Lawrence Journal-World
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Thursday, March 27, 2014
Going Out A guide to what’s happening in Lawrence
SOUTH AFRICA’S ACCLAIMED SOWETO GOSPEL CHOIR will perform Saturday night at the Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Ave.
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Contributed Photo
VOICES FOR PEACE By Nadia Imafidon
W
ith powerful soloists, rich harmonies and a warmth that sends a message of peace and love to any audience, it seems the language it is delivered in makes no difference. At least not for critically acclaimed Soweto Gospel Choir, a South African ensemble who sing in some of their 10 official languages including English, Xhosa, Zulu and Sotho. Music is a universal language that speaks to the heart, says Soweto Gospel Choir singer Shimmy Jiyane. Touring to multiple cities across North America to celebrate their 10year anniversary album, Divine Decade — the group has been together for 12 years this year — Jiyane says they feel at home in America. Of course, performing in South Africa is different because the lyrics can be better understood, but it makes no difference in reception, Jiyane says. “A language barrier is only a problem if you’re having a one-on-one conversation,” he says. “But with music, there’s something that speaks to the soul. There’s something about music that speaks to the heart and the mind.”
Soweto Gospel Choir’s music ‘speaks to the heart and the mind’
Soweto Gospel Choir performs traditional South African gospels and celebratory songs learned as young children in the church, as well as covers of many Christian cultures, reggae, and American popular music. On the latest album the group sings a breathtaking rendition of Sarah McLachlan’s “Arms of an Angel” and “I Will Be There” by Jackson 5, with a few powerhouse soloists taking the lead among harmonious background vocals. They will bring this joyous music to life onstage at the Lied Center at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, with traditional high-energy choreography, percussion djembe rhythms and traditional clothing in bright colors and with vibrant patterns. The group last performed at the Lied Center in 2008, and has collaborated with Bono, Josh Groban, Cat Stevens, Annie Lennox, Black-Eyed Peas, Diana Ross, Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, and Stevie Wonder. “All of our songs have a positive message,” Jiyane says. “All of our
songs are simple. They are about experiences of life that we’ve been through. All about freedom, joy, peace and happiness.” The group will also pay its respects to the late South African leader Nelson Mandela with some of his favorite songs including Johnny Clegg’s “Asimbonanga.” Clegg wrote the song in 1987 calling for the freedom of Mandela from imprisonment. “The meaning of that song is, we haven’t experienced what he’s been through, we haven’t seen what he’s been through, but with what he has been through, he came out stronger,” Jiyane says. Formed in 2002 after choir directors David Mulovhedzi and Beverly Bryer held auditions to recruit members, in hopes that the uplifting sounds of South African gospel music would resonate globally. Within three weeks of the first album release, Voices of Heaven, that year, they reached the number one spot on Billboard’s World Music Chart. Five more albums later, they’ve won the
IF YOU GO What: Soweto Gospel Choir When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday Where: The Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Ave. Info: lied.ku.edu American Gospel Music Award for “Best Choir” and “Best International Choir,” an Emmy, and several Grammy awards. Looks like the Mulovhedzi and Bryer were onto something. “We are the reality of an idea,” Jiyane says. “We really honor the people who work for us. Those that you don’t hear of. Those are the guys who actually worked really hard to get us to where we are right now.” The music has kept the heartache and pain at bay of family members who have passed away during this journey or before they saw all of their successes. Together, all 24 of them, they are unified. “We see each other as family now,” Jiyane says. “We go beyond the point of individuals or friends. If I’m stressed out I have a friend. A shoulder I can lean on, a shoulder that I can cry on.”
New exhibit explores America’s secret war on Laos By Nadia Imafidon nimafidon@ljworld.com
For all of us here, the Vietnam War ended about 40 years ago, Tommee Sherwood says. Those who are still affected have been forgotten. From 1964 to 1973, the U.S. dropped a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years in Laos, totaling 2 million tons of ordnance, according to Legacies of War. This organization is dedicated to raising awareness of the war’s impact on the Southeast Asian country and mobilizing advocacy for U.S. funding of bomb clearance. About one-third of the bombs never exploded, LOW states, leaving at least onethird of the land across all 17 provinces in the country contaminated, still maiming or killing people today. Laos, while officially a neu-
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
TOMMEE SHERWOOD, OF LAWRENCE, has put together a new exhibit at the Percolator called “Hard Rain — Living with Bombs in Laos.” tral country in the Vietnam War era, became the most bombed nation on earth. Lawrence resident Tommee
Sherwood traveled to Laos with his wife, Patty Martella, in 2007 in sheer curiosity of the small country. Not realizing
he was curating an exhibit at the time, he continued to collect images, taken by him and Martella, and materials that represented such beautiful, yet devastating terrain. “Whenever I tried to talk to anyone about this issue, I’d just get blank stares, so I decided to make an attempt to illustrate what I was talking about,” Sherwood says. “If you travel there at all, you become aware real fast that there’s bombs all over the place.” He reached out to Legacies of War, and they sent a box of textiles, silk prints, old photographs and reproductions of artwork done in the ’70s by refugees whose villages had been bombed. A friend Sherwood met in Laos had gone on a kayak trip down a river, and he took photos of his fiberglass-constructed kayak next to a couple of canoes that were made from bomb cases.
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We’ve got some sad and disturbing images, but we’ve also got images of beauty and hope.” — Tommee Sherwood, Lawrence artist “It’s kind of startling,” Sherwood says. “He went into a village and they had a whole bunch of these lined up on a fence and they were getting ready to make some more.” The first-ever “Hard Rain — Living with Bombs in Laos” exhibit at the Percolator started to come together as he became more aware of other connections and available materials. An embroidered story cloth, made by Hmong refugees in the Kansas City area, will also be featured, showing the Please see LAOS, page 8A