The Evening of Gospel Choirs, presented by the American Studies Department, celebrates Black History Month. It is an annual event held the last Saturday in February and is the longest continuous running and best-attended Black History Month program at Rutgers University. Every year the program of music and spirituality features some of the best church choirs in the central New Jersey area. The event is under the direction of Prof. Angus Kress Gillespie and a student committee.

An Evening of Gospel Choirs
Saturday, February 29, 2020
7:00 PM
Busch Student Center

Gospel Singers will spotlight Black History Month with a concert of spiritual music at Rutgers University’s Busch Student Center at 7:00 pm on Saturday, February 29, 2020. The Master of Ceremonies for the event will be Pastor Brenda Lumzy Hicks of Mt. Calvary Missionary Church of New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The headline singer for the event will be Essence Rose, recording artist and soloist of New Brunswick, whose latest album is “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.”  She has been singing to large audiences ever since she was a little girl under the direction of her legendary mother, Pastor Brenda Lumzy Hicks.

Also singing will be the Unity Choir of First Baptist Church of South Bound Brook, the Community Choir of Mt. Calvary Missionary Church, and the Mass Choir of the Macedonia Free Will Baptist Church.  All three groups are known for encouraging active audience participation and for providing spiritual uplift.

Keynote speaker will be Professor Paul Clemens of Rutgers University, who will note that 2020 marks the 150^th anniversary of the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) which gave the right to vote to black men following the Civil War.  Interestingly enough, the first African-American to vote in an election, after the 15^th Amendment was approved, was Thomas Mundy Peterson of nearby Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

This annual, free, public concert at New Jersey’s State University’s Busch Student Center, is sponsored by the American Studies Department and the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders. The program is produced by Pastor Brenda Lumzy Hicks in New Brunswick with Professor Angus Kress Gillespie of the American Studies Department of Rutgers University.

Location Busch Student Center | 604 Bartholomew Road, Piscataway NJ
Free admission and free parking. To register your car for free parking at the Gospel Concert, please call Emily at 848.239.8246 or Nina at 732.421.7514 on any Wednesday between 4:00 and 8:00pm.

For more information, call 848.445.INFO (4636).