Posted by By Lorrie Irby Jackson – Dallas South News Contributor
The calendar, retail shops and restaurants all want you to remember that Valentine’s Day is right around the corner: your kids are sealing and sending greetings for the class party, your co-worker is bragging about the bouquet her honey is sending her and a buddy just won’t shut up about the cruise he’s got planned for the Mrs.
But what if you’re facing this declared day of love and romance all by yourself? What if you’re working through a separation, have a divorce on the horizon or haven’t had a good date in ages? Do you stay behind closed doors curled up on the couch watching that hokey movie marathon on the Lifetime channel, or shoot hoops in the gym until you drop?
Not this year, because Dallas’ own Angela Blair has a treat for your ears and that broken heart during this weekend’s “Jazz/Blues Lovesfest 2010.”
The locally-grown and nationally-known performer is headlining the evening of food, festivities, giveaways and live entertainment at the Fiesta Event Center, which is hosted by 94.5KSOUL’s Tony Bee and featuring internationally known jazz saxophonist Keith Anderson (www.fullofsoul.com), Blues Man TuTu Jones, Famed poet, and Micheal Guinn, to name a few.
She’s manifested her gift of song by appearing in a Hollywood film (cast as an “Angel of Mercy” in the motion picture “Leap of Faith” with Steve Martin and Liam Neeson), sharing the stage with a who’s who of R&B and inspirational superstars (Albertina Walker, Kim Burrell, John Legend, Byron Cage, Mary Mary, John Legend, Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Frankie Beverly & Maze, Aretha Franklin, Yolanda Adams, Beyonce and many more) and independently released two well-received solo CDs (2004’s Give Me Your Love and 2006’s It’s All About Love, with a follow-up due later this year), all while being a wife and mother.
But while she’s always celebrated the holiday, this year’s Valentine’s Day has a different feel for Ms. Blair, since this is her first as a single woman.
“I want to share ministry through the music,” she says about living through the ordeal of the out-of-the-blue breakup and its painful aftermath for herself and the couple’s three children. “I’ve been all the way around, knowing who I amwith and without someone, and I just want the single and separated people to know that if you hold one just one more hour, one more day, one more week to see what’s going to happen on the side, God has it under control.”
Not that seventeen years of married life wasn’t difficult to let go of: when Ms. Blair takes the stage on Sunday night to perform well-known anthems of love and empowerment (“No More Drama,” “Let It Go,” “Me, Myself and I,” etc.), she reveals that she’s experiencing the totality of the emotions now because the abandonment by her now-ex husband took her to those same depths of depression and despair.
It took nearly two years to get closure, but what Ms. Blair wants the newly-single to realize is that they can heal, move forward and one day, love again. “Divorce is not a scarlet letter. My mother was my rock throughout the entire ordeal, and with God’s help, I was able to sit there and realize who and what I was married to, sign off and let him go.
After the hearing, I was able to go back and say to our kids ‘we’re going to forgive him, God held us together for a reason and we’re gonna continue to love him no matter what.’ ” And like many other artists, Ms. Blair’s balm for her wounded heart was writing through the crisis, penning songs that will appear on her latest CD about working through the pain (“Better”) and telling the guilty to get to steppin’ (“Do U”).
Her ultimate message? Even if you’re not part of a couple this year, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself. “We’re gonna make sure that they if you don’t have anybody now, that they at least nurture and love themselves. So I’ll be doing that with the messages in my music, and I’m hoping by the end of the night, even if they’re not married or ‘booed up,’ we can teach them how to fall in love with themselves again.”
CLICK ON LINK FOR TICKETS:
http://www.nearbyentertainment.net/pb/wp_16ff2c35/wp_16ff2c35.html
Tickets are also available at:
South Dallas Cafe, 3136 Grand Ave. Dallas, Texas (214) 428-8856
Attire is DRESS – UPSCALE/AFTER 5
The Fiesta Event Center is located at 704 S. Walton Walker Blvd., Dallas TX., 75211. Doors open at 7PM.
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