Last October the choir was awarded just over £5,000 from the Worthing CIL Neighbourhood Fund to help pay for a month of events to celebrate Black History Month in Worthing. 

The wide variety of events included a reggae all-dayer, an African percussion session, an afrobeats night, music of black origin night across local venues AudioActive, Cellar Arts Club and The Goose. 

The funding also enabled choir director Siggi Mwasote to host singing workshops at local schools, culminating in a performance by the students at AudioActive. 

Local business owner and choir member Antoinette Daniel also toured local colleges to deliver a talk on how to build a successful business. 

West African food from Goring-based Mama Sheila’s Kitchen was on offer at some of the events, something that the choir wants to do more of this year. 

Choir member Mike Pailthorpe said: “We’re really happy with the audience figures from last year’s shows and think that the money we were able to spend on marketing really helped. It was great to be able to involve young people, businesses and we want to do more of that this year, as well as incorporate other art forms like spoken word.

“One of the best outcomes of the events was that people from different communities met each other for the first time and have started to build connections themselves too.”

Cllr Rita Garner, Worthing’s cabinet member for culture and leisure, said: “What a great example of the CIL Neighbourhood Fund supporting the cultural diversity of Worthing for us to delight in and enjoy. Music and food bring us together across generations.”

Visit https://www.springintosoul.co.uk/latest-news/ to find out more about the choir. 

The council revamped the CIL fund last year to cover a wider area of Worthing and give the community more of a say in how the money is spent. Visit https://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/worthing-cil/neighbourhood-fund/ to find out more.