A Summer Concert For A Cause That Crosses
Every Divide!
by Joyce Phelps and Leslie Kern
Please be sure to SAVE THE DATE for our next Concert For A Cause: SATURDAY, AUGUST 24th. Picnic: 5-7:00 pm Concert: 7:00 pm.
We are living in a time of unprecedented division and this concert will be a music-filled, food-filled, conversation-filled, youth-filled opportunity to cross the divides of nationalism, religion and race.
Our concert will be preceded by a picnic on the lawn (live folk music, face painting, water games for children on the playground) and we are honored to have learned early this week that our concert will be opening with a Ghanaian Children’s Choir and a high school acapella quintet (sometimes accompanied by instrumentation native to Ghana). The children’s choir is quite large, very, very gifted and musically harmonious and will, of course, be accompanied to the picnic and concert by parents, grandparents, and other members of the community; a delightful opportunity to eat, converse with, and discover all that we have in common with three generations of a diverse community whose national language is English. Several members of North have attended their worship (which is on Saturday morning) and been moved by the kindness, inclusivity and deep warmth of both the leadership and laity of the Ghanaian 7th Day Adventist Church.
The second act of the concert will feature a diversity of singers, musicians, and songwriters – several of whom were featured in our very first concert: “The Concert For Children At The Border” – and some of whom will be brand new.
Do you remember the feeling of that first concert on behalf of Children At The Border? The magical “something is in the air” experience of so many artists giving generously of their time and their talent? People spilling out the door? A cause that people from throughout the Columbus community were brought together to support?
Summer concerts have a way of bringing that out in us all.
Join together with North, with the Jewish Community, and with the Ghanaian community in support of our Muslim brothers and sisters, targeted for particular deportation to Mauritania – the “last country in the world to abolish slavery.” Because no criminal laws were enforced to support the ban, the Global Slavery Index reports that Mauritania has the highest proportion of people in slavery of any country in the world.
And Columbus has the largest population of Mauritanians of any city in the U.S. Taken together, this means that we have a crisis of deportation right here in our own back yard. Beginning in 2017 deportations to Mauritania from Columbus have risen dramatically – up 800% in 2018 from the previous 12 years.
All proceeds from the concert will be donated to the Mauritanian Deportation Defense Fund: to fund legal defense, bonds, and direct support to Mauritanians in Columbus impacted by this deportation crisis.
For more information about how you can help plan and prepare for the concert or assist with developing efforts at North to provide legal and other assistance to this community, contact:
Joyce Phelps at: joycequest@hotmail.com
Leslie Kern: lesliekern1955@gmail.com
Pastor Eric: ncpastor@midohio.twcbc.com
See you August 24th!