A Gospel Music Tribute to Charles and Frankie Pace

2001 Wylie Avenue,Pittsburgh PA 15219

25 March, 2023

Description

1:00pm Lecture - University of Pittsburgh (340 Hillman Library, 3960 Forbes Ave)3:30pm Rededication of Frankie Pace Park - (901 Centre Ave at Washington St., with her family members!)5:00pm - VIP Reception (Ebenezer Church)7:00pm - Gospel Music Concert - (Ebenezer Church)ABOUT THIS EVENTYou have heard of Charles and Frankie Pace as a married couple and as individuals, for their music and civic engagement, respectively.Celebrate an important but little-known piece of Pittsburgh history at these FREE ACTIVITIES---the lecture, the rededication of the park, the VIP reception and the concert!The Paces ran one of the nation's first and most successful independent Black gospel music publishing businesses out of the Hill District from the 1930s to the 1980s. Charles composed and printed his own songs, and Frankie helped distribute the music to a nationwide network of Black-owned stores. Their work helped establish the conventions of gospel music and create the infrastructure of the emerging gospel industry. Their music brought people together around all sorts of causes, shaping the Pittsburgh we know today.Once believed to be lost, much of Charles's music is being recovered from items that survive from his publishing business.Come hear his songs for the first time in decades!This will be a day filled with activities honoring the legendary and historic work of Charles and Frankie Pace in his development of early Gospel music in both Chicago and Pittsburgh and for her unparalleled civic engagement.The above pictures of Frankie Pace in front of Pace's store and receiving the NAACP Award come from the Teenie Harris Archive at Carnegie Museum of Art. The other photos come from the Charles and Frankie Pace Collection, Center for American Music, University of Pittsburgh Library System. Please credit and/or license these pictures appropriately.