Gospel Symphony Celebration featuring the Clark Sisters, the Alabama Symphony and Conductor Henry Panion III with special guest Smokie Norful

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. – Birmingham Alumnae Chapter in Association with AudioState 55 Entertainment presents Gospel Symphony Celebration.

Featuring the Legendary Clark Sisters with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Dr. Henry Panion, III & special guest Smokie Norful.

Saturday, February 16, 2013 | 7:00pm

BJCC Concert Hall | Birmingham, AL.

Tickets on sale now available through TicketMaster.

Ticket Prices: $40, $50 and $60.  Group sales available.

A fundraising event supporting scholarships and community service projects.

 

 

Birmingham Celebration of Gospel

Don’t miss the Birmingham Celebration of Gospel.

Featuring Candy West, Netra Young, LP, King all T, Signature, Marquita Anthony, Jeremy Wallace and Elevated Praise, Bishop L. Spenser Smith, Jeremy Hill, Coreisa Janelle Lee, Denita Gibbs and special guest Nigel Andrews.

Hosted by DJ Strick of 95.7 Gospel Jamz.

February 3, 2013, 6:00pm. Dorothy Jemison Day Theater – On the campus of the Alabama School of Fine Arts.

Purchase tickets online at www.bhamcog2013.eventbee.com. Ticket prices are $15 in advance, $20 at the door and $10 group rate of ten or more.

Pay It Forward

I’m sure that most people have heard the phrase “Pay It Forward”!  It was a movie with a little boy who started a phenomenon by helping someone in need of help, or just being extra hospitable.  Once someone blessed you, the rule of thumb required you to bless someone else in return.  In the movie it was a project that one little boy created that spread like a wildfire.   We never know how an action or inaction can touch someone’s life.  Paying it forward is a concept that we all should practice especially around this time of year; which is just being a blessing to someone without expecting anything in return.  When you are a blessing someone you should not be a braggart about what you’ve done.  Whatever you do for someone else you don’t brag about it nor do you make a big deal about it, you are just doing something that has been laid on your heart.   Here are just a few examples, if you are downtown and you see the car ahead and behind you meter has run out of money, place a few coins in their meters to help them from getting a ticket.  Other examples include if you see that someone has left their gas tank or trunk open close it.  If you are about to pull out of a parking space and you know that people are circling around looking for a space, use hand gestures to let someone know where you are parked so they can have your space.  Help someone with a heavy load by opening the door, or offering to carry some of their load.  If you are in the grocery store and the person ahead of you seems to need a little help paying for their groceries, pay for their groceries.  One that I like the best is to go around my house looking for anything that I’ve been telling myself I’m going to give away by actually gather around the items in your house (clothes, shoes, things on your walls, furniture) and take it to a shelter; not to a place that just resells items, but a place that will give the items to those in need.  The thing I need most in life to help me stay alive sometimes is for people to donate blood.

There are so many ways to bless a family member, a neighbor, a co-worker, and a friend!  You should not embarrass a person by being loud when you help someone.  Has someone ever paid it forward to you?  Be a blessing and God will take count of what you have done, and He will bless you.  However, the trick is not to be all loud when you are paying it forward, nor should you expect a thing in return.  Don’t look around or have an attitude of “I’m only doing this to get something”, this should not be your attitude.  Helping another should be kind of a reflex or apart of the spirit within.  Now, it’s up to you to pay it forward and bless whoever you can with whatever you have, where ever you are, and however you can.  Let’s pay it forward!

By Tina Kay Hughes www.tinakay.net  If you are looking for an inspirational speaker for your next event contact me at contact@tinakay.net

Never Meant To Be

My heart aches because as much as I do not want to, I have to say good bye.  I thought I hit the jack pot when you came into my life.  I thought all my woes and sorrows would suddenly go up in smoke.  I was for sure that all my missed fortunes were a thing of my pass.  I looked at you as my plane ticket to fly away from all the mess in my life.  I thought you were the one to come along and kiss away my tears.  My light had been blown out and you were my rescue me from the dark.

But to my dismay you were not my God send as I hold my head low because once again I’ve been tricked into believing you were the one.  Maybe it was my fault, you were telling me one thing but I chose not to understand, I wanted things my way.  I was hoping that I could make you love me; I thought you came to save me.  My mind was all confused hoping you would take my hand and lead me to greener pastures.  I wished all my cloudy and stormy days would disappear with you by my side.

