Cal Performances at UC Berkeley Presents WE SHALL OVERCOME: A CELEBRATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING FEATURING DAMIEN SNEED, Review — Solidarity in Music

“Tonight is going to be fire,” the acclaimed producer and music director Damien Sneed tells us casually, as he riffs on his gleaming grand piano. The lights are still on in Zellerbach Hall, and we all know he’s going to prove his point. He asks us to “snap!” to his rhythm, and we match it. “That sounds niiiice!”

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The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir fill the room with light: their shimmering emerald jackets reflecting the energy in the room. Damien stands out in sapphire blue. The stage is straight-faced as clips from Martin Luther King’s I Have A Dream speech play, but the synchronized shining of the choir’s costuming implies motion and change. Honoring Black History Month, and marking an important moment in UC Berkeley’s initiative, the show is a monument to freedom, and a celebration of the “centennial of the nexus of black creativity and brilliance” — namely, the Harlem Renaissance.

The program is a collaborative musical story-telling experience led by bandleader Damien Sneed on piano, keyboard and vocals, the award-winning artists Chenee Campbell, Matia Washington, Anitra McKinney, Alicia Peters-Jordan, and Linny Smith on vocals, as well as Marquéz Cassidy on the organ, Arthur Sutton on bass, and Joel Tate on drums. Emmy-winning artistic director Terrance Kelly leads the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, who achieve their mission to inspire joy and unity among all people through Black gospel and spiritual music. All vocalists and musicians are showcased throughout the night, invited to riff and and improvise their thoughts, experiences, and expressions to the crowd in song.

Suddenly, the pianos start to rumble and the choir picks up. Damien and the vocalists clap, snap, and groove, nudging each other — and us —on. He personalizes the occasion: “Many revolutions have taken place at UC Berkeley,” and indeed, we all feel another taking place in the theatre, too. As the lead vocalists take center stage, we are invited to join in, use the flashlight function on our phones to light up the hall, to clap, to dance, spin, and sing along. Members of the crowd are crying and laughing alongside the vocalists.

Damien starts to play soft classical and jazz movements on his own piano while telling us a story about his childhood, and the obstacles he overcame to get to that stage in that moment. We find out that it is the first time he is meeting his biological family in this performance, who stand up and wave to the audience from the front row. Vocalists and choir members wipe off tears, and we all join in with the beat.

The performance is marked with personal interjections, applause, cheering, and laughter. It is not the sort of show where you can only ogle at the performers. Nothing felt out of our reach in the audience, we could simultaneously applaud and join in the experience, while celebrating the incredible potential of those before us. “Step on your neighbor’s foot!” Sneed encourages us, inspiring the audience to do whatever it takes to join in with the feeling of freedom and solidarity that emanated from the stage into Berkeley and beyond.”

In the finale, Damien Sneed jumps off of the stage to reach out to us. He runs up the aisles, grabbing our hands and encouraging us to do the same with our neighbors and anyone nearby. We are linked, crying, laughing, and rocking. Zellerbach Hall is fused in the collective notion of hope, solidarity, and optimism for the future. The present and historical implications of the moment fills the atmosphere.

We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. invites us to consider history, while engaging with the present through collaborative music and movement. We feel close to the stage, while also reflecting on why we are there in the first place. Damien Sneed drew the performance to a close by bringing us together, and then ushering us out into the night, knowing that we are still linked, and should be linked to much more.

The was a performance with strong appeal to a broad audience: anyone interested in gospel and spiritual music, as well as those generally interested in history, and in what freedom means in 2020.

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For more information, visit the Cal Performances at UC Berkeley website

Photo courtesy of Cal Performances