Join Leonard Lopate as he celebrates New Jersey's diverse cultural and artistic treasures, including gospel music and current exhibitions at the Newark Museum.

Select museum galleries will open at 5:00 PM.

Scheduled guests:

• The Reverend Milton Biggham, Cissy Houston, and Ella Mitchell will talk about the gospel traditions that have come out of Newark over the years. Reverend Biggham, sometimes referred to as “The King of Gospel Choirs,” is credited with nurturing young gospel talent as well as contributing to the soundtrack of the film “The Preacher’s Wife,” starring Whitney Houston. Cissy Houston is a Grammy Award-winning American soul and gospel singer who, in addition to being a solo artist, led a successful career as a backup singer for Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin,  Luther Vandross, and others. She is the mother of Whitney Houston and aunt of Dionne Warwick and the late Dee Dee Warwick. Ella Mitchell was a member of The Gospel All Stars and The Bradford Singers, and performed with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for 30 years. She also appeared on Broadway in “The Wiz” in “Big Momma’s House.”
• Curator Deborah Willis will discuss the photography exhibit at the museum, Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present.
  
• Mary Sue Sweeney Price, the director of the Newark Museum, will talk to Leonard about the Tibetan Art Collection and the Tibet Collection Centennial. The Newark Museum was the first in the world to display an exhibition devoted exclusively to Tibetan art, in 1911.
• Ella Mitchell, who was a member of The Gospel All Stars and The Bradford Singers, and danced with Alvin Ailey for 30 years.  She appeared on Broadway in "The Wiz" and in the film "Big Momma's House."