Entertainment

Soul Singers Come to the Aid of Rosie Gaines with Benefit, Jan. 31

Published

11 years ago

January 26, 2015

Oakland soul singer Brenda Vaughn began planning a fundraiser benefit for her friend, singer and keyboardist Rosie Gaines, who has gone through periods of homelessness and was hospitalized for most of last year.

The benefit, “I Am My Sister’s Keeper,” is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 31, 8 p.m. at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, 410 14^th Street in Oakland. It will feature a star-studded lineup of performers, including Lenny Williams, D’Wayne Wiggins of Tony Toni Tone, Wilton Rabb of Graham Central Station, Tuck and Patti, Tony Dwayne and Levi Seacer.

Brenda Vaughn

While in Singapore for an engagement at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Vaughn received reports from back home about the plight of her friend, each one more alarming than the last.

Gaines, who is best known for her duet with Prince on his 1993 hit “Diamonds and Pearls,” had spent much of her time in and out of the hospital after her legs had become swollen and seriously infected since she stopped taking her insulin.

Gaines, according to Vaughn, is now living in a homeless shelter in Richmond, where staff is making sure she takes her medication.

“I knew she was in trouble for over a year,” said Vaughn, while sitting in her office at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle in Oakland.

Gaines – from Pittsburg, CA – had been a popular attraction at such local venues as Earle’s Solano Club, Yoshi’s and the Great American Music Hall prior to joining Prince’s New Power Generation in 1989.

“I was thinking I’d send $300 or something to help out, but it just kept coming back to me. Once I found out she had nowhere to stay, I felt like I was supposed to do something bigger,” said Vaughn.

Vaughn began orchestrating the benefit in November while in Singapore and reached out to several Bay Area entertainers, asking them to part in the event. In December, at the end of her long-term contract with the hotel, Vaughn flew home to recruit more participants and put the final touches on the benefit.

Other performing vocalists include Vaughn, Tiffany Austin, Faye Carol, Melvin Carter, Darlene Coleman, La Toya Gaines, Nikita Germaine, Derick Hughes, Tara Kemp, Lady Bianca, Charlene Moore, Terrie Odabi, Otis Redding III and former En Vogue member Maxine Jones.

Vaughn said Gaines is expected to attend.

“Her legs have been getting better,” said La Toya, 37. “Since she has diabetes, it’s going to take a long time for them to heal. If she stops taking her medicine and her legs get re-infected, they’re going to end up having to amputate them. We’re trying to avoid that at all costs.”

Proceeds from the benefit will go towards housing where Gaines’ only child, La Toya, can help her 54-year-old mother get back on her feet, physically and mentally, and provide other living necessities.

Prince, according to a very reliable source, “is absolutely helping.”

Admission is $30. For tickets, visit www.geoffreysinnercircle.com.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

1 week ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.

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50 Years Later, ‘Wake Up Everybody!’ Still Resonates During Black Music

The words of the song, “Wake Up Everybody,” debuted by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1975, still resonate today as those words are just as relevant more than a half century later.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

iStockphoto.

By Hazel Trice Edney, Special to The Post

Hazel Trice Edney

“Wake up, everybody, No more sleepin’ in bed

No more backward thinkin’. Time for thinkin’ ahead

The world has changed so very much from what it used to be.

There is so much hatred, war, and poverty.

“The world won’t get no better If we just let it be.

Naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw.

The world won’t get no better. We gotta change it, yeah– just you and me.”

The words of the song, “Wake Up Everybody,” debuted by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes in 1975, still resonate today as those words are just as relevant more than a half century later.

In a rare, nearly somber moment, the group’s celebrated lead singer, Teddy Pendergrass, introduced the song on Soul Train, the weekly dance and live performance TV show that aired roughly between 1971 and 2006. Pendergrass told the attentive live audience and thousands watching by television that Wake Up Everybody, the title tune of their most recent album, was intended to inspire people to take action with a goal to change America for the better.

“I’m sure that you will all agree that there are things that need to be done in this country today,” he said. “So, what I’d like for you to do is listen very carefully to see what you can do to lend a hand.”

The song’s appeal worked.

“I played that song over and over and over again because it was a constant warning to keep ourselves prepared for the society that we were living in,” says A. Peter Bailey, then a 37-year-old former aide to Malcolm X.

When “Wake Up Everybody” hit the airwaves, Bailey was working as an associate editor of Ebony Magazine. “It was a call to be aware of what we were dealing with in the country that we lived in, the world we lived in, the neighborhood we lived in, the cities that we lived in,” Bailey said in an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire.

He concluded that during Black Music Month 2026, such songs should be recalled and celebrated as a key to changes for the good across America; especially because such songs successfully encouraged people to deal with the issues that might otherwise denigrate the promises of America, including the promise that “All men are created equal,”as stated in the Declaration of Independence.

“The rhythms and blues expressed our joys, our sorrows and our fears,” Bailey recalls. “It was those songs and the singing of those songs by our people that attracted us to the campaigns for justice.”

With his life inspired by that song and others, Bailey, now 88, went on to establish and teach a Black Press class at Virginia Commonwealth University. Also, he has since written three books, including a memoir, “Witnessing Brother Malcolm X, the Master Teacher,” in which he expounded upon successful principles of social justice, some of which are reflected in “Wake Up Everybody.”

Long before the term “woke” became associated with campaigns for justice, Pendergrass led the song that reverberated across America and still holds deep meaning.

The ‘wake up’ call exhorts teachers to ‘teach a new way,’ doctors to heal elders, and builders to ‘build a new land… we can do it if we all lend a hand.”

The song concludes:

“The world won’t get no better if we just let it be. Naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw, naw. The world won’t get no better. We gotta change it, yeah – just you and me.”

Hazel Trice Edney wrote this story as part of a four-part series powered by AARP in commemoration of Black Music Month, June 2026.