As the May 16 tornado carved a path of destruction northeast from Clayton to Pontoon Lake in Illinois, it hit particularly hard in the Central West End and many predominantly Black neighborhoods of north St. Louis.
The tornado damaged nine churches whose members participate in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s IN UNISON Chorus, an ensemble that showcases work by composers from the African diaspora.
The IN UNISON Chorus will participate along with the SLSO and the St. Louis Symphony Chorus in a Sunday benefit concert at the Fabulous Fox Theatre. Contemporary gospel star BeBe Winans will be a featured vocalist.
Concert proceeds will benefit the Urban League’s efforts to support tornado survivors in north St. Louis.
North St. Louis churches damaged by the tornado — some catastrophically — include Centennial Christian Church, the Cathedral at Pleasant Grove, Westside Missionary Baptist Church, Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church, St. Peter Claver Parish, Greater Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, Cote Brilliante Presbyterian and New Cote Brilliante Church of God.
IN UNISON Chorus has already performed twice since the tornado, in addition to holding regular rehearsals. Many of its members credit the healing powers of music as a source of strength while they navigate disrupted lives and damaged homes and churches.
“It’s grounding,” Carole Dula-Bell said of her participation with the chorus since the tornado. “It helped give me some sense of peace, and recenter, so that I could continue to manage every other area of my life.”
As the ensemble gathered to rehearse this week at Manchester United Methodist Church with chorus Director Kevin McBeth, Dula-Bell and two other IN UNISON Chorus members spoke about their experiences with the chorus, the tornado’s impact on their lives and what it will mean to sing on Sunday for the benefit of friends, family and fellow parishioners who are struggling to recover.
On singing with the IN UNISON Chorus
Gwendolyn Wesley: I started with Robert Ray, who was our founding director. He and I had known each other through our church, Westside Missionary Baptist Church. He asked if I’d participate, and I gratefully agreed. It’s been a beautiful experience, just beautiful.
Carole Dula-Bell: I initially came in right after COVID. It really fuels my musical heart. I just love it. Hearing all of the voices come together, hearing all the intricacies, working with the director, and singing music from composers from the African diaspora has been really life-changing. That doesn't happen very many places. In collegiate spaces from 2003 to 2008, I don't think we sang any African American composers.
Karen Thomas-Stuart: I've been a member for 20-plus years. I also sing with the Spirit Church. Music has always been a part of my life. I write songs and sing worship and praise music.
On the tornado and its immediate aftermath
Dula-Bell: My mom, my godmother and I were home. I was actually going to go to Target, and my mom stopped me and she said there was a tornado warning. A lot of us shrug it off, because we get tornado warnings often. But she came right outside and said, "You need to come back inside."
We all went into the basement. It was maybe seven to 10 minutes between the alert and the tornado hitting. We suddenly just heard that train whistle sound, we heard rain and then we heard glass shattering everywhere. We saw this fine dust just start filling the basement. The devastation that that tornado caused in just a 10-minute timeframe is surreal. In the blink of an eye, your whole world is turned upside down.
Wesley: There was a call from our church to come and help to clean up some of the debris. Trees fell on the doors of our church, on the balcony and kind of went through the roof. Water came into the building. We realized that we could not worship in there because of the damage.
We all did what we could, but the trees that fell were much larger than our equipment could handle. There was nothing else we could do except wait for our insurance company to come and do an assessment, and work through what it would take to get the building back in shape for us to return. In the meantime, we're at our North County location.
We just celebrated 94 years as a church family. The Page campus was the original site, and so there's just no way we can just give up that location.
Thomas-Stuart: My son and I were at home. We were in the stairwell that was the designated spot to shelter, and we heard all the glass shatter, and we could feel the wind just going through. Then all of a sudden it stopped, and we went out, and there was just glass and dirt and leaves and dust throughout the house, from the first floor to third floor. Two rooms in the back of the house were actually open to the atmosphere, which I didn’t even know until the next day. Until midnight I was just moving all my important things out of the house, since it would have been easy access for anyone to enter.
On getting through the weeks since the tornado
Dula-Bell: My husband and I had to move in with my aunt, who lives in Creve Coeur. Our house is still standing, but then driving to north city — houses are gone. There are people out here whose entire livelihood is demolished. Now they are in tents next to the roof that was over their heads. Over the course of the past couple of weeks, homes that were standing have now crumbled, bit by bit.
There’s the adrenaline you have in those first couple weeks of just trying to get everything in order and putting everything in place. Then the adrenaline finally wears off and you feel like you got hit by a train. What makes it worse is that you're still dealing with it, but now you have to resume life as normal. You still have to go back to work.
Thomas-Stuart: My husband died in December, so it’s been a lot. I'm thankful that I do have insurance. But I'm staying in a Residence Inn and probably will be for a while.
There are a lot of people living with some great upheaval, but there are ways to help them to be calm — through music, through providing funds and food.
Wesley: Just knowing that others in the chorus may have lost their homes — there's really no way to ease that pain, other than to try to do concerts like this, offer words of encouragement and if at all possible, identify resources that people can get to to help them get whole again.
On how participation in the IN UNISON Chorus has helped after the tornado
Dula-Bell: I didn't realize how much normalcy I needed until I was able to come to my first IN UNISON Chorus rehearsal after everything happened. It was the first time in like a two-week time span that I could just sit down and breathe. It was an anchor for me, personally.
Wesley: I retired a few years ago, but this concert is an opportunity to be part of something that's going to help the community. It’s comforting to know that you can still use your gifts, your skills, your talents, to uplift other people.
Music heals. Music binds us together. Music gives us a place to deposit our pain. But it also gives us a place to celebrate, with joy, those things that we have in common. Music keeps us going. In times of struggle, you can pull those songs out of your spirit, out of your soul, and those songs help you to keep going.
Thomas-Stuart: Just getting back into some singing and some music was very important to me, and it kind of helped bring some normalcy back to my life so we can move forward.
Music lifts the soul. It draws people together. It is so spiritual, and it really invokes the presence of God. And at a time like this, there's such a big need for love, and for support, and for God.