I know now, there was no love in what small pieces of your heart that you gave me.  Wait, were the gestures given because you had some ulterior motive.  Not only were you deceptive but you calculated your every word and move so I would not question you.  I admit it, you really had me going, and I had so much planned for us.  I thought you were my rat-a-tat tat; you were the chorus to my favorite love song.  I really thought I was your Boo, and your song was “there goes my baby”.  Silly me, I was never your baby just some toy to play around with until the next one came along.

Well, now that you’ve had your run on me, I think back on how foolishly I fell for you.  It did not take much to distract me and get off course in this thing called life.  God never planned for you to be in or apart of my life, and you knew that but you pounced on me anyway.  I admit I was a little needy and open to whoever seemed to give me some love.  I asked God to forgive me, remove myself from the situation, and get me back on track.  I understand now what you were doing.  Today, I know this was a test for me, now I must continue on this journey that God has given me.  I know God loves me and will never leave me.  This letter is for all who need help, who may be in a situation like me, I pray this touches your heart, mind, and soul.

By Tina Hughes, www.tinakay.net (Looking for a speaker for
your church or organization please contact Tina at  contact@tinakay.net)

Fights of Life

“Down goes Frazier, down goes Frazier”.  Many people have heard this statement from a familiar fight that took place between Joe Frazier and George Foreman for the World Heavyweight Championship. Foreman knocked Frazier to the mat the first of six times, roughly two minutes into the first round when Cosell blurted out this statement.  This statement is Howard Cosell’s most famous phrase as a radio commentator.  He also is known for his famous catch phrase “I’m just telling it like it is”.

Many people don’t want others to know when we are going down.  Life has a funny way of sometimes knocking us to the ground especially when we are least expected.  All we hear is the famous phrase from Howard Cosell in our heads as we fall for what seems like in slow motion to a hard place in life.  Instead, of asking for help we keep getting knocked out like Joe Frazier who happened to be the world heavyweight champion.  Even the heavyweight champion went down six times before the fight ended.  How many times will you fall before you ask someone, anyone for help?  We are so ashamed of our downfalls that we try to cover it up and hide what is really going on.

Real talk, or as Cosell would say “I’m just telling it like it is”, stop the madness in your life and first evaluate your life carefully to determine why you keep falling.  If you don’t understand what’s going on or why things seem to be on a steady decline in your life, ask someone you love and who loves you if they can help you determine why you are in this hard place in life.  Stop pretending like there is nothing wrong!  No one is exempt from having knock downs in life.  However, we are held accountable for what we do when we get up.  Maybe, you should go to your corner between rounds in your life to listen to your team tell you what needs to be corrected in your life.  Sometimes we need to throw in the white towel and call this particular fight so you can withdraw yourself to get it together for the next championship fight.

But you know what, many of us will not quit like Foreman who wanted to defend his title and his belt and stay in the fight because he did not want to give up or give in.  I’m not telling you to give up or give in; I’m just telling you to get it together.  Many times we step out before we are ready.  Make sure you are ready for life’s battles all the time not sometimes; as much as you can possibly prepare yourself.  Sometimes you don’t know that you are about to get knocked out and you did not prepare because you had no idea that this fight you are fighting was about to take place.  No matter the fights you have in life please remember, the fight may not always be called in your favor.  This simply means you just have to go back to the drawing board and get it together allowing God to be your coach and His Son to be your trainer and the Holy Spirit will provide you with the living water that we need so desperately to survive through the fights of life.  With a team like this you are predestined to win but it is your choice about if you will allow this team to get you ready for the fights in this thing called life.

By Tina Kay Hughes, www.tinakay.net

Salvation Tour Debut at The Bessemer Civic Center

Heaven’s Press Production proudly presents the 2011 Worship Experience “The Salvation Tour” a gospel musical production written by Jan Bates of Birmingham, AL.   It’s a timeless Classic Story of Christ Foretold through song and dance.  “The Salvation Tour” will debut on Sunday, December 4^th, 7pm at The Bessemer Civic Center. The Salvation Tour features The Birmingham Community Mass Choir, The Magic City Boys and Girls Choir, Psalmist & Evangelist Debra White, and guest artist George ‘Hurricane’ Barlow. Get your tickets now at The Bessemer Civic Center, Cake Creations on the Bessemer Super Highway, go to www.ticketalternative.com or call 877-725-8849.  Don’t Miss The Miracle, Majesty and Message Sunday, December 4^th, 7pm at The Bessemer Civic Center, Doors open at 6pm. It’s an evening like no other…”The Salvation Tour!”  For additional information contact Jan bates at 205-356-6762.

