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By Rich Heldenfels
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 08:26 p.m. EDT, Jul 04, 2009
KENT: July Fourth is thought of as a uniquely American holiday, a celebration of the nation's independence.
But America is also a melting pot, and, as it says on the Statue of Liberty, a place of ''world-wide welcome.''
At Kent's annual Heritage Festival on Saturday, the fare included internationally inflected items like kielbasa and pizza. And while you could hear blues and hip-hop in some corners of the downtown event, from one of the stages came haunting tunes in the Luganda language, performed by a choir far from its home.
The Matsiko Children's Choir includes 25 young people from Uganda, all of them either orphans or from families ''in a very poor state,'' choir director Sam Straxy said. (Luganda is one of the Ugandan languages.)
The choir sprang from work between the Gospel Messengers, a Uganda-based organization, and the International Children's Network of Covington, Wash. ICN works through churches, other nongovernment organizations and individuals around the world to help children get an education up through college so they can break out of poverty.
Straxy was working with children in the Gospel Messengers' schools when he suggested that they form a choir.
According to ICN President Don Windham, the choir provides a way to promote awareness of the needs of the children in Uganda by making tours of the United States.
Each tour lasts about a year. The first one, in 2008, concentrated on the western United States, Straxy said. The current tour had an extended stay in Chicago before coming to Northeast Ohio; later stops will include a return visit to Chicago, as well as Minnesota and Idaho, Windham said.
Performances include singing and dancing, taught by Straxy, who is also responsible, he said, for ''moral discipline.''
Events are set up in conjunction with local groups. Our Father's House Family Church and its Rock Cafe, both on South Water Street in Kent, worked on the local appearance.
Pastor Paul Myers said church families provided places for the performers to stay.
Myers had heard about the choir through a friend in California.
But the choir itself is not a specifically religious group, Straxy said. Some of the students are Muslim; others, Catholic; still others from traditional African faiths.
And the songs are mainly about two things, he said: hope and love.
Hope is a big topic, he said, so people will not wallow in self-pity. And love, Straxy said, ''is one language that has no boundaries.''
Just as, on Saturday, there were no boundaries to the celebration of Independence Day.
KENT: July Fourth is thought of as a uniquely American holiday, a celebration of the nation's independence.
But America is also a melting pot, and, as it says on the Statue of Liberty, a place of ''world-wide welcome.''
At Kent's annual Heritage Festival on Saturday, the fare included internationally inflected items like kielbasa and pizza. And while you could hear blues and hip-hop in some corners of the downtown event, from one of the stages came haunting tunes in the Luganda language, performed by a choir far from its home.
The Matsiko Children's Choir includes 25 young people from Uganda, all of them either orphans or from families ''in a very poor state,'' choir director Sam Straxy said. (Luganda is one of the Ugandan languages.)
The choir sprang from work between the Gospel Messengers, a Uganda-based organization, and the International Children's Network of Covington, Wash. ICN works through churches, other nongovernment organizations and individuals around the world to help children get an education up through college so they can break out of poverty.
Straxy was working with children in the Gospel Messengers' schools when he suggested that they form a choir.
According to ICN President Don Windham, the choir provides a way to promote awareness of the needs of the children in Uganda by making tours of the United States.
Each tour lasts about a year. The first one, in 2008, concentrated on the western United States, Straxy said. The current tour had an extended stay in Chicago before coming to Northeast Ohio; later stops will include a return visit to Chicago, as well as Minnesota and Idaho, Windham said.
Performances include singing and dancing, taught by Straxy, who is also responsible, he said, for ''moral discipline.''
Events are set up in conjunction with local groups. Our Father's House Family Church and its Rock Cafe, both on South Water Street in Kent, worked on the local appearance.
Pastor Paul Myers said church families provided places for the performers to stay.
Myers had heard about the choir through a friend in California.
But the choir itself is not a specifically religious group, Straxy said. Some of the students are Muslim; others, Catholic; still others from traditional African faiths.
And the songs are mainly about two things, he said: hope and love.
Hope is a big topic, he said, so people will not wallow in self-pity. And love, Straxy said, ''is one language that has no boundaries.''
Just as, on Saturday, there were no boundaries to the celebration of Independence Day.
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