Gayles Baptist Church Choir of Aurora, Ill.

Gospel Festival Celebrates 13th Year at Illinois Wesleyan

Dec. 31, 2002

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Gospel choirs from Chicago, Springfield, and Aurora will be among those featured at the 13th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday Gospel Festival on Monday, Jan. 20.

Founded by the United Community Gospel Singers of Bloomington-Normal, a nonprofit organization and co-sponsored with Illinois Wesleyan University, the festival will take place from 3-9 p.m. in Westbrook Auditorium of Presser Hall, 1210 Park St., Bloomington. The program is open to the public, free of charge.

Corine Sims of Bloomington launched the Gospel Festival in 1991 as a way to continue Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy. The festival is expected to attract numerous choirs, soloists, singers and dancers. Also, elementary and junior high school students will receive awards for outstanding work in art, speech, and essay writing on themes associated with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This year’s scheduled choirs include: The Fantastic Jones Family and the Mighty Sons of Zion, both from Springfield, Ill.; Gayles Baptist Church Choir from Aurora; and Malcolm Williams and the Voices of Great Faith from Chicago.

• Listen to the Voices of Great Faith (mp3; 912K)

The gospel event annually celebrates the life of King, the slain civil rights leader who visited the Illinois Wesleyan campus on two separate occasions — first in 1961 and again in 1966, two years before his assassination in Memphis, Tenn.

Three of King's children — Yolanda, Martin III, and Bernice — have brought their father's message of non-volent social change, social justice, and brotherhood to Illinois Wesleyan, and King's nephew, Vernon King, has twice addressed the Gospel Festival.