“Beyond the music, we wanted to do something to highlight women that are working behind the scenes to bring positive things into our community,” Nichol Stevenson, co-founder of Café Soul, said about the July 2015 edition.
This installment of Café Soul will have something extra special along with the live music and fellowship that have become trademarks of the monthly open mic series over the past nine years.
Next Friday, July 31 Café Soul will present Black Ladies Rock, where they will pay tribute to female movers and shakers in the region. The night will culminate with a headlining performance by Grammy-nominated soul singer Syleena Johnson.
“It’s going to be more music than talking,” Stevenson said. “But beyond the music, we wanted to do something to highlight women that are working behind the scenes to bring positive things into our community.”
Along with fellow co-founder Angela Brown and host Tendai Morris, Café Soul surveyed within their circles to select the inaugural honorees.
Christina Bailey of Radio One St. Louis; Blu Bolden of Ex-Treme Institute by Nelly; Deb Fleming; East St. Louis Mayor Emeka Jackson-Hicks; 100.3 The Beat’s Tammie Holland; Olympic gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee; Angela Lewis of The St. Louis Surge; and Staci Static of Old School 95.5 are the 2015 honorees for what Café Soul plans to become an annual event.
“We’re so excited because we’ve been wanting to do this for a while,” Stevenson said.
They presented a “Black Men Rock” concert last year, but it was strictly focused on highlighting male performers. However, The Black Ladies Rock event has been so well received that they are hoping to do a similar program for the men as well.
Next week is all about the ladies, though.
“We are going to salute some of the finest women in our area that are doing positive things and empowering other African-American women to move forward,” Stevenson said.
“Some of the people you might not know by name – like a Christina Bailey, who is bringing corporate dollars in with different groups within the community.”
Stevenson is also happy to have representation from both sides of the river with Joyner-Kersee and the newly elected Jackson-Hicks coming featured from ESL.
The formal program will be brief. Café Soul’s Black Ladies Rock will give a taste of what they typically do through featured performances by local favorites Dharma Jean, Truenessia Combs, Tish Haynes-Keys and Rhoda G.
Johnson is also a familiar face to the Café Soul stage; she headlined their 5th Anniversary Concert back in 2011. She was thrilled when presented with the idea of helping honor women making moves on behalf of the St. Louis region.
“It’s going to be a night of entertainment, but it’s also going to be a night of watching our people step up and show that we are all in this together and we see the strengths of each other,” Stevenson said. “And to show these women that their work is not in vain.”
Café Soul’s presentation of Black Ladies Rock will take place at 8 p.m. Friday, July 31 at The Marquee, 1911 Locust. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/cafesoulstl or call (314) 504-7405.