Do You Know Me?

Can I have just a few minutes of your time?  I don’t have much to offer you; money, clothes, or the stuff it’s of life, but I can tell you a little bit about some brown skinned people like you and me who seem to always get the short end of the stick. You see I live with a blood disorder called Sickle Cell Disease (SCD); and I did nothing but come into this world with it.  No fault of my parents because in the year that I was born and during that time period, there was no talk of this brown people’s disease.  Many of us brown skinned people don’t have a clue about this disease until it hits home!  Many of us who actually call ourselves sicklers and experience chronic pain, meaning the pain never goes away, it’s a constant, we don’t complain; but we listen to so many complain about the itty bitty things in life.  If you ask most sicklers when was the last time you can remember being pain free and the answer will more than likely be, “I can’t remember when”.  Okay, ask a sickler how many IV’s they’ve had in their bodies and they will show you a mirage of healed wounds that have now healed as they look like the track marks of a junkie.  Ask a sickler how many operations they’ve had or procedures just to stay alive and all they can tell you or show you are cuts on the body from surgeons, the wounds aren’t pretty but sicklers call these marks the battle marks of their life.  Ask a sickler how many blood transfusions they’ve had and I bet you a dime for every dollar that they cannot remember.  Ask a sickler how many trips to the emergency room they’ve experienced and can only tell you since I was a child; but as an adult I’m treated like a drug addict as I show them I have pills but they are not working, as I tell them how I can barely walk and they don’t even offer a wheelchair, if I’m brought in on the ambulance I am put to the side in the hallway (out of the way of drunk drivers, people needing simple stitches, and even people are put before us who have a simple cold and should’ve gone to their primary care doctor or a doc in the box); but we are put aside until they can get to us brown skinned people.

You see this disease does not care about our names, it does not care about what type of job you have or how much you make, it does not care about all the good things in the community and beyond that you are doing, this disease has no face, no sympathy, nor any concern about you and your household.  Does this sound familiar, like Satan who comes to kill, steal, and destroy your joy, peace, happiness, and wholeness.  We are always looking for a cause to fight, a remedy for something, or some nonprofit to give to; while people like me, brown skinned people all over the world wait patiently for someone to remember us in all the pain we endure, all the nights full of tears, as we take all the medication just to survive in this game called life.  Many of you may be sicklers and you don’t even know it until one day something happens and you don’t have a clue!  This disease has been described as broken glass traveling through the veins, but unfortunately the brown people who are not carriers of this sickle cell disease could care less because it has not affected their home, their house, their relative, or friend.  My brown people you are always looking for a cause, what about sickle cell disease.  How many of us have to die from complications of the disease, how many of us have to be disregarded and talked to and treated like animals in the hospitals. 

My name is Tina Kay and I was born with this disease, no fault of my parents that I have this disease.  Right now I am trying to make some of my brown people who do not suffer from this disease right now, to stand with us, speak out for us, listen to our stories of torment and have a heart to be a voice when my voice has been taken away.  The other part of that scripture is “but I came so that you may have life in abundance until it is overflowing with joy”.  Help me and others like me who don’t know what the day may bring or even tomorrow.  Stand up for a disease that plagues anyone who goes outside and tans brown (yep, think of all the nationalities that turn brown under the sun).  We want to live, we want life abundantly, we want children and to be able to live to see them walk down the aisle as they graduate and marry.  Stop looking for a cause, when one is staring you right in your face.

By Tina Kay Hughes   www.tinakay.net

THE KIRK FRANKLIN “FEARLESS” TOUR TAKES OVER BIRMINGHAM

Birmingham, AL–Our nephew, our friend, our favorite Gospel artist, Kirk Franklin, is going back out on the road with the “Fearless Tour” and he’s coming to Birmingham along with his newly signed label mates, Jason Nelson and Deon Kipping, and Sunday Best Winner Amber Bullock and long-time Gospel artist Isaac Carree.

The “Fearless Tour” pulls into Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 7pm at the historic Fair Park Arena.  Tickets are on sale now at Fair Park and the Boutwell Auditorium Box Office with admission starting at $30.

