Black History Month: Musicians Affiliated With Harlem Baptist Church Raise The Roof At Westchester Catholic School
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- As CBS2 celebrates Black History Month, we're hearing from renowned musicians affiliated with a Baptist church in Harlem.
They helped raise the roof at a Catholic school Thursday in Westchester.
As CBS2's Tony Aiello reported, it was a lyrical lesson in the role gospel music played in the struggle for freedom and civil rights.
They're songs from the soundtrack of the civil rights movement - a bit of a change from the Catholic hymns usually performed by the Ursuline School Honors Choir.
"There definitely is an energy. I think it's been really fun," student Madeline Donovan said.
Renowned musician LaFrederick Coaxner agreed to coach the young women in gospel music, including the "gospel clap."
"I was a little nervous at first of how receptive they would be, but we were having rehearsal one day and all of a sudden an energy came into the room and it was as if we were in a Baptist church service," Coaxner said.
Preparing for a Black History Month assembly, Coaxner said he found students anxious to learn the rhythm and the reason for the development of Black spirituals - some dating to the shameful era of enslaved people.
"They served a God who wanted them to be free, and going back to these 'code songs' that we're singing... those were code songs that they would use to signal each other when it was time to run away," Coaxner said.
"It's very moving as an audience member to hear these lyrics, but I think it's even more moving to perform them," School President Dr. Colleen Melnyk said.
"I think it's really nice to see a predominantly white school having people come and teach us Black culture," student Johanna Michel said.
They learned from some of the best in the gospel field: Damon Mack on keyboard, singer Carl Arnez Ellis III and soloist Ahmaya Knoelle Higginson.
It was a soul-stirring lesson in music that matters in our collective history.