Houston Alliance President, Angela Bennett
River & Word Magazine, Houston, Texas.
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Angela Bennett, president of the Houston Alliance, an organization that is set to envolope gospel singers. Who is this beautiful, powerful woman that is leading Houston Alliance of Gospel Music Professionals,GMWA (Gospel Music Workshops of America).
When I asked Angela to tell me who she was outside of the Alliance, she said this "A Country Girl", born in Houston, to Carol Allen Simmons, my mom, and she was also a gospel artist. Her mother was known for singing, "Worthy Vessel". Angela is the oldest of four siblings, one sister and two brothers, which are all musically inclined. Her sister is a recording artist and her brother, Mark Simmons, played percussion for Grammy winner, Al Jarreau. One of her brother's is the financial king and tells the family what to do with their money.
Angela grew up in a single parent home, and the one thing she was taught by her mother was, without God, you can do nothing and to put "The Lord in the Fore Front of Everything You Do". Angela loves life-adventures, and she likes to do everything different. When her assistant said, well you know, so and so, did this, why don't you try it? Angela said, no lets try something different. When ever Angela would try something new, 90% of the time it worked out. She feels that most people want something different; although, some may struggle with change, it may take a second to get to the heart of a person.
Most everybody's life is different, try not to put judgement on people, and I like to get to know them, said, Angela.
Working in the public can be challenging and with people wanting the next big thing, the advice Angela offers is, "strive to be adventurous". In recalling her being adventurous, she remembered working in Japan for two-years, around the year of 2000 or so. Angela worked for Universal Studio's as a singer, while she lived in Japan. I asked her if it was crowded, she said, in the U.S., we are not use to living on top of each other, so I would say it was crowded. The culture in Japan is different, but once you have learned their ways it is a little easier. Living in Japan was a culture shock, but they loved our music, ways and our culture. They embraced what we brought to Japan and it was a great expereince, Angela said.
Living in Japan taught her to broaden her horizens and check to see what the other world is doing, which she suggested we all should do. According to Angela, "Japan only sold pieces of the chicken; whereas, the US sold whole chickens, Japan only sold pieces. They would sometimes cut the half-in-half, ha ha! Some of the Japanese said, we eat to much in America". To avoid going to the grocery store too often, Angela would fill up on groceries. The market in Japan sold everything fresh and there were no frozen veggies.
Angela had yet another adventure, when she lived in Chicago for ten years, where she experienced shoveling snow.
One of the reasons the Alliance was created, is because it was hard for a gospel Indie artist to get their music heard. Angela paused as she came back to the rememberance of being a "country girl" that lived in Houston, raised by a wonderful woman, and she is trying to carry on her legacy. In yet another pause, Angela joyfully said, I love being adventurous and enjoy life. Sometimes we can get over-whelmed with bills and life, but I want to enjoy this journey, I am striving to enjoy it. There is nothing like peace.
When asked to give some advice to our readers, Angela offered this, "Don't distrub your peace, wait until the person changes or let them go, if there is no change".
Houston Alliance
The Alliance is designed and created through the Gospel Workshop of America. Indie artist, with no label, would strive to sell their music and get it on the radio stations, to get the music heard. The artist were having a hard time, so they created an alliance all over the world, said Angela.
Angela is a gospel singer, and she has sang with Bishop Kenneth Wells out of California. He united the the conference calls with artist and appointed presidents. Eventually, he moved on from conference calls to radio.
Angela expressed how she wanted to have an agenda. Kenneth got queit, she said hello? He answered her by saying, you are the president for Houston! Angela quickly said No, let me pray about it for 3 days. He agreed, but told her she could pray all you want, but God said, its you! I had a good laugh off of the conversation between Angela and Kenneth. Well, needless to say, Angela did pray and said, "Lord, if I take this position, I want to get things done, I do not want to be a president that didn't work and just give the president wave! I had another good laugh at that comment, well I should say prayer; a president wave was the funniest thing I had ever heard, concerning a leadership position?
Active GMWA Membership range from professional and amateur Gospel vocalists to instrumentalists, composers, arrangers, directors and producer. As faith would have it, the Lord did answer Angela, and on the day He answered her, Bishop Wells was annoucing it on the radio! She said, sir! Why are you doing that? He answered her, I already knew it!
Angela loves to network; therefore, she will often refer to what she does as networking with all people. Her goal is to broaden the Alliance to all cultures of people, to work together and build a strong united Houston! Angela said, all people of all colors have talents, and I am networking to connect more talent other than singing, such as a chef, dancers, authors, writers etc. For an example Angela said, the NAACP had an event, but because their wasn't a network connection, people said, I would have gone if I had known. Her goal is to change that.
" We are one person away from reaching our goal, so lets network"! (Angela Bennett).
She wants to network on all levels. The Gospel Workshops of America was focused on Imdie artist, but Angela wants to focus on all levels of networking. When we get Houston involved, we can get things done, said An
gela. The Alliance is for everyone and we enjoy our meetings. The meetings address the following:
* What are you doing with your business?
* Are you contacting people?
Angela had found out she lost her VP, Ronald Materre, in passing on to be with the Lord. She didn't now how she would replace him, because she wants people on her team that will work.
Angela plans to approach the new year, Knocking the Walls Completely Down! Some walls had stopped the Alliance from doing what they needed to do, but Angela is determined not to let that happen in 2018. She exclaimed, "We have some heavy hitters for 2018"! The Alliance members have grown, and they are always re-inventing themsleves. One Alliance board member is Yolanda Adams, who recently performed the commencement for TSU. She has also started a clothing line, and she has her coffee business. She started off as a gospel singer, but she is doing more with her talents. As the president of the Alliance, Angela wants to see all members explore the many faucets of their God given talents.
This year, Angela wants to do a better job at following through with her members, to see why some are still in the same place, yet others have prospered. She is deteremined not to let anyone fall behind in 2018. To communicate with the members, she sends out an e-blast quarterly, that is loaded with inforamtion to assist the members. Angela said, "Its like a diet, we loose the first 10 pounds, then you stop". She feels a hard meeting is needed for memebers only, to see where they are missing it in getting some members to follow through.
Another awesome benefit in becoming an Houston Alliance member is you get the fringe benefits! For instance, when the Harvey storm left many people without homes, furniture etc, the Grammy gave out money to the victims. All you had to do was fill out the form. The Houston Alliance was able to inform their members about it and help them apply. The Grammy then gave the applicants a check.
At present, the Houston Alliance membership fee is only $50.00 to join, with approval. The meetings are quaterly, and is set as such to not over whelm its members with having to meet too often, with an already busy life. The next meeting is January 13, 2018, at 9 am in the Hampton Inn.
Angela Bennett has been so successful with the Alliance and its growth, that she has been asked to write a manual for all the Alliances. In growing the Alliance even further, Angela is believing God for a building. Her faith is that someone has a building that needs to be given to the Alliance. What brought her to this strong faith is her furniture in storage. She had no where to put the items, so she put it all in a storage unit. Angela knew within herself, that she needed to let it all go! A lady lost everything from the Harvey storm, and when Angela found out, she knew her furniture needed to be given away, it needed this lady. Needless to say, the lady was blessed with the furniture.
I am looking forward to the January 13th meeting and joining your team. God bless you mighty woman of God!
Pam J
