My guest today is Horace Turnbull. Horace has spent his life devoted to positively shaping kids lives and uplifting community, through the value and power of the arts. Horace grew up in segregated Greenville, MS, in high school he helped farm families find housing, formed recreational activity program for young people, majored in sociology and psychology at Tougaloo College, before moving to New York. He began his career in a child welfare agency as a child care worker, and for the last 3 years of his career, before retiring 4 years ago, was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for St. Christopher’s, a residential treatment center and school for children with emotional disabilities and special needs.
In the decades in between, Horace was involved with the the world-renowned Boys Choir of Harlem (BCH), that his brother Walter founded in 1968. Horace was an incorporating officer of BCH and helped partner with NYC in creating a coeducational Choir Academy of Harlem. BCH instilled values of self worth, discipline and respect, teaching the choir that they were citizens of the world. Whether they sang classical, rock, jazz, blues, hip-hop or spirituals they were expected to sing every genre with the same fervor, enthusiasm, and quality. Horace was elected the president of the African American Male Collaboration, inspired by the pioneering work of Dr. Bobby Austin. Horace is also an elder at Berea Seventh Day Adventist Church in Nyack, NY and cares deeply about educating people about the roots, ingenuity and dignity of the Negro Spirituals.
Check out the show notes for links to a recent article on Horace and background on Dr. Bobby Austin, who Horace mentioned when speaking of the African American Male Collaboration.
Enjoy the podcast!
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Links:
Email Horace
The Journal News/LoHud
Bobby William Austin/Wikipedia
