Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

A week of sharing 'strictly gospel'

The Gospel Music Workshop of America starts tonight with the 22nd Annual Gospel Music Excellence Awards ceremony.

TAMPA - All day Friday, mammoth video screens were erected. Upright pianos wheeled in. Amplifiers tested.

The 36th Annual Gospel Music Workshop of America had descended on the Tampa Convention Center.

Organizers expect as many as 20,000 delegates to attend the weeklong convention. Choirs are coming from all over the world, including Japan, France and Brazil. The list of performers reads like a Who's Who of gospel. Hip-hop gospel recording star Kirk Franklin will be here, as well as Edwin Hawkins, known for his 1969 classic Oh Happy Day.

Everything gospel - the music, the robes, the singers - will be found at the weeklong GMWA convention, which kicks off tonight with the crown jewel of GMWA: The Annual Gospel Music Excellence Awards ceremony. It begins at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center at 7.

Now in their 22nd year, the excellence awards are akin to the prestigious Dove Awards. But the Doves honor inspirational music categories in addition to gospel.

"We are strictly gospel," said Joyce Walker-Tyson, a spokeswoman for GMWA.

Voting in the excellence awards is limited to gospel industry professionals - deejays, announcers, producers and recording artists.

"They know the music and they know the industry," said Walker-Tyson. "So we feel our award really means something."

GMWA began in Detroit in 1967, founded by the Rev. James Cleveland, a prolific gospel recording artist. With a vocal style similar to jazz great Louis Armstrong, Cleveland - who died in 1991 at age 58 - wrote, arranged and produced 400 songs.

His premise for the convention was simple, said Walker-Tyson: "Let's get together and share songs with each other."

The first convention was held at the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit and was attended by about 3,000 gospel lovers, mostly from Detroit.

Today, GMWA has 75,000 members and 200 chapters worldwide.

The convention is held in a different city every August.

Key events this week are at the Tampa Convention Center, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and the Marriott Waterside. While many events are for delegates only, some are open to the public, including tonight's awards ceremony.

Many are free, although offerings toward convention expenses will be collected at most events, Walker-Tyson said.

The week is jam-packed.

At 11 Sunday morning at the convention center, there's a three-hour service, which is open to the public. Everyone is asked to wear white - signifying purity.

Holla!, a gospel comedy series, will be shown Sunday evening at the Marriott Waterside.

Monday through Thursday, from 7 a.m. to noon, music classes and lectures will be held. Then, from noon to 5 p.m. each day, there are meetings and rehearsals. Concerts and services go on every evening.

There are so many events that some begin at midnight, including a midnight fashion show, midnight madness sale - CDs, videos, robes - and on Thursday, a midnight debutante ball.

It's an agenda born out of necessity, said Walker-Tyson.

"We had to run a schedule from 6 a.m. to 3 a.m.," she said, "just to fit everything in."

The Gospel Music Workshop of America's annual convention opens with about 20,000 attendees. Some events are open to the public today, including:

7 p.m., 22nd Annual Gospel Music Excellence Awards with hosts Vickie Winans and Edwin Hawkins. Features many top gospel singers. $25-$60. Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 1010 N MacInnes Place, Tampa. Tickets are available at the convention registration area in the Tampa Convention Center, at the Performing Arts Center box office, 229-7827, or at www.tbpac.org

9-10:45 p.m., Tampa Chapter Welcome Musical. Tampa Convention Center ballroom, 333 S Franklin St. Offering taken.

11 p.m., Come as You Are Musical. Convention Center ballroom. Offering taken.

For more information: www.gmwa.org