{"id":22370,"date":"2024-08-19T04:22:18","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T08:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multi.nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/?p=22370"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:40:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T14:40:26","slug":"prospect-park-resonates-with-meshell-ndegeocellos-uplifting-gospel-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/prospect-park-resonates-with-meshell-ndegeocellos-uplifting-gospel-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Prospect Park Resonates with Meshell Ndegeocello’s Uplifting Gospel Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: C. Zawadi Morris<\/a><\/p>\n

After a rescheduled performance due to rain, singer and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello gave fans everything they were waiting for\u00a0(and some!)\u00a0during\u00a0BRIC’s “Celebrate Brooklyn!” show\u00a0Wednesday night in Prospect Park.<\/p>\n

The original show date on Aug.\u00a02, marked what would have been the 100th birthday of author James Baldwin.<\/p>\n

It also was the date Meshell dropped her newest album,\u00a0No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0an ode to the prolific author, philosopher and beloved baby of the Black Renaissance\u00a0who\u2013\u00a0through his writing\u2013\u00a0championed freedom of artistic and sexual expression. His stories spoke of the Black experience\u00a0with\u00a0unrelenting and\u00a0razor-sharp detail, repudiating America’s cancer of racial inequality.<\/p>\n

\n

\"img_4456\"

Meshell Ndegeocello sings at BRIC’s “Celebrate Brooklyn” on Wednesday, August 14, 2024<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n

Meshell writes of her latest album that it is a tribute to African-American writers and thinkers such as Baldwin\u00a0and Zora Neale Hurston.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s performance brought to life the spirit of her album through music, poetry and song\u2013\u00a0what she coins as\u00a0“the gospel.”\u00a0But isn’t that what Meshell\u00a0has always been about? From the time she burst\u00a0onto the scene in the early 90s, her music took its sweet time on the ears, like\u00a0molasses,\u00a0meandering between poetry and song, always with a message of enlightenment\u00a0that\u00a0hit home.<\/p>\n

She opened the show with a familiar fan favorite\u2013\u00a0“I’m Diggin’ You (Like an Old Soul Record)” from her debut album\u00a0Plantation Lullabies<\/em>. But for the majority and rest of the show, she, with her band and background singers, donned church\u00a0robes and shared the music and gospel of her most recent album.<\/p>\n

Poetess and performance artist\u00a0Staceyann Chin<\/a>\u00a0was the evening’s\u00a0host. She erupted onto the stage like a preacher bringing the fire and brimstone, “tunin’\u00a0up”\u00a0the audience after which they\u00a0co-signed: “Make some noise!” Staceyann shouted.\u00a0“If you don’t make any\u00a0noise, they’ll say you were never here!”<\/p>\n

Staceyann\u00a0returned to the stage between songs with some of her own new poetry, stoking the emotions of the audience, leaving no racially charged stone unturned.<\/p>\n

\n

\"img_4440\"

Staceyann Chin was host for Meshell Ndegeocello’s performance at BRIC’s “Celebrate Brooklyn!” on Wednesday, August 14, 2024. Photo: C. Zawadi Morris<\/p><\/div>

She was raw, poetic and unapologetic with her words: “A new story cracks our consciousness everyday;\u00a0We watch those viral videos becoming more and more numb, more struck dumb by the sheer gall of these cops, steady snuffing out Black lives in their made-in-America home movies …”Meshell shared a ballad she wrote in honor of Sonya Massey, the 36-year old woman from Springfield, IL, who was shot and killed on July 6 by police officers\u00a0after she called 911 for help.With just a single guitar,\u00a0Meshell and\u00a0her background singers sang a song that reminded us of what was likely one of the loneliest moments in Massey’s life, right before she was shot. The song’s\u00a0chorus cried in dulcet tones, “Look at my hands …\u00a0please don’t shoot me … Ooooh, oh oh oh oh oh oh … Put down your gun, take your hands off me …”<\/p>\n

For the most part,\u00a0she eschewed her popular past tunes\u00a0and instead invited the audience into a her new album with an age-old American narrative: a cry for freedom!<\/p>\n

But, certainly, nothing about her performance felt rehashed or stale. After the first show’s cancellation, Meshell’s fans arrived even\u00a0more attentive and more excited to listen to what she had to say.<\/p>\n

Because, for some reason\u2013\u00a0whether its her seldom appearances or the years between when another album drops\u2013\u00a0so much about Meshell Ndegeocello\u00a0often feels anticipated and past due. Yet,\u00a0right on time.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: C. Zawadi Morris After a rescheduled performance due to rain, singer and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello gave fans everything they were waiting for\u00a0(and some!)\u00a0during\u00a0BRIC’s “Celebrate Brooklyn!” show\u00a0Wednesday night in Prospect Park. The original show date on Aug.\u00a02, marked what would have been the 100th birthday of author James Baldwin. It also was the date Meshell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5904,"featured_media":22371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,524,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-brooklyn-events","category-whats-buzzin"],"yoast_head":"\nProspect Park Resonates with Meshell Ndegeocello's Uplifting Gospel Show - Brooklyn News and Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/prospect-park-resonates-with-meshell-ndegeocellos-uplifting-gospel-show\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prospect Park Resonates with Meshell Ndegeocello's Uplifting Gospel Show\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By: C. Zawadi Morris After a rescheduled performance due to rain, singer and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello gave fans everything they were waiting for\u00a0(and some!)\u00a0during\u00a0BRIC’s “Celebrate Brooklyn!” show\u00a0Wednesday night in Prospect Park. The original show date on Aug.\u00a02, marked what would have been the 100th birthday of author James Baldwin. 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