{"id":152900,"date":"2026-03-31T02:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T02:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/152900\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T02:51:15","slug":"were-trying-to-keep-harry-alive-harry-t-burleigh-spirituals-festival-wraps-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/152900\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019re trying to keep Harry alive\u2019 \u2014 Harry T. Burleigh Spirituals Festival wraps up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">World-class performers and students from a variety of colleges are honoring the life and legacy of Erie-born composer Harry T. Burleigh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Saturday night, the 105 Voices of History National HBCU Choir and other artists performed at Mercyhurst University.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/gannon-university-holds-annual-multicultural-dance-night\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Gannon University holds annual Multicultural Dance Night;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Gannon University holds annual Multicultural Dance Night&quot;}\"> Gannon University holds annual Multicultural Dance Night <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The concert concluded the four-day Harry T. Burleigh Spirituals Festival that took place this week, exploring the depth and riches of the composer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Johnny Johnson, the president of the Burleigh Legacy Alliance, said it\u2019s important to recognize his historical impact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cOne of the things that we have to do as we grow older is leave something for future generations,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cAll we\u2019re trying to do, I guess I\u2019ll be like Jessie Jackson, keep hope alive. We\u2019re trying to keep Harry alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The festival usually takes place at Tennessee State University, but for its 10th anniversary, organizers wanted to celebrate at Burleigh\u2019s home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World-class performers and students from a variety of colleges are honoring the life and legacy of Erie-born composer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[69489,136,138,137,58203,69488,69487,6895,69490],"class_list":["post-152900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-burleigh-legacy-alliance","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-harry-t-burleigh","tag-history-national-hbcu-choir","tag-johnny-johnson","tag-mercyhurst-university","tag-world-class-performers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}