Dante Marcellous to perform his music at “Love Legacy” concert

Nationally-acclaimed vocalist and junior communications and electronic media major Dante Marcellous will perform a free concert titled "Love Legacy" Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Lang Auditorium.

Marcellous, who has been performing since 1996, began his career performing rhythm and blues with a group called Code Red, which appeared on Black Entertainment Television in 2007. He has since made the switch to gospel music and then  to what he calls "Christ music."

"My music is a genre in itself," he said. "It sounds like contemporary music — I guess it's a youth perspective on life as a Christian. And so you can hear topics that relate to lifestyle — so I guess you can call it a lifestyle form of music."

The concert, which will feature performances by Marcellous as well as Ellaysa Newton of Perfected Praise Dance Ministry and Gospel Rap artist Brion Martin, will examine two aspects of the month of February through a Christian perspective: Valentine's Day and Black History Month.

"There's lots of talk about love and romantic love and all that, and we just want to unpack the truth about love, different sorts of love — the Bible says that God is love, and we wanted to demonstrate that love by contributing a free concert for people to come and enjoy and experience some good music," said Chassidi Ferguson, a staff member of Shout Ministries in Waterloo and project manager for Marcellous's Band of Christians Christ Music Project.

The concert intends to examine what Ferguson sees as the commercialization of love, which is represented by a barcode heart on its promotional materials.

"It's depicting how sometimes it just feels like love is for sale," Ferguson said. "You know, it's Valentine's Day, and if you don't have that special someone, it feels like you don't have love. But really God has given us love through his son Jesus Christ, and he loves us with an everlasting love."

During the concert, Ferguson will highlight civil rights activists and the impact they have today.

"We have a legacy that a lot of people from generations before us have left — Dr. Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists," she said. "We wanted to talk about how God's love compelled them to take the really bold and courageous steps that help us even today, because we're working together across cultural lines."

Marcellous, a Waterloo native, said that his childhood had a profound effect on his music.

"Waterloo has the highest black male conviction rate in the country — it's somewhere in the high 90s — so watching the snare and the trap that are the system has changed my view. So I can enter the media a little better and I can filter the laws a little bit better, and I can see where it's an imperfect system and I can see what happens when you have man-made imperfections," Marcellous said.

"So long story short, in my song ‘Welcome to Change,' it's about growing up here in Waterloo where I saw a man get killed and the effect that had on me."

The concert is hosted by Intervarsity Campus Ministries. Rachel Danley, a staff member for Intervarsity, hopes that the concert will transcend racial boundaries and bring the whole campus together.

"I think that that can really start on this campus, and so I think that an event like this would be really powerful," Danley said. "So as a ministry we really want to spearhead this and help connect students that have a value for that and are willing to do something about it."

Danley hopes to see new cross-cultural ministries on campus as a result of the concert.

"I just talked to a girl today from Shout that is interested in starting a new cross-cultural ministry that would be meeting in the Union during the day, so that people could come and they could have those relationships cross-culturally, and we can do worship in a way that isn't just one culture, but it really represents the kingdom of God and God's love for the world," she said.

"Welcome to Change" is available on Marcellous's MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/dantemarcellous. Intervarsity meets Mondays at 8 p.m. in Russell Hall.