LISA RAINFORD
Tiki Mercury-Clarke comes to St. Olave's Feb. 21
Church hosts jazz artist for Black History Month. Tiki Mercury-Clarke, Jazz artist, story-teller and cultural historian, presents 'Lift Every Voice and Sing: The Roots of Gospel Music" at St. Olave's Anglican Church, at Bloor Street West and Windermere Avenue, Sunday, Feb. 21.
Mercury-Clarke will perform her solo show, 'Lift Every Voice and Sing: The Roots of Gospel Music,' a saga of courage and hope, comprised of narration, singing, piano-playing, story-telling and music from classical Africa to the spirituals of today. Mercury-Clarke likens her one-woman-plus-piano-and-microphone concert, which chronicles how spirituals - the predecessor to gospel music - came about, to a film soundtrack. Audiences lose themselves in the performance, she said.
"It's a global history lesson from an Africentric perspective," said the Toronto-born Mercury-Clarke.
Mercury-Clarke's illustrious career spans four decades. One of our country's greatest jazz artists, she was born into a church-going family and like many jazz musicians before her, honed her skills each Sunday morning. She credits her maternal grandfather, a church minister and scholar of African history, for instilling in her a love for story-telling and the past.
"He was a student of the Tuskegee Institute, one of the first practical colleges for African-Americans," said Mercury-Clarke.
Her American-born grandfather attended the Alabama-based school of higher learning, led by American political leader, educator, orator and author, Booker T. Washington. His autobiography, Up From Slavery, first published in 1901, is still widely read today.
"He started me early on our history," said Mercury-Clarke of her beloved grandfather. "I grew up loving stories. I ended up getting into (story-telling) because I wanted to help make the Toronto area's educational curriculum more inclusive - because we weren't really part of the curriculum at all."
Mercury-Clarke said she was compelled to make a difference, especially when her son was in middle school and complained about guest speakers, who visited his Grade 6, 7 and 8 classes and spoke to the students as if they were in Grade 1 or 2. She wrote 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' as a way of answering questions surrounding racism, to clarify information, she explained, while exposing kids to acoustic music.
"This was at a time when they were cutting back on artistic programs and extra-curricular activities, in the late 1980s and early 1990s," she said of the education system. "A lot of schools were losing music programs and didn't have music teachers. Kids weren't getting exposed to quality music, there were no outings to see concerts."
Mercury-Clarke offers a musical documentary kind of story-telling.
"You can get information across just with a gesture," she said.
Spirituals were actually used to pass messages on the underground railroad, Mercury-Clarke said.
'Lift Every Voice and Sing' is a family-friendly show and boasts information and history that "everyone needs to know," said Mercury-Clarke, who is also the project coordinator of the Ontario Black History Society.
"One of the things people don't realize is that in the 1800s, there was a deliberate campaign to write the African presence out of historical record. That's why a lot of things aren't known," she said.
Mercury-Clarke presents 'Lift Every Voice and Sing: The Roots of Gospel Music' Feb. 21 at 4:30 p.m.
For details, contact the church, at Bloor Street West and Windermere Avenue, at 416-769-5686.
Source:
www.insidetoronto.com
