Thursday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m., the Ebony Expressions Gospel Choir, the College of William and Mary’s first and only gospel choir, celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Music Arts Center’s Concert Hall was filled with spirituality and community connection as the choir performed their “Gospel Explosion” show, consisting of worship songs, hymns, a praise dance, soloists and medleys.
Historical displays outside the concert hall showed news clippings from Flat Hat articles on Ebony Expressions through the 20th century. The exhibit also displayed the choir’s previous robe costumes.
The charismatic emcee Kenneth Ferguson ’25 opened the show with a warm and energetic welcome. He then reminded the audience that this concert honored Timothy Ernest Allmond Jr., who founded the choir in 1975 and passed away due to various illnesses and advanced Parkinson’s complications March 12.
Incoming choir co-president Sam Koranteng ’27 reflected on participating in a group with such a storied legacy.
“I was just elected as co-president for my junior year, and I’m so excited to try new things for our choir as well as continue old traditions,” Koranteng said in a message to The Flat Hat. “The fact that I get to serve as one of the Presidents for this illustrious organization that started all the way back in 1975 is extremely honorable.”
The Ebony Gospel Choir kicked off performances with the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Ferguson introduced the piece as the Black national anthem, which the song is often recognized as because of the hopeful lyrics representing liberty for African Americans. With its spiritual invocation of God, the song became a rallying call for the Civil Rights Movement.
“Elijah Rock” was the second traditional African American spiritual of the night, which told the story of how Elijah, a prophet from the Bible, challenged the worship of Baal with unwavering faith. The song encouraged the listeners to keep their trust in God even during the most difficult times. Arranged by Jester Hairston, Ebony Expressions performed the piece with power, showing musical variety, vocal layering, dynamic rhythms and harmonies that kept the number engaging and full of life.
Before the choir performed “Better,” they encouraged audience members to contribute as much energy as they could to the performance, including singing along, dancing or clapping along with the choir. Audience participation created a communal spiritual feeling that was uplifting and encouraging, built up by rhythmic claps and drum beats.
After the first three songs, Ferguson introduced a Bible trivia game. Though he only managed to pull up two people on stage, he jokingly called it a game of sudden death.
Ferguson then welcomed the Praise and Worship team to the stage. This team consists of soloists and small ensembles of students in their senior year at the College.
“The senior showcase was once again me stepping out of my comfort zone tremendously to do my small solo,” choir co-president Ukamaka Ozed-Williams ’25 said in an email to The Flat Hat.
Multi-talented choir member Temi Abiodun ’25 played the acoustic guitar and sang a melody with fellow seniors called “Blessed Assurance, It is Well, Great is Your Mercy, and Precious Lord.” Performers each sang their own segment of the song as a bittersweet send-off moment. Abiodun earned praise during the show for his significant musical contributions to the choir, as he sings and plays the guitar, drums and keyboard during their shows.
COVID-19 took a toll on membership numbers for many on-campus organizations, Ebony Expressions included. Ukamaka recounted this difficult experience.
“When I joined Ebony in Spring 2023, there were only 10 of us. COVID had decimated our numbers, and hardly anyone on campus knew who we were despite our almost 50-year history,” Ukamaka said in an email to The Flat Hat.
Hope was not lost for the choir though, due to the work of then-president Senam Amevor ’24. In her efforts to resurrect the choir, Senam worked with administration to allow students to fulfill their ARTS requirement through the group, and created strong relationships with the Center for Student Diversity and local churches.
The fifth piece of the night was a unique departure from the Gospel Choir and embraced movement and expressive, physical worship. The Praise Dance performed by Me’Sharlia Fountain ‘28, Brianna Furman ‘27, Ty’Jenya Pinkney ‘27 and Anyah Allen ‘28 and choreographed by Aniyah Tarpley ‘27 was an entrancing and passionate expression of performers’ surrender to God. The dancers wore long black, flowy gowns with gold crosses rippling down from their necks to their ankles.
Following this passionate praise dance was the Brothers and Sisters in Christ Gospel Choir, visiting from Longwood University to sing at the 50th anniversary. The B.A.S.I.C. team contributed to the show’s explosive energy with their performances of “Mighty God,” “He’ll Make It Alright,” “Don’t Give Up” and “It’s Me Oh Lord.” The talented singers from Longwood also make up the first and only gospel choir at their university.
Ferguson then welcomed the Ebony Expressions team back to the stage for the tenth number, “Every Praise,” an uplifting worship anthem calling everyone to put their hands together and preach that “all the praise belong to God.” A performance of “Revelation 19.1” then broke from the energy of rhythmic clapping and slowed down to melodic snaps and soothing tunes.
The choir then performed “Stomp,” an extremely successful gospel song from the 1990s featuring more theatrical hand and body movement like foot stomps and overall deviating from the traditional gospel sound.
Several Ebony Expressions alumni joined the current members for the final song, “Total Praise,” which featured a delicate melody sung with a piano accompaniment. Ukamaka said this concert and the progression of Ebony Expressions was meaningful to the alumni.
“A lot of alumni were so happy that Ebony was now recognized by the music department, and were still working hard to carve themselves into the fabric of William and Mary. One of them even said that this concert healed some of the resentment the Black students of the ’70s and ’80s held toward the College,” Ukamaka said in an email to The Flat Hat.
Ebony Expressions showcased their talent again two days later in the Spring Combined Choral Concert, which also included the Barksdale Treble Chorus, Botetourt Chamber Singers and William and Mary Choir.
