Dream weaver

>> Danny Eason goes where angels fear to tread

by GERARD DEE

New York-based choir director Danny Eason has been active in his church choir since the impressionable age of four. He says the decision to become involved in gospel music was made for him: "I really believe that God chose me," he says. "He gave me the gift."

Eason decided to take his talents beyond his church and out into the larger community. So in 1992 he organized the Brooklyn Youth Community Choir. But the name just didn't fit.

"Kids were coming up to me and saying they wanted to join the choir, but they were scared because they thought it was only for kids from Brooklyn." Instead of worrying, he turned to a tried-and-true tactic: he slept on it. That's when he had a life-altering dream.

"I saw myself standing in front of a choir, conducting. And also in that same dream, the name of the choir came to me." The name stuck and the Abundant Life Youth Crusade Choir was born. Six years later Eason's dream has become a reality for over 100 young people from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. From the beginning, Eason has focused his energy on youth--it simply made the most sense.

"First of all, I'm one of them, so I can identify with them better than an older person," says the 25-year-old Eason. "I think they accept me more. A lot of times kids will come up to me and tell me things they don't want to tell anybody else. They don't want to tell an older person because they think they'll get judged. They tell me and they know it won't go anywhere."

He sees gospel as a way of showing kids how to do the right thing, as well as more positive ways to use their energy. Which is why the Abundant Life Choir now includes a basketball team and a nurses' unit. But it's still very much about the music; more specifically, taking the music where it's needed most. Even to prison.

"My manager got the call to play at Riker's Island and at first I was like, 'I ain't gonna play in no prison.' But when we got there, the response was overwhelming. They started participating in the ministry. They were jumping up and singing their own lyrics--I don't know what they were singing, but they were singing to all the songs."

Danny Eason & Abundant Life Youth Crusade Choir perform with Umoja Gospel Choir & Family at the Evangel Pentecostal Church, 1235 Lambert Closse (Atwater metro) on Saturday, November 28, 6:30pm, $20