Surface Stories are Shallow – Let’s Dig Deeper

Digging Deeper
Getting to The Rest of the Story

 

 

 

 

On May 12, 1991 an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters was presented to Joyce Garrett. I have been looking through the lists of these degree recipients, and gathering the information about them from Commencement Programs.

Lists of Names Mean Little

  • 1990 – Lawi Imathiu, Edwin L.D. Dils, Thomas Conlin, James T. Laney
  • 1991 – Joyce Garrett, James W. Rowley, Ernest L. Boyer
  • 1992 – Robert C. Byrd, George H. Dixon, Chi Kil Kim

Actually, each and every one of these people is impressive and deserving of such an honor. And this is but a sliver of the whole list. The whole list encompasses decades and decades full of names.

The stories behind them mean so much! It is these stories that inspire me to keep digging deeper. It is these stories that makes the lists interesting and exciting.

Joyce Garrett is just one great example of this. Joyce Garrett has been a force for music and for the transformation of lives for decades. In fact, her motto is “Choir is a tool for transforming lives.”

Against All Odds

In 1988, just three years before receiving her Honorary Doctorate at West Virginia Wesleyan, Joyce Garrett was invited to bring her choir to the International Youth and Music Festival in Vienna, Austria – the first all-African-American choir ever to be invited.

Against all odds, they were able to raise $160,000 to make the trip. Against all odds, the 54 students (only two of whom knew how to read music) were able to learn difficult classical music which had to be sung in German. Against all odds, they won second place behind the Latymer School from London (which was founded in 1624). That year, they didn’t even award a third place trophy because there was such a large gap between the top two groups and the scores of the next one.

In an article in the Washington Post this week, John Kelly referred to the 1988  group as, “Rocky meets Pitch Perfect with a bit of Stand By Me thrown in.

Here is a video of that group singing the music from that competition in Vienna and being congratulated by President Ronald Reagan at the White House on August 1, 1988. President Reagan praised the choir, saying,

“Your talent is manifest. Your brilliant performance in Europe was an inspiration to all of us. I don’t need to tell you about the kind of world-class competition you were up against or the fact that a good many of your competitors had plenty more resources behind them that you did, but you did have advantages. First, your talent. Second, your commitment and determination. You practiced endlessly, sometimes in Latin or German, and you raised the money for the trip yourselves. Third, the wonderful people behind you, and here I mean your parents, families, and friends. And most of all you had a secret weapon whose name was Joyce Garrett.”

They Sang in Wesley Chapel

The choir also presented a concert in Wesley Chapel on Feburary 23, 1991.

Program for Eastern High School Choir concert
February 23, 1991

Choir Is A Tool For Transforming Lives

Through the years, Joyce also created scholarship opportunities for her students, and many of them have taken the life lessons, determination, and confidence they gained to go to college and make a difference in the world. Generations of choir members.

Having just “discovered” this amazing lady this week, I found that the choir was having a 30th Anniversary Concert on July 7. Several of WVWC’s Alumni were gathered to celebrate the event.

WVWC Black Alumni gathering in D.C. July 2018
WVWC Black Alumni Gathering in the D.C. Area (nearly all of these are from Eastern High School and sang in Joyce Garret’s choir)

 

Dr. Joyce Garrett. Much more than a name on a list.

 

Sources and Related Articles:

 

One thought on “Surface Stories are Shallow – Let’s Dig Deeper”

  1. What a wonderful and inspiring story! Thank you for your work in keeping us posting in these “jewels” from the past that you are finding!

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