 26.Over the years I have watched as this brightest stripe in Harlem’s rainbow gracefully aged, growing halting in step and slightly slumped of shoulder, yet somehow still seeming the tallest and most elegant of figures on 125th Street, the corridor that he and his vision of a resurrected Apollo Theater helped to transform into a major shopping and cultural destination.

Mr. Sutton loved New York City and embraced Harlem and its residents as though they were family. I live one block from Mr. Sutton's Harlem offices (he also had offices in the city's financial district). I would often see him often along 125th Street, always immaculate, gracious, and never too busy to engage in conversation. For some years I have observed this great man, son of a slave, a Tuskegee Airman, attorney, and successful media mogul who, like the verse in Kipling's sonnet, "walked with kings but never lost the common touch.”

A decade ago when I decided to re-direct my career in pursuit of music and media, I sought Mr. Sutton's wise counsel. He was relaxed and plain spoken with people and he spoke with me as though I were a son. I noticed in that meeting that Mr. Sutton’s loyal staff was loving and protective. He remarked on how important they were to him and pointed out that his right-hand assistant ensured that he was kept abreast of details, correct facts, and even unfamiliar words. He told me, in his sonorous Texans' accent, "young man there's always something to learn, so be sure to surround yourself with people who know as much or more than you do and never stop learning.”

Meeting and greeting my mentor on the street always ensured a good day, touched with inspiration and hope through his smile and kind words of encouragement. The Honorable Percy E. Sutton was ever genteel, poised, and possessed an air of dignity and confidence that never failed to make me proud to be an African American and to have known him. RIP, Mr. Sutton.

Gary Indiana's Native Sons World Icons

In 2009 the world stage loss two of the most prominent, trailblazing icons of this century. On the cultural front Michael Jackson’s untimely death rocked the pop music world last June. In the field of economics, Nobel Economist, Paul A. Samuelson, 94, died Sunday, December 13. What do these two great Americans share in common you may ask? Each is a native of Gary, Indiana, a blue-collar town that like so many others is now devastated by economic decline. As encouragement to the citizens of the “Garys” of the USA,and the world,remember during this Holiday Season, the nativity story. He was born in a lowly manager, raised in the ghetto of Nazareth but changed the world forever.