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Tardiness is not a quality of mine that I value. Time and time again I try to show up before the bell. I will do all the preparatory, anxious worrying about timeliness only to still fail the clock.
So picture me today, hustling into a tight parallel parking spot, shuffling with my AmericanaFest badge tangled in my hair, hurrying through the crowded hallways of the Westin, rushing past the gorgeously groomed industry professionals. I'm on my way to a songwriter's round hosted by NPR’s World Cafe moderator Jewly Hight.
Being tardy to these events is frowned upon to say the least and the doorman scowls at me as I reach for the door. As I draw open the heavy oak out pours the sound of a growling, powerful vibrato, “Bury me in the struggle of freedom! - In the arms of someone who knows my name.”
Reverend Sekou is performing. Behind him sits his guitarist who rips at the air with an electric, Hendrix accompaniment to Sekou's gesturing spiritual. With his hands free, he floats them in the air before him as if he were plucking at the vibrations of his own voice, harping the tones, casting his spell, making you believe in the power we share when we share life together. With each verse he grasps at the air, drawing his audience closer, still closer, “until something beautiful is born.”
In the tremor of the hall, after the hum of his words is left lingering, the audience stands, cheering as if they were at a venue and not at a moderated panel in a conference room. The wild clapping and shouting is contagious.
I try and find my seat.
Jewly Hight quietly subdues the audience’s passion respectfully, applauded Reverend Sekou and calmly asks where the inspiration for his songs comes from. It is clear that though his background as a Southern, charismatic preacher from the Arkansas Delta is prominent there is a modern, youthful exhibit to his bluesy rock-gospel.
Like the best of storytellers Sekou, with a tone, blurs the air around him like a film reel going back into time. He invites the audience to see the world as he sees it and locks us inside his recent account of the events around Charlottesville, Virginia where he and 600 other men and women of faith boarded themselves inside their worship hall while Nazis parade the local streets around them with torches.
The inspiration he says comes from the strengths of each soul within that church to battle against white supremacy with the peaceful hum of their voices united in song.
Collectively, we the audience seem to realize that Reverend Sekou’s message strikes a note within each of us. It is the reason why we are in the conference hall today. We are all here to unite our disparate voices in song and because his church is carried around with him, today we were his parishioners. In my own secular way I knew that even to show up late to this modest, modern revival was better than to not show up at all.
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