Right after Thanksgiving, I announced plans for “Black Christmas: A Celebration of the Art and Soul of the Holiday Season. My “Pre-25th Anniversary Meet ‘n Greet, Listening Party, Musical Brainstorming and Jam Session” actually took place on Saturday, December 14, 2019, at Cleveland Public Library’s Hough Branch.
I enjoyed chatting and snacking with people who had expressed an interest in working with the RASHAD Center, Inc. as we prepare for the 2020 Silver Anniversary Concert, and I really loved listening to recordings of Christmas songs by Shirley Caesar, Lena Horne–with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn; Nat King Cole, and Donny Hathaway. We also sang along with some of our favorite gospel numbers, including “Order My Steps,” with Mimi Redd performing the soprano lead.
RASHAD’s adult guests completed surveys related to available opportunities to serve in leadership positions, sing solos, or provide lead vocals on choral works. The surveys also helped us determine the most convenient days and times for our Saturday rehearsals.
Other library patrons (children and adults) also joined us for snacks at the listening party, and I am hopeful that some will choose to sing with us next year. Until then, please know that our regular rehearsals will resume at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 15, 2020–after the annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. commemorative events. All rehearsals will take place at the Hough Library, 1566 Crawford Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44106. Feel free to wear red (my favorite color) for this Valentine’s Day Weekend rehearsal, if you wish.
Until then, I invite you to continue celebrating the joy of the Christmas season by listening to some of the other artists who are on my “holiday favorites” playlist, including Brian McKnight, Roberta Flack, The Temptations, Whitney Houston, and, last but by no means least, Luther Vandross singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
ENJOY!
Regennia N. Williams, PhD
About Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the Founder and Executive Director of The RASHAD Center, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit educational corporation.
Williams holds a PhD in Social History and Policy from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. A native Clevelander and a four-time alumna of Cleveland State University, information on RASHAD's “Praying Grounds, African American Faith Communities: A Documentary and Oral History” project is now available online at www.ClevelandMemory.org/pray/, a site that is maintained by CSU's Library Special Collections, home of the Praying Grounds manuscript collections. Praying Grounds was the primary inspiration for the launching of the Initiative for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (RASHAD) at CSU, and links to RASHAD's scholarly journal and newsletter are also available on the Praying Grounds site. On April 28, 2020, the RASHAD Center, Inc. became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
In 2010, Dr. Williams was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University, where she taught history and directed a RASHAD-related oral history project that focused on the role of religion in recent Nigerian social history. Other research-related travels have taken her to Canada, China, France, South Africa, and Austria.
In 2013, she conceived and produced “Come Sunday @ 70: The Place of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Jazz in World History and Culture, c. 1943-2013,” a project that included scholarly presentations and performing arts activities. From September 1993 until May 2015, she was a faculty member in the Department of History at Cleveland State University. She served as a Fulbright Specialist at South Africa's University of the Free State in the summer of 2019, and completed a short-term faculty residency at Howard University in the fall of 2019. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
As a public scholar, her current research projects focus on African American history and culture, especially as it relates to music, religion, and spirituality. She is a member of the Oral History Association, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Right after Thanksgiving, I announced plans for “Black Christmas: A Celebration of the Art and Soul of the Holiday Season. My “Pre-25th Anniversary Meet ‘n Greet, Listening Party, Musical Brainstorming and Jam Session” actually took place on Saturday, December 14, 2019, at Cleveland Public Library’s Hough Branch.
The RASHAD Center, Inc. 