fontman
07-21-06, 07:19 AM
French Creek offers lunch-time talent
July 21,2006
ANNE CLARK
JACKSONVILLE DAILY NEWS STAFF
With its dim lighting and the steady boom and thump pumped from stage speakers, the room could have been any Jacksonville club at night.
Except that the Marines in the audience were still in uniform, mostly desert digital cammies.
And whenever one of them entered the room, the open door let in a wide crack of sunlight.
It was about noon on Wednesday at the French Creek recreation center, and the lunchtime talent show was in full swing.
Two young ladies rapped in harmony on the parquet floor stage. For singer Sheliah Jelks, it was like coming home.
"My dad's in the military, and I used to perform before his friends," said Jelks, who's also in college studying sports medicine.
"I've always been interested in singing, but could never score a gig," said Jelks. "Then I heard our friend, a deejay, had a place for us to sing."
She and singer Kameshia Rogers performed like naturals, treading into the crowd and crooning to the service members face to face.
The young men whooped and cheered in response.
The on-base talent show, organized by the rec center staff as well as active duty Marines, has been running for a few weeks now.
"Our assistant manager, Arthur Miller, listens to Marines," said George Steele, manager of the French Creek rec center. "He heard them one evening asking about it; this is what they want."
What they want is an open mic, a deejay, and a floor big enough for anyone who wants to get up and rap, boogie, or rhyme.
"We let them relax for a minute, give them a reprieve," said Steele, a retired Gunnery Sgt. Besides the stage area, the rec center has eight pool tables and a bank of computers. Table tennis and chess teams also compete here.
In the future, talent show acts may be competing for prizes. But for now it's all about the applause, and lightening the load of young service members for a few hours.
The lunchtime jams have boosted attendance at the rec center; rec assistant Rebecca Phillips said that the crowd was about double the usual size, to about 200.
"It's bigger because of this," said Phillips, pointing to the stage. With the other hand, she was carrying a round metal tray loaded with pizza.
The French Creek rec center offers free lunches on Wednesdays, which was another draw for the hungry crowd.
The high energy emcee, Gunnery Sgt. Rodney Murphy, called on the audience to give it up for each act, comparing the showcase of talent to the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem.
He introduced Staff Sgt. Lawrence "Life" Dean as a poet.
The beat stopped, the pool tables stilled, and the room hushed as Dean rapped his own "Rescue 911" into the mic. The song began with service members taking a lot of questions from family about why they're in Iraq.
"Why die and fight? Because she called," Dean sang. "I needed to know nothing else, except she called."
He said it was no time to think about the issues that divide Americans, not when young men and women are on their way to combat, and children ask their daddies why they have to leave.
But "don't you cry for me; freedom was never free," Dean sang, honoring combat veterans. They gave him the right to call himself Haitian, Jamaican, Hindu, Muslim.
"Thank you for preserving my right to be free," Dean ended, and the audience rose in a roar of tan cammies and claps that lasted nearly a full minute.
Later, the avionics instructor from MCAS Cherry Point said that he'd originally written the song for a homecoming gathering of Marines.
"They take on monumental situations with no concern for their own life," said Dean, who'll appear in a poetry competition in Jacksonville's Stratusphere on Aug. 4.
The rec center's talent show might rotate to evenings in the future, but for now the lunchtime jams will "pump up the afternoons," said organizer Staff Sgt. Demetric Hunter.
July 21,2006
ANNE CLARK
JACKSONVILLE DAILY NEWS STAFF
With its dim lighting and the steady boom and thump pumped from stage speakers, the room could have been any Jacksonville club at night.
Except that the Marines in the audience were still in uniform, mostly desert digital cammies.
And whenever one of them entered the room, the open door let in a wide crack of sunlight.
It was about noon on Wednesday at the French Creek recreation center, and the lunchtime talent show was in full swing.
Two young ladies rapped in harmony on the parquet floor stage. For singer Sheliah Jelks, it was like coming home.
"My dad's in the military, and I used to perform before his friends," said Jelks, who's also in college studying sports medicine.
"I've always been interested in singing, but could never score a gig," said Jelks. "Then I heard our friend, a deejay, had a place for us to sing."
She and singer Kameshia Rogers performed like naturals, treading into the crowd and crooning to the service members face to face.
The young men whooped and cheered in response.
The on-base talent show, organized by the rec center staff as well as active duty Marines, has been running for a few weeks now.
"Our assistant manager, Arthur Miller, listens to Marines," said George Steele, manager of the French Creek rec center. "He heard them one evening asking about it; this is what they want."
What they want is an open mic, a deejay, and a floor big enough for anyone who wants to get up and rap, boogie, or rhyme.
"We let them relax for a minute, give them a reprieve," said Steele, a retired Gunnery Sgt. Besides the stage area, the rec center has eight pool tables and a bank of computers. Table tennis and chess teams also compete here.
In the future, talent show acts may be competing for prizes. But for now it's all about the applause, and lightening the load of young service members for a few hours.
The lunchtime jams have boosted attendance at the rec center; rec assistant Rebecca Phillips said that the crowd was about double the usual size, to about 200.
"It's bigger because of this," said Phillips, pointing to the stage. With the other hand, she was carrying a round metal tray loaded with pizza.
The French Creek rec center offers free lunches on Wednesdays, which was another draw for the hungry crowd.
The high energy emcee, Gunnery Sgt. Rodney Murphy, called on the audience to give it up for each act, comparing the showcase of talent to the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem.
He introduced Staff Sgt. Lawrence "Life" Dean as a poet.
The beat stopped, the pool tables stilled, and the room hushed as Dean rapped his own "Rescue 911" into the mic. The song began with service members taking a lot of questions from family about why they're in Iraq.
"Why die and fight? Because she called," Dean sang. "I needed to know nothing else, except she called."
He said it was no time to think about the issues that divide Americans, not when young men and women are on their way to combat, and children ask their daddies why they have to leave.
But "don't you cry for me; freedom was never free," Dean sang, honoring combat veterans. They gave him the right to call himself Haitian, Jamaican, Hindu, Muslim.
"Thank you for preserving my right to be free," Dean ended, and the audience rose in a roar of tan cammies and claps that lasted nearly a full minute.
Later, the avionics instructor from MCAS Cherry Point said that he'd originally written the song for a homecoming gathering of Marines.
"They take on monumental situations with no concern for their own life," said Dean, who'll appear in a poetry competition in Jacksonville's Stratusphere on Aug. 4.
The rec center's talent show might rotate to evenings in the future, but for now the lunchtime jams will "pump up the afternoons," said organizer Staff Sgt. Demetric Hunter.