The “Fearless Tour” will support Franklin’s chart topping, critically acclaimed project, Hello Fear, which has been at the top of the charts since its release in March of this year.  Since the release of his self-titled debut in 1993, Franklin has proved himself a pioneer when he sprinkled a taste of hip-hop in the mix. He changed musical history with the release of his debut album, KIRK FRANKLIN AND THE FAMILY, the first gospel album to sell more than a million units.

In his bold attempt to broaden the range of the traditional gospel audience, Kirk Franklin was willing to take heat from the naysayers as long as it didn’t get in the way of delivering the inspired message. “After more than 16 years in this industry, I’ve learned so much,” Franklin, says. “I want to take those lessons, as well as my own experiences as a man who grew up with one foot in the church and one foot in the streets, and use that to connect with this generation,” he said.

To date, the musical trendsetter has garnered seven GRAMMY® Awards; an American Music Award; 35 Stellar Awards; 12 Dove Awards (CCM); five NAACP Awards; 2 BET Music Awards, a Soul Train Award and numerous others.  Recently, Kirk Franklin resumed his role as host and co-executive producer for the third season of the BET original series, SUNDAY BEST. Fans were also recently treated to the release of  Kirk Franklin’s book “The Blueprint: A Plan For Living Above Life’s Storms”. A devoted husband, Franklin and his wife Tammy have been happily married for 14 years and are proud parents of four children.

For local media inquiries on the Kirk Franklin “Fearless Tour” or for ticket information contact Antonio Wilson with C&W Entertainment at (205) 601-4894 or Angela Moore with Amazing Kreations, LLC at amazingkreations2@gmail.com.

“Ugly Betty” actress to speak at UAB

She’s been called ugly (although she’s anything but), worn traveling pants and shown the world why “real women have curves.” Now, on Oct. 5, 2011, Emmy award-winning actress and champion for human rights America Ferrera will give a free, public lecture at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The event, which is part of UAB’s Hispanic Heritage Month, will take place at 7 p.m. that Wednesday at Bartow Arena, 617 13th St. South.

Ferrera is probably best known for her role as Betty Suarez on the ABC hit comedy “Ugly Betty.” She also has performed in a number of films, including “Real Women Have Curves,” for which she received a Special Jury Award. Ferrera also acted in “Lords of Dogtown,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and the Oscar-nominated animated film “How to Train Your Dragon.” She recently appeared in and executive produced “The Dry Land,” which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Ferrera serves as an artist ambassador for Save the Children and helped raise more than $44,000 to build a new elementary school in Mali. In 2010 she received the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Inspira Award, which recognized her contributions as a role model through her work as an actress and activist. She also received the 2011 Global Action award for Childhood Development and Education.

Recently, Ferrera travelled to India with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof to take part in the PBS film “Half the Sky,” which explores the trials and triumphs of women as they struggle for opportunity and equality.

This event is sponsored by the university’s vice provost for Student and Faculty Success, UAB Student Life and the UAB Lecture Series.

DARE TO TAKE CHARGE with Judge Glenda Hatchett

On Thursday, September 15, 2011, at 11:00 am Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law’s Cordell Hull Speakers Forum will host Judge Glenda Hatchett for a presentation titled “Dare to Take Charge” in the law school’s Carroll Moot Courtroom. A book signing and reception will follow the program in the law school’s Great Room. This event is free and open to the public.

The Cordell Hull Speakers Forum is a Cumberland School of Law student run organization responsible for educating the student body and public in a variety of areas through its guest speakers. In the past, the Speakers Forum has included such renowned figures as former Presidents of the United States George Bush and Ronald Reagan, United States Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas, Attorney General Janet Reno, and author John Grisham.

Judge Glenda Hatchett presides over the two-time Emmy nominated syndicated show, “Judge Hatchett.” After graduating from Emory University School of Law and completing a coveted clerkship in the U.S. Federal Courts, Glenda Hatchett accepted a position at Delta Air Lines as a senior attorney. For Delta Air Lines, she litigated cases in federal courts throughout the country and managed public relations. Also, she supervised global crisis management and media relations for all of Europe, Asia and the United States. She left Delta Air Lines in order to accept an appointment as chief presiding judge of the Fulton County, Georgia Juvenile Court.

Presently, Glenda Hatchett is a board member of the Atlanta Falcons Football Organization and serves on the Board of Advisors for Play Pumps International. She also serves on the Boys and Girls Clubs of America National Board of Governors.

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