Abani faced the group of high school musicians, put his saxophone to his lips and set off on an improvised jazz solo.
“We’ll keep a nice, easy, sweet feel,” Mike Treat, director of the ensemble, said to Chris Abani.
The Signature Syracuse Jazz ensemble played a soulful jazz tune as guests began to fill the seats of the brightly lit auditorium.
When Signature Syracuse asked Abani, an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, if he wanted to play a few licks with the students, Abani responded that he’s no expert on the sax.
So they asked him to play a few standards, and when he replied that he doesn’t know any standards and usually just make things up, they asked him to improvise a tune. He said “sure,” to that offer, said Eric Holzwarth, deputy director of the Renee Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University and chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee.
The lively audience, sang, cheered, and danced in their seats during the 22nd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet Elementary School, Saturday morning. Music set the tone for the celebration, which featured performances from four community ensembles.
Bethaida Gonzalez, the master of ceremonies, opened with an except from King’s sermon “The Drum Major Instinct,” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on February 4, 1968.
“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve,” she recited. “…You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”
The audience stood up and sang for the Dr. King Elementary Gospel Choir’s performances of “Lift E’vry Voice” and “God, You Are Good.” Members of the choir were children from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade, some so small they seemed dwarfed by their red choral robes.
“For children singing, they almost had me crying by the second song,” Abani said. “They were so cute it was getting overwhelming.”
They were followed by energetic performances by the Southwest Community Center Drill Team and two songs by the Bell Grove Missionary Baptist Church Men’s Choir. Each performance provoked cheers and participation from the audience. Some people stood and sang along while others waved their hands over their head or shouted praise.
“I can’t tell you anything that these amazing musicians haven’t already told you,” Abani, the guest speaker, said as he began his speech.
Abani’s speech, like his music, was unscripted.
Unlike the evening address at the Carrier Dome, which is for a university-based audience, this speech catered to the entire community. For this reason, he wanted it to be less formal and more personal.
Abani offered description of the lessons learned while imprisoned in his native country, Nigeria, for his writing and activism, and stressed the importance of exercising the freedom of choice.
King was not perfect, but he made us realize that we can choose to be good, Abani told the audience. And choice is the ultimate freedom.
While in prison the first time, he realized how privileged his life was and decided we was going to save the world, Abani said. He was imprisoned two more times, including six months in solitary confinement where he lived without light or human interaction.
He is grateful for the experience of re-learning, after getting out of prison, how to speak and communicate with others, he said.
He brushed tears from his eyes when he talked about a childhood experience when a stranger gave him her own son’s clothes. Abani explained that helping globally begins with making simple choices liking choosing to smile and choosing not to make assumptions.
He also mentioned the importance of extending the term diversity past racial diversity to include sexual diversity, gender diversity, class diversity, differences in ability. Equality, he said, means seeing all people as equals.
“Only one thing in the world is perverse,” Abani said. “The absence of love. period.”
Abani’s message about “The Beloved Community: Imagining Our Global Humanity,” this year’s chosen theme for the celebration, focused on how human actions have world-wide affects.
“We often don’t realize the affects of the U.S. on the motherland,” he said.
Africans didn’t fight for freedom until African American began to fight for their freedom, he said and mentioned that if while if $3 billion was taken out of the current war in Iraq, that would be enough money to provide running water for all of Africa.
Guests left the auditorium while the Syracuse Signature Jazz ensemble continued to play, as the celebration concluded. Abani signed copies of his books and answered questions.
The audience was smaller than expected. Between 150 and 200 guests came out for the event, despite snowy weather and slick roads. But the organizers were impressed how engaged and lively the crowd was.
“We always anticipate a full turnout,” Gonzalez said. “Weather is always a problem.”
Music is a common thread between people, said Rachael Gazdick, co-chair of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee. It’s a universal language everyone can understand.
“I think it was remarkable,” Gazdick said. “Every celebration has been wonderful. Mr. Abani today made us think about how we live our actions in our daily lives.”
Originally published in the Daily Orange
