Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A GOSPEL MUSIC TRIBUTE

AUGUST 28, 2010 5 P.M.
GRACE TEMPLE CHURCH
208 GARDEN DRIVE

FEATURING:


AGNES HORTON

CHERYL RHEA

LORETTA BOWERS

SHANA LIVINGSTON

SHIRLEY DUNN

GLENDA TINNNER

NOLAN WOLFE

SHELBY REDD


INCLUDING A SPECIAL TRIBUTE HONORING LOCAL PIONEERING GOSPEL GROUP


“THE HEAVENLY ECHOES”

AND JULIA COUSINS


THIS WILL BE ON THE BEHALF OF THE GRACE TEMPLE CHURCH EXPANSION FUND


COME AND BE A BLESSING AND YOU WILL BE BLESSED

Tri-Cities Ladies Conference

Tri-Cities Ladies Conference
"Falling in Love with Jesus"
September 23 - 25, 2010
Hosted at The Carnegie Hotel
Johnson City, TN
CONFERENCE AGENDA:

Thursday, September 23,2010

4:00 pm - Hotel Check-In & Vendors Set-up

5:00 pm -6:30 pm Vendor Tables Open

6:30 pm - Pre-Service Prayer

7:00 pm - Praise & Worship by Tri-Cities Praise Team

Evening Speaker: Sis. Jina McCool

(Vendor Tables Open immediately following service.)



Friday, September 24, 2010

9:00 - 10:00 am Vendor Tables Open

10:00 am - Music by Sis. Jina McCool

Morning Speaker - Sis. Lori Wagner

11:30 am - 1:30 pm Vendor Tables Open

12:00 noon - Lunch Provided at Carnegie Hotel for all registered conference attendees

1:30 pm - Afternoon Sessions

3:00 pm - 5:00 pm Break

5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Vendor Tables Open

6:30 pm - Pre-Service Prayer

7:00 pm - Praise & Worship

Evening Speaker: Sis. Lori Wagner



Saturday, September 25, 2010

10:00 am - 1:30 pm Tri-Cities Community Luau Outreach Service. This outreach is open to the public and will be held on the grounds of The Pentecostals of Johnson City. We will have the opportunity to impact the community by inviting them to join us in music, worship, "Kidz Corner", food, and fellowship!

To go along with the "Luau" theme, everyone is encouraged to wear your Hawaiian/ Luau Attire or a colorful shirt/skirt will be great!

1:30 pm Conference Closing

For more information, call 423.742.0346.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Visitors to JC’s Umoja Festival impressed by display of unity

THIS ARTICLE COURTESY THE KINGSPORT TIMES-NEWS

By MADISON MATHEWS
NET News Service


When Carolyn Abbot, a native of Washington, D.C., began talking about downtown Johnson City and the 14th annual Umoja Festival, the word “impressive” kept popping up.



The unity-themed festival was a nice surprise for Abbott, who was in town Saturday visiting her daughter and other family members.
“This is not something I was really expecting to be perfectly honest with you. I’m impressed with how everybody’s getting along. There is actually a lot of unity,” she said.
Abbott found out the festival was taking place and thought it would be a good opportunity to introduce her grandson, Jaiden Miles, to different cultures.
“African-American events are big in Washington D.C. ... So I wanted to come down and see what it was like. Brought my grandson down so that he could get a feel of African heritage,” she said.
The eclectic music lineup, with everything from gospel to bluegrass, and the laid-back atmosphere of the festival was a welcome change of pace for Abbott.
For Abbott, diversity amongst the crowd was another aspect of the Umoja Festival that stood out. “There is no people separating. It’s really showing the unity and everyone getting together and getting a good time,” she said.
Despite the searing heat, a steady crowd of people kept the downtown streets filled as the festival celebrated its first year in its new location after spending many years at Freedom Hall.
Set up much like the Blue Plum Festival, Umoja’s new location seemed to be hit with just about everyone.
With the location change and expansion of the festival itself, media relations coordinator Wayne Robertson said this year’s festival was a success.
“A lot of people that’s come to this also came to Blue Plum and they’re familiar with this layout and it helps a lot. I think they really like it and it being down here,” he said. “When you do changes there some things that you forget about ... but we’ve not really had any problems at all. It has been a really lovely festival this year.”

