lakewooducc

Rebecca Zapen & Jeremy Douglass

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About: LUCC Concert Series invite Old Time, Blues, Blue Grass, Folk and Country musicians, emerging and obscure in spirit to celebrate and promote Americana music and musicians from all over the United States.

All concerts at Lakewood United Church of Christ (LUCC) is $20 suggested donation at the door. All proceeds benefit the musicians. Doors open at 6:30PM, show at 7PM.

Lakewood United Church of Christ Concert Series
http://lakewooducc.org
Lakewood United Church of Christ Concert Series
Lakewood United Church of Christ
2601 54th Ave. S. St. Petersburg, FL 33712

Contact: Yoko Nogami
nogamiyoko@gmail.com
727-687-6742

5/31: Rebecca Zapen & Jeremy Douglass
http://www.zapen.com

A third-generation musician in a family tree including players of violin, piano, double bass, guitar, and accordion, Rebecca Zapen has developed into a versatile performer: jazz crooner, classically-trained violinist, and award-winning multi-instrumentalist songwriter. Her formal violin studies began at age 3, and singing always came naturally. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Florida State University, with degrees in Music and Biology. It was during her years at FSU that she fell in love with jazz and bossa nova. Past appearances include Jacksonville Jazz Festival, Clearwater Jazz Holiday, and Florida Folk Festival. Zapen has been a musical guest on Public Radio International show Michael Feldman’s Whad’Ya Know?, as well as being a featured soloist with the Hollywood Philharmonic Orchestra.

The versatile vocalist and violinist has released 4 albums. Award-winning albums Nest and Japanese Bathhouse feature her eclectic folk-pop songwriting; Hummingbird and ZapStar feature jazz standards and bossa nova, as well as several original compositions. Awards and accolades include: Florida Album of the Year 2011 forNest, which debuted at #12 on the Folk DJ charts; Jacksonville’s Musician of the Year 2008; and Best Cabaret Album & Best Cabaret Song in Just Plain Folks Awards 2009 for Japanese Bathhouse. Zapen’s original songs appeared in a national promotion for Crocs Shoes. She placed 2nd in the Bushman World Ukulele Video Contest, and she was a Finalist in the 2007 DiscMakers’ Independent Music World Series. My Old Kentucky Blog says of Zapen’s newest release Nest: “There’s a sense of arcane, jazzy pop; fifties romanticism, classical music, and Yiddish and other folk traditions; a bowl of ingredients from which Zapen intuitively ladles the right elements for her evocative compositions…Nest is something of a miracle.”

An award-winning composer, she earned the Silver Medal of Excellence for Best Use of Music in a Short Film at the 2008 Park City Film Music Festival. Her original songs appear in Look Both Ways, which won for Best Music in the 2009 San Francisco Seven Day Film Festival. Her music has been featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered: Open Mic. In addition to performing extensively in Florida and touring throughout the United States, playing at venues such as The Bitter End (NYC), Genghis Cohen (L.A.), and Katerina’s (Chicago), she has also delighted audiences abroad at venues such as Les Temps Modernes (Switzerland), Le Caveau des Oubliettes (France), and Paganini Auditorium (Italy).
A native of Jacksonville, Florida, she now calls St. Petersburg home, where she lives with her husband, pianist and recording engineer Jeremy Douglass, and their little boy.

From Hurricanes to Creation Justice

originally published on the UCC Website
May 03, 2019
Written by Claire Stiles

This past year my congregation went through a process of deepening and enriching our understanding of faith as we intentionally reflected upon our relationship to God’s creation. Living and worshipping in St. Petersburg, Florida makes us keenly aware of the very real dangers that threaten not only our global home, but our coastal community here in the Tampa Bay area.

After Hurricane Irma made landfall in the Florida Keys in 2017 as a Category 4 Hurricane, causing over $50 billion in damages statewide, many of us were jarred into the reality that our risks were escalating due to rising seas and more extreme storms caused by climate change. According to data from Climate Central in 2017, St. Petersburg ranked 6 out of the top 25 cities in the susceptible to sea level rise by 2050. By 2100, NOAA predictions run from a rise in sea level here in St. Petersburg from approximately 2 – 7 feet. By all indicators, we need to act now to protect our environment, both built, human, and natural.

As part of quest to take action rooted in our faith, our church undertook the United Church of Christ’s Creation Justice Church program which works to help local churches better care for our interconnected world, all living creatures, and every economically or racially marginalized community that suffers from environmental harm. The program lead to our church adopting a Creation Justice Covenant that captures and articulates our core commitments. Our covenant affirms “that all beings in the Sacred Web of life are ecologically interconnected and interdependent.” It further declares, “Our goal is not only to cherish creation, the land, and the earth itself, but also to restore living in balance with all of Creation and the Sacred.” Our work has really just begun. We shall continue to discern our higher calling to care for creation and seek justice for the oppressed. May we move forward together to fulfill our covenant and make a positive difference in our church, community, and world.

Claire Stiles is the Coordinator for the Creation Justice Task Force at Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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