Join Gospel Giants BeBe & CeCe Winans and Mary Mary for the EASTER Special VERZUZ Battle Thriller Today!

Hello World,

He is Risen!!! Hallelujah!!!

Normally, I would write a longer Easter post fitting of the occasion because Easter is literally the crux of our faith, but having two infants to feed every three hours is still messing with my time management skills. As a result, here is my short Easter post for today. After you have celebrated Easter in the house of God preferably with your church family, know that the celebration doesn’t have to be over!!!

VERZUZ is blessing us with an epic battle between, not one, but two, dynamic gospel duos that is sure to awaken the Holy Ghost in all of us. Singing songs of praise, heavy-hitters, Mary Mary, the gospel-soul twosome (Remember that time I interviewed Tina Campbell? If not, click Mitchell Solarek is NOT Tina Campbell’s Manager & More: My Interview With Mary Mary’s Tina Campbell), will face off in a glorious battle against brother and sister Gospel titans BeBe and CeCe Winans. And, Heaven help us, we are here for it!

It’s going down on Easter Sunday, April 17 from 6:30 – 8:30 PM (PT) and will be Live at Vibiana, 214 S. Main St, Los Angeles, CA 90012 / @verzuztv on Instagram, Triller app, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, VERZUZTV.com

Cost is $65 for live performance and it is free online. Here’s the online link: https://www.instagram.com/verzuztv/

Any thoughts?

 

Hosted by BeBe & Deborah Joy Winans aka Charity Greenleaf, OWN To Premiere Easter Gospel Music Special ‘Our OWN Easter’ on Tues, March 30 Featuring Fantasia, Anthony Hamilton, Kirk Franklin & More

Hello World,

The most triumphant date of our Christian faith is a week from today! To honor Easter, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network announced  that “Our OWN Easter,” a one-hour gospel music special celebrating the glory of the Resurrection will premiere on the network Tuesday, March 30 at 9 p.m. ET/PT following the critically-acclaimed drama series, “Queen Sugar.”

“Our OWN Easter” from executive producer Dr. Holly Carter, Rikki Hughes and Relevé Entertainment, an All3Media America company, will showcase some of the most renowned gospel and R&B artists in music and entertainment as they commemorate Easter in their “OWN” unique way, blending sunrise service traditions with modern performances.

The spiritual celebration will be hosted by gospel royalty and GRAMMY Award winner BeBe Winans and his talented multi-hyphenated niece Deborah Joy Winans who starred as Charity Greenleaf in the hit OWN series “Greenleaf” for five seasons.  It will feature powerful, uplifting, and iconic performances by such artists as Fantasia, CeCe Winans, Kirk Franklin, Anthony Hamilton and The Hamiltones, Ledisi, Travis Greene, Osby Berry, Jonathan McReynolds, with appearances by Cedric the Entertainer, Michelle Williams and others. Viewers will also experience inspiring spoken word from prominent faith leaders Bishop J. Drew Sheard, Pastor William Murphy and Priscilla Shirer.

Check out the trailer below!

“Our OWN Easter” is the second special for OWN produced with Dr. Holly Carter and Relevé Entertainment. The first special, “Our OWN Christmas,” hosted by Meagan Good and DeVon Franklin, premiered on OWN in December and was the #1 non-news cable telecast in the time period among African-American W18+, households and total viewers.

Holly Carter is the founder of Relevé Entertainment, which specializes in television/film production, talent partnerships, and brand development. The company consistently delivers high-quality, “break-through” family and faith-based programming that engages national audiences. Recently, Carter created and executive produced “The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel,” the highest-rated original TV movie of 2020.

Any thoughts?

Bebe Winans, Angie Stone & More Join Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Hosting Election Eve Prayer Rally!

Hello World,

Can you believe it? There are only two months left in 2018! But if you’re still hoping, wishing and praying for something to change before the year is over as I am, God says in 2 Peter 3:8 that “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” In other words, He sees time differently than we do and anything can change in an instant. It’s hard work having faith sometimes, but it’s worth it in the end.

Speaking of time, last month I pretty much only focused on OWN “Greenleaf” recaps in October, but now that I’ve met a writing deadline, I will be posting about twice a week unless life happens. Y’all know how that is. And for my new subscribers who read my recap each week, I hope you like my other content as well 🙂

So all of that aside and on to the topic of today’s post. Unless you don’t watch TV at all, you probably know that Election Day is THIS Tuesday! And if you didn’t vote early, Tuesday is the day to vote! I’m not sure where you live, but where I live, we have some pretty big issues to address in Tuesday’s election! And I’m proud to say that the first black woman to be the nominee of a major party for governor, Stacey Abrams, who is also PK as I am, is on the ballot! I won’t tell you whom to vote for, but I do think it’s important to vote!

Tomorrow night, Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is hosting an Election Eve Prayer Rally at 7 p.m. My father, pastor emeritus of Central Christian Church in Atlanta, likes to use this quote by Alfred Lord Tennyson in his sermons about prayer:  “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” I truly believe that, and if that quote is too “high post” for you, this quote will do: “Prayer changes things.” I don’t know who said that first, but it is true…

Among luminaries who will be there include: Bebe Winans (uncle of Deborah Joy Winans who portrays Charity on OWN’s “Greenleaf”), Angie Stone, Congressman John Lewis and the Rev. Dr. William Barber II. The church is located at 101 Jackson St NE, Atlanta, GA 30312, but if you cannot make it, check out the church’s website for the livestream.

Also, Dr. Raphael G. Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, wrote a piece “Here Are the Chilling Tricks We’ve Caught Georgia Using to Disqualify Voters” for The Washington Post about voting issues here in Georgia. Here is an excerpt below:

A young woman learned her name was no longer on the voter rolls in Georgia. Ironically, she discovered this while training as a canvasser for new voters. Since registering and casting her first ballot in 2008, she hadn’t returned to the polls, and under the new “use it or lose it” rule, the system purged her registration.

A dentist in Macon received a letter from the secretary of state, warning him that he was at risk of being labeled an “inactive voter” for changing addresses, not voting or not responding to election-related mail. None of that was true, he said: He’d participated in every Georgia election in the past 40 years and had lived in his home for 30.

To read the entire piece, go to washingtonpost.com.

So my final plea on this Sunday, please VOTE!

Happy Sunday!

Any thoughts?