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Umoja Festival moves to downtown Johnson City

THIS ARTICLE COURTESY THE KINDSPORT TIMES-NEWS


By DOUG JANZ
NET News Service




JOHNSON CITY — Following the theme of the Umoja Festival, which promotes unity and diversity, organizers have lined up an entertainment schedule that touches on a lot of genres and demographics.



The 14th annual unity-themed festival opens Friday in downtown Johnson City. It will offer plenty of music, food, and arts and crafts, much of it with an African-American theme. But the idea is to attract people from across the social and ethnic spectrum.
“That’s why our lineup is so diverse. We’ve got something for everybody,” said Elmer Washington, one of Umoja’s main organizers and director of the entertainment lineup. “There’s Mexican, there’s Latin jazz, there’s rock, there’s roll, there’s soul, there’s old-time, there’s blues.
“We’ve got storytelling, comedians, dancers — something for everyone. The entertainment is as top-notch as it possibly could be.”
It’s the first time for Umoja downtown after a long stay at Freedom Hall Civic Center. Organizers are hoping the shift in location is a boost for the event as it follows the same outlines and general plan as the successful Blue Plum Festival held downtown each June.
“By coming downtown, we’re hoping to get more exposure and more sponsorship, which will help us bring in better entertainment,” Washington said. “We just think it’s a great thing to come down and be a part of helping to grow downtown.
“So far everything is going very smooth. All the businesses are very supportive, the people are kind, and they just want to help — to make a better festival.”
The festival’s opening ceremony is Friday at 3 p.m., and then the music kicks in and includes the Call to Drums with the Rev. Vincent Dial and Zulu Connection.
Then it’s on to a night of music and comedy featuring local bluegrass/traditional artist Amythyst Phillips, rock oldies cover band Bag a’ Cats, acclaimed old-time group the Brother Boys, the young local jazz/funk band Unlimited, and headliner Plunky and Oneness playing horn-based soul, smooth jazz and funk.
“The reason we chose Plunky as our headliner is because he has a following here,” Washington said. “He’s played here, and people remember him and like him.”
tinged style of soul and R&B.
“Everybody pretty much knows them,” Washington said. “And if they don’t remember, then once people hear them they’ll remember them. They’ll probably remember where they were back then and probably get that same good feeling again.”
For the first time in the festival’s history, beer will be sold, and people who have bought a wristband can take their beer outside into the streets, as long as it’s in a plastic cup and they stay within festival boundaries.
Umoja organizers have followed the same city ordinance and guidelines as Blue Plum on beer and boundaries.
For more on the festival, visit www.umojajc.org.
The lineup includes popular local comedian Xavier as well as Atlanta’s touring professional, MC Lightfoot, who sets the stage for Plunky.
Lightfoot also performs on Saturday night.
“We thought it would be a good avenue to have a big-time professional comedian come in. So we’re real happy to have MC Lightfoot,” Washington said. “We saw him in Las Vegas and thought he’d be a good one for Umoja.”
The Main Stage will be set up at the same place as Blue Plum’s Main Street Stage, while Umoja will have Stage Two at the other end of the festival featuring several acts each day, including Zulu Connection, JaB Band, the 4.0 Band, the mariachi band Mombra de Mexico, and even a drum circle percussion ensemble from Lake Ridge Elementary School.
Saturday’s schedule is packed, with the annual parade at 10 a.m. starting at Carver Recreation Area, a free Health Fair from noon to 5 p.m., Water Wars and a Children’s Carnival going from 4 to 9 p.m., a Gospel Fest from 1 to 4 p.m., and a lineup of more live entertainment on the Main Stage.
There’s Appalachian dance (Stoney Creek Cloggers) and Latin jazz (local jazz hit Frito Puente), blues (Bleu Jackson, “godfather” of the local blues scene) and the Heartbeats, a Johnson City R&B/ Motown group.
The headliner SOS Band had some big hits in the 1980s and still plays a smooth, danceable disco.