Amherst Media to Honor Amherst Area Gospel Choir and Director Jacqueline Wallace

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The Amherst Area Gospel Choir will be honored at Amherst Media's Second Annual Raise Your voice Gala. Photo: Amherst Area Gospel Choir

Source: Amherst Media

The Amherst Area Gospel Choir and Founding Director Jacqueline D. Wallace will receive the 15th annual Jean Haggerty Award for Community Engagement and Social Change at Amherst Media’s 2nd Annual Raise Your Voice Gala to be held Saturday, December 14 on the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the Student Union Ballroom.

Board president Vira Douangmany stated, “We are tremendously grateful to the life and work of Jacqueline Wallace whose passion and commitment remain unwavering in the cause of freedom and liberation whether in her professional life in social work or the countless community service hours she provides leading the Amherst Area Gospel Choir performing at numerous town sponsored and community-led events in the nearly two decades since the choir formed.”

Professor Amilcar Shabazz who serves on the honorary gala committee remarked, “Jackie’s choir builds upon a great tradition in the valley started by the late, great Horace Boyer at UMass.” Shabazz continued, “They share & keep alive a deep African tradition of uniting the human voice to uplift the human experience.”

Amherst Media invites the public to attend the ticketed event to celebrate with our 2024 awardees with dinner, performances and a dance mixer. Rep. Mindy Domb along with the regional manager for Congressman McGovern’s office, Koby Gardner-Levine, will present citations. Additional citations from the offices of State Senator Jo Comerford and Governor Maura Healey will also be mentioned.

The dinner, live performances and speaking portion of the evening will conclude by 8 p.m. followed by a dance mixer with music by D.J. Mikey Don.

Aside from singing by the choir, highlights of the program will include a year in review video reel chronicling what Amherst Media has produced in the preceding year. Indras Artistic Creations will perform Khmer dance to celebrate the recent Cambodian exhibit that Amherst Media helped to curate in partnership with the Amherst Historical Society. Amherst-Pelham Regional Public High School senior and spoken word artist Sanaa Johnson will also share her vocals.

Linda Zeigenbein, UMass Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Strategic Outreach and Engagement will provide opening remarks followed by a keynote address from Celia Johnston Blue, President and CEO of Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition. Ursa Shabazz, a member of the board of directors and host of Stardust Railway on 103.5 fm WCCH will emcee the event.

Raffle prizes from MGM, Cinemark, Amherst Coffee, and Loweway (Springfield based clothing brand) will be given out to lucky winners throughout the evening.

The 2nd Annual Raise Your Voice Gala is sponsored by UMass Dining, Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition, Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, BakuCare LLC, Florence Savings Bank, Greenfield Cooperative Bank, Encharter and Teixeira CPA, PC.

Why the Raise Your Voice Gala
The gala is being held to bring the local community together to celebrate Amherst Media’s role as a primary town hub that enables everyone to raise their voices by creating and editing their own video and online blog programming. The organization has been around for 48 years with the distinction of being the longest continuously-operating non-profit cable access center in the country.

More About Amherst Media
Amherst Media is a dynamic community organization covering the hubbub of Amherst from its government meetings to cultural and historical events to sports. And most importantly in this divided climate, Amherst Media is issue-blind: it encourages all sides to be presented and hashed out embracing the most political topics and welcoming passionate voices yearning to be heard.

More on the Jean Haggerty Award
The late Jean Haggerty was a beloved producer and Amherst Media board member who was committed to uplifting her community through organizing, advocacy and collective action. Each year since 2010, the Amherst Media Board of Directors recognizes an individual or organization to bestow the award named in her honor. The first award went to the late Isaac Ben-Ezra and has since included Amherst’s luminaries such as Cynthia Brubaker, Judy Brooks, Rep. Ellen Story and organizations including the Rotary Club, and the Amherst League of Women Voters.

More on Jean Haggerty:
Jean was a former Amherst Community Television producer, board member and activist. She chaired the Council on Aging and reactivated the Ann Whalen Tenants Association. Jean was a successful organizer and was passionate about advocacy, free speech, social justice, and service. Jean’s concern for those who have been denied an opportunity to be heard left an indelible mark in Amherst soon after her arrival from Texas in 2000. In 2009, the Jean Haggerty Award for Community Engagement and Social Justice was established in her honor. Jean joined the ancestors in May 2015.

Past Awardees:
In 2010 Amherst Media (known as Amherst Community Television at the time) awarded the first Jean Haggerty Award for Community Engagement and Social Change to Isaac Ben-Ezra. Below are the full roster of recipients from earliest to present:

Awardees since inception

2010: Isaac Ben-Ezra

2011: Cynthia Brubaker

2012: Ed Severance

2013: Founders of Student News: Joshua Wolsun, Jessie Chasan-Taber, Charles Brewer & Graham Churchill.

2014: Judy Brooks

2015: Jerry Gates

2016: Rep. Ellen Story

2017: The Rotary Club

2018: Amherst League of Women Voters

2019: Pat Ononibaku

2020: Elsie Fetterman

2021: Carlie Tartakov and Gary Tartakov

2022: CSWG: Tashina Bowman, Darius Cage, Debora Ferreira, Pat Ononibaku, Brianna Owen (co-chair), Russ Vernon-Jones, Ellisha Walker (co-chair)

2023: Vladimir Morales and Victoria Silva

2024: Jacqueline Wallace & The Amherst Area Gospel Choir

Past media coverage of the Amherst Area Gospel Choir

MassLive’s coverage of the Amherst Area Gospel Choir here:

Marcie Sclove’s interview with Jacqueline Wallace recorded at Amhwrst Media here:

Amherst League of Women Voters featuring Jacqueline Wallace

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