The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) honors ASALH’s 2024 Black History Month Theme: African Americans and the Arts.

DCA’s Performing Arts Division (PERF) is proud to announce that The Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles has been selected, via peer-panel-review, as the awardee of its Call for Concert Choral Choirs Specializing in the Negro Spiritual. The commission is funded through DCA’s Leimert Park Cultural Hub which supports local artists, arts organizations, and community festivals in South LA.

The 18-person choral ensemble will perform a cappella in the Los Angeles Association of Black Personnel’s (LAABP) African American Heritage Month annual awards ceremony held in the Los Angeles City Hall Rotunda (see details below).

All are invited to this free and open event, however RSVP’s are required.

About Our Commission Winner

The Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles celebrates a three-decade career of preserving music of African American composers; especially the Negro spiritual. Director and founder, Byron J. Smith combined some of the most sought-after solo singers in Los Angeles to make up this dynamic choral ensemble. They have toured both domestically and internationally keeping alive the music that grew out of the slavery experience and presents it with pride and excitement through great arrangements and dynamic singing.

The chorale has been featured performing numerous genres of music from classical (Porgy and Bess), Jazz (Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise) and musical theater. Along with these great works, Director Smith has composed uplifting and dynamic gospel selections that have been recorded and performed by countless choirs world-wide. These works are debuted by the Spirit Chorale in the releasing of 4 CD projects. In June, members of the chorale and other choirs directed by Smith performed his music at Carnegie Hall.

God has blessed this chorale to perform as a professional choral ensemble for 30 years with many of the original members. They are thankful and give praise for the blessing of unlimited favor and longevity. Their mission, “to inspire the world to keep moving upward and forward and provide hope for tomorrow.”

LAABP invites you to attend the AAHM Celebration Honoring Trailblazers and Career Development Awardees

The Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles will perform a cappella at the Los Angeles Association of Black Personnel’s Celebration of African American Heritage Month. The event will take place in the Los Angeles City Hall Rotunda, 200 N. Spring Street, Thursday February 29, 2024 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

A black-tie event, LAABP will honor City of Los Angeles employees with the coveted Trailblazer, Career Development and Scholarship Awards, as well as install newly elected officers to its Executive Board. The annual event also includes sumptuous fare. This event is free and open to the public. Parking is available however RSVP‘s are required to receive a permit and instructions.

About the Negro Spiritual

Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with African Americans, which merged sub-Saharan African cultural heritage with the experiences of being held in bondage in slavery, at first during the transatlantic slave trade and for centuries afterwards, through the domestic slave trade. Spirituals encompass the “sing songs,” work songs, and plantation songs that evolved into the blues and gospel songs in church.

In the nineteenth century, the word “spirituals” referred to all these subcategories of folk songs. While they were often rooted in biblical stories, they also described the extreme hardships endured by African Americans who were enslaved from the 17th century until the 1860s, the emancipation altering mainly the nature (but not continuation) of slavery for many. Many new derivative music genres emerged from the spirituals songcraft.

Prior to the end of the US Civil War and emancipation, spirituals were originally an oral tradition passed from one slave generation to the next. Biblical stories were memorized then translated into song. Following emancipation, the lyrics of spirituals were published in printed form. Ensembles such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers—established in 1871—popularized spirituals, bringing them to a wider, even international, audience.

To learn more visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirituals

About the Los Angeles Association of Black Personnel (LAABP)

The Los Angeles Association of Black Personnel (LAABP) was created during Mayor Tom Bradley’s tenure. Mayor Bradley advocated and implemented decisive measures to ensure equal employment opportunities within the City’s workforce for African-Americans. LAABP works to enhance its 700+ members careers by providing career development seminars, mentorship, mock interviews, networking opportunities and nearly $200,000 in scholarships and career development grants since 2003. LAABP’s motto, “Together we can accomplish what none of us can do alone!”

Our mission is to motivate, encourage, and educate individuals, to realize their dreams and move forward in their careers within City government. We join the many employees organizations as we face the challenges of today and tomorrow. We continue our efforts to ensure fairness and equal opportunity. Together we can accomplish what none of us can do alone. To learn more visit laabp.org.

Photos courtesy of The Spirit Chorale of Los Angeles