Destiny Page
PASTOR'S CORNER
Pastor Wil Coleman
OUR TOWN
ARTICLE 1
No darlings this is not a review of my favorite above titled play. Rather, a look into our community within the makeup of our city. In the coming months I desire to share ideas, spin a bit of yarn, challenge and inspire your thoughts as we journey together to cultivate great expections! Allow me to say it has been a great joy to have served our community in many ways over the last ten yeas. Currently, I serve as pastor of Destiny Dominion Church a growing, living interdenominational Christian church where God’s all inclusive love is expressed creating a safe place of open worship; celebrating a diversity of people, ideas and cultures! Recently, the vision has expanded and The Destiny Foundation was created. The foundation will facilitate numerous community building projects. A primary goal is to aid funding for underfinanced needs of those in our community living with HIV/AIDS. To do this and to fulfill its mission statement:”Building our Community together” the foundation has responded to the call to host ‘Pride New Orleans Celebration.’ Scheduled for June 13th -19th- 2011. Pride with true purpose! We are grateful for all those who have generously given of themselves to bring us where we are today. But, folks the truth is we have not yet arrived! Until we grasp equal rights there is still much ground to be covered! There are still vast reasons to march with our colors ablaze! While we live in the city most greatly known for parties, it would be awesome to become the community known for pride with a purpose! Speaking of purpose let me to gush a bit. Recently during the National lesbian and gay band conference concert held in conjunction with Decca Fest I experienced purpose first hand. The evening replete with a 200 member orchestra and a jazz ensemble was truly magnificent! Honey, anytime you can get that many ‘family’ to arrive at a common goal is unquestionably a great achievement! The group was comprised of band members from several cities including one young man from Kenner. I was so deeply moved I held the hand of my partner and cried on the way home from the event. Now put away those tissues and get on your feet! I was so moved because I believe we as G.L.B.T.Q.I.Q. people are able to come together and make beautiful things happen. We are worthy in this community of having a first rate queer band association and we deserving of a world-class pride celebration! United we stand! Out of the bars and into the street! I want to recruit you!
FYI: For information on forming a GLBTQIQ Band Call 504-945-6789
For information on Pride New Orleans Celebration call: 504-587-7773
February 2012
Ah it is Mardi Gras Season Again!
'Are you passing a good time' as the parades and King Cake go bye? Well I am and all this revelry causes me to want to share some interesting folklore with you! Did you know the colors of Carnival were chosen in 1872 by that year's Rex. By some accounts the colors were chosen because Rex thought they looked good together. Twenty years later for the 1892 parade Rex declared that the colors had meaning purple for justice green for faith and gold for power. Virtues that we could all use more of today!!! Of course what would the season be without King cake which came to New Orleans from France in the late 1800s for the celebration. Legend has it the cake twisted and shaped like a crown and decorated with the royal colors was originally baked in honor of the three wise kings that visited baby Jesus and served the Tuesday before Lent. More understanding tells us a gold coin or dried chick pea and glass beads were originally hidden inside of the King Cake representing the baby Jesus. More recently replaced by the plastic baby which most of us are a custom. Whoever finds the token of baby Jesus in their slice of King Cake will have a year of good luck. That person is also obligated to bake the King Cake next year for Mardi Gras day. Then there is that melody heard this time of year considered by some a silly nonsensical yet magically enchanting tune. "If Ever I Cease to Love" has been the royal anthem of the Rex organization since its first procession in 1872.
“If ever I cease to love
If ever I cease to love
May fish get legs and cows lay eggs
If ever I cease to love“
The song was immensely popular before Rex's first parade. Published in 1871 in England the sheet music identified it as a "Comic Song" written composed and sung by George Leybourne of Newcastle whose claim to fame is that he wrote "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze." The 'Love” song was pirated in New York by a performer named Lydia Thompson who made it part of her highly successful burlesque show "Blue Beard " which went on tour around the country. A songbook of her most popular songs titled "If Ever I Cease to Love " was published. Coincidentally she and her troupe were performing in New Orleans at the time of the first Rex parade. Coinciding with that historic event was the arrival in New Orleans of the Russian Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovich Romanov who was also touring the United States. Romanov had a grad ladies reputation. Allegedly he had seen Lydia Thompson sing in St. Louis. Some believe he followed her to New Orleans. Undoubtedly the promoters and media milked this for added publicity for the theater and the parade. Prior to coming here the Grand Duke had also been on a buffalo hunt in Nebraska with Gen. George Armstrong Custer and Gen. Philip Sheridan. Clearly the song's lyrics were localized with references to the city in which it was performed. Another of the Rex song's choruses even pokes at the subject:
May the Grand Duke Alexis
Ride a buffalo in Texas
If ever I cease to love.
While it may all seem to much to believe truly legendary romance entwined with intrigue and embellishment can become perpetuated. It's one of those stories you want to believe. Maybe the royal band at the parade played the song in the grand duke's honor. Or in honor of his alleged romance with Thomson. Maybe the duke himself sang the song to her. It clearly would have been sheer heresy if the duke was honored with anything but the Russian national anthem. In the New Orleans Times of Feb. 10 1872 Rex published a notice stating that each band was expected to play the royal anthem "If Ever I Cease to Love" while passing in review before his majesty. The Rex organization defines it in this statement from their web page: "Legend has long romantically linked the Grand Duke with the singer and suggested that 'If Ever I Cease to Love' was performed for the Grand Duke because of his romantic interest in Miss Thompson, " the site reads. "While this is a good story it is probably not quite true. Bands performed the Russian national anthem for the Grand Duke and when Rex dismounted on Canal Street to review the parade the bands played 'If Ever I Cease to Love.' “ The Picayune newspaper reported that Romanov attended a variety of events at night while he was here and many songs were played in his honor but he never visited the Academy of Music where Thompson was performing. Despite an invitation to a specific performance by Thompson that her promoters passed along to the duke's aides and leaked to the press he was a no show according to the news reports. That particular February night the paper reported Romanov dined at the Louisiana Jockey Club reveling late into the night.
While we still revel very late into Mardi Gras night more than a century later after the first Rex parade here in New Orleans it is mindful of us to remember that we sure could use some justice faith and power! Despite all the fun and majesty of Carnival our city our country and even our world are in various states of chaos. Regardless of economical social or criminal difficulties the fact is we have plenty of challenges! I do indeed challenge you to stand for justice by making demands of those in leadership to be faithful to their constituents because that is a right you are empowered with that should not be overlooked. Finally I would like to encourage you not only in dutiful Carnival milieu but everyday NEVER cease to LOVE! “We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” Live in the light of these words from 1Corinthians this and everyday! Go Pass A Good Time!!!
ps.The Pride New Orleans Celebration committee is preparing to bring our community the premiere G.L.B.T.Q.I.Q. PRIDE event June 11th -17 2012. If your business would like to host a fundraiser, be a vendor/sponsor or if you or your group would like to volunteer please contact: The Destiny Foundation at 504.587.7773 or www.destinypage.net
United we stand! Out of the bars and into the street! I want to recruit you!
