Tech Gospel Extravaganza To Evoke Hope Through Music

The Omicron Phi Chapter of Tennessee Tech’s Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity will host its Gospel Extravaganza Sunday with Trinity Baptist Church.

Omicron Phi Faculty Advisor Harry Ingle said gospel ensembles from Cookeville and beyond will perform music that will leave attendees hopeful and inspired. He said music has always held a prominent role within the African American community.

“The music would sort of evoke feelings of hope and encouragement to people,” Ingle said. “That their spirits would be uplifted, but it also would maybe connect them to a time of meaning for them.”

Ingle said the combining choirs from the fraternity and the church brings attendees a powerful fusion of different elements of black culture. He said as popularity has grown, the event has outgrown every space it has ever been held in. Sunday’s installation will be held at 2:30pm in the Roaden University Center and is open to the public.

“You get to fellowship and worship with people from the local community, but also people from outside of the Cookeville community as well,” Ingle said. “It brings in other people to the town. Just a great time.”

Ingle said in the past, choirs from MTSU and ensembles of more than 25 singers from around the state have come to the event to perform. He said the event was started by the brothers of the sorority in the 1990s and has grown stronger with each passing year.

“It’s really exciting to see it continue to sort of grow in the way that it has to sort of get back to, you would say, its former glory previously before Covid,” Ingle said.

Ingle said the choirs provide a reminder of the power of music to all of those who come and listen.