Gospera honors the past in gospel concert at True Life Christian Worship Center

True Life Christian Worship Center was filled with history and music on Sunday as the singing group June E. Townes & Gospera gave a Black History Month concert consisting of Negro spirituals, hymns and folk songs. The concert, “Songs That Brought Us Through,” celebrated the beauty and legacy of Black music and emphasized its relevance today.

Townes and her fellow Gospera singers, Miracle Jones, Ashia Parks, Devonne Douglass and Charles Thomas started with a medley of “Great Day” and “Great Getting’ Up.” From there they sang their way through history, starting with Negro spirituals like “Plenty Good Room” and “Lord, I Done Done.”

In between songs, there would be a guided narration provided by Nora Cole to give a historical anchor to the music being played. The first act of the concert finished with more spirituals, “I Wanna Be Ready” and “Ain’t Got Time to Die.”

The second act of the concert opened with “Oh, What a Beautiful City.” written by William Dawson in 1939, following more dialogue from Cole the group sang “He’s Got the Whole World.”

From there Dennis Nelson, a 67-year-old musician from Brooklyn, did a solo rendition on the piano of “I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free.” After Nelson’s solo the group returned for “Freedom is Worth Talking About” the went into a medley of protest songs from the 1960’s including Bob Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind.” and Ben King’s “Stand by Me.”

The preformance culminated with the African American Anthem “Lift Ev’ry Voice And Sing.” 

"I found it especially fitting to present Songs That Brought Us Through—with its deeply moving spirituals, hymns, and folk songs—at a venue so rich in history, particularly African American history," Townes said in a statement to the Long Island Herald. "It was truly an honor to be an integral part of the church, the museum, and the Historical Society's Black History celebration,"

Robert and Carol Brown, the lead pastors at the church, welcomed nearly 40 people with a brief introduction about the event. They explained the intersection between Christianity and music as well as it’s impact on Black history.

“I hope it was an event that everyone was blessed to be at,” Brown said after the performance. He added that he hoped that it “brought the community together and that everyone felt the love of god in that place during that time,”

Following the Browns, Denice Evans-Sheppard, the director of the Oyster Bay Historical Society provided background on Black History in Oyster Bay.

“Oyster Bay was a town with so many different denominations,” Evans-Sheppard said. “You had quakers, methodists, everyone had their own little niche,” Evans-Sheppard is also the cousin of Townes; who are both descendants of Civil War veteran and prominent Long Island landowner, David Carll

The concert was organized by Raynham Hall Museum and the Oyster Bay Historical Society and has been apart of an extensive month of celebrating Black history within the town. 

“For generations, the negro spiritual has carried the powerful story of the tortured, enslaved souls of our ancestors,” Cole read at the performance’s conclusion. “It has mourned and lost loved ones, celebrated the hope of a better future, praised the omnipresence of God, and guided souls to freedom.”