We invite you to join Cha’Rel Wright as she shares her prodigious musical gifts with us, benefiting Housing That Heals. Experience “Cha’Rel Sings the Decades” for an unforgettable evening!

A Journey Through the Eras

Stevie Wonder, Patsy Cline, Whitney Houston, Destiny’s Child, Alicia Keys, Prince… to name a few

Friday, June 5, 7:00pm at Clara Brown Commons, 3701 York Street, Denver

Looking back, as a small child, Cha’Rel never could have imagined how it would unfold. “From singing in the bathroom. To singing on the porch with my family. To organizing music groups with my cousins at family gatherings. To singing at school sports games. Singing at weddings. Singing for youth camps.

“Background singing for artists at Red Rocks. Numerous performances at Denver’s Vintage Theater. Performing as ‘Lorelle’ in Dream Girls at the Lone Tree Arts Center and The Wiz at Littleton Town Hall Arts Center. Headlining my own show at Denver’s iconic Dazzle—sold out. The national anthem and the Black national anthem at Denver Nuggets and Avalanche games.”

To auditioning— with much enthusiastic encouragement—for The Voice and American Idol.

A smooth pathway to stardom? Far from it.

The story of Cha’Rel’s voice begins in 1988. “From when I drew my first breath,” she recounts. “My mom tells me that as an infant I suffered from severe chronic colic.” With no relief, her mom suffered greatly also. Finally, in distress when all else failed to quiet Cha’Rel’s cries, her mom asked the elders of the church to lay her baby on the altar and pray.

“I’m not even sure I was meant to have a voice. My mother was so distraught her only hope was to hush me.” Cha’Rel called her infancy to mind this past Sunday as she sang at church, lifting her full voice in praise. “It was so effortless!”

Cha’Rel’s mom went on to encourage Cha’Rel’s singing performances, through many moves as a military kid. While stationed in Alabama, little Cha’Rel joined a church children’s choir. Like yesterday, she recalls the procession onto the stage, holding candles. “Hold up the light,” she sang. To this day when she’s in need of peace, the chorus comes to mind and heart again. Tears flow. “Just… hold up the light.”

“We were significantly poor,” Cha’Rel remembers. I didn’t know that until I got older. My sister told me. “Why do you think we have free lunch? Ride the bus free? Live in a one-bedroom apartment?’ Her words shocked me, and I cried. I thought being poor was being sad, and I wasn’t sad.” Cha’Rel had her music, though not much else. Her family of seven moved from Section 8 housing at the Arapahoe Projects, to her grandmother’s dining room, to their one-bedroom apartment in Five Points. Cha’Rel took any jobs she could find as a teenager. “You name it, I’ve clocked it.”

“My high school drama teacher was Jo Bunton-Keel. She saw me. She saw me! She urged me to audition for the character Effie in Dream Girls. This was before YouTube or any examples I could draw from.” But Cha’Rel said yes, and Ms. Bunton-Keel taught her how to sing the role. On stage during the big performance, she so completely inhabited Effie that during a tantrum scene she spontaneously grabbed a chair and flung it into the crowd. “I shocked even myself, and I was glad nobody got hurt!”

It was her transition from singing only at church. “Hold up the light,” she kept remembering. “Let your light so shine before others that they praise your father in heaven,” she recalled from scripture. “I can use it for God’s glory. And for others. And a piece of this gift is for me!”

In time, fingers trembling, she opened acceptance letters to college. It was beyond her imagining—first in her extended family. Despite meager family resources, there was some financial aid for her freshman year at University of Northern Colorado, and she then was offered a full ride scholarship to complete her studies at Colorado Christian University. Prof. Gillian McNally, who had already invested much toward Cha’Rel’s musical path at UNC, was surprised but gracious, saying “Cha’Rel you were born to do this,” and sent her off to CCU with blessings. Twenty years later—just last month—Prof. McNally traveled to be in the audience for Cha’Rel at The Wiz in Littleton.

Auditions for The Voice and American Idol brought a big break for Cha’Rel, but not in the way she had hoped. When she was not invited to advance, she was devastated with doubt and questions. What if all the accolades and encouragement had been misplaced? What if she didn’t have what it takes after all, to make music her vocation—or to make music at all?

Doubt grew into a crisis of identity. An identity crisis grew into an alarming mental health crisis. With intensive professional and medical help, the skies began to clear. To this day, Cha’Rel is a fierce advocate for mental health care access for those in need.

Cha’Rel found her voice again, but it wasn’t paying the bills—at least enough. With the counsel of others who reminded her of her college education and other gifts, she looked again for someplace to “clock it.” That someplace turned out to be Mile High Ministries, introduced to her through her Young Life mentors Albus Brooks and Art and Stacey Williams, where she had spent formative college years as an apprentice in our Issachar Center for Urban Leadership.  Joshua Station needed an office manager and Cha’Rel was a perfect fit at our front desk!

Later she applied for a position as Clara Brown Commons Lead Family Advocate, where she’s an even better fit. She’s back on Denver’s East Side, whose streets she knows from childhood. When she looks up at Tony Ortega’s grand mural (in the room she’ll perform in on June 5) that depicts a street scene on the East Side, Cha’Rel says “I can immediately put myself right there, as a little girl with a backpack walking to the Creamery.”

In addition to building rich community relationships among our residents, Cha’Rel connects them with the kinds of resources her family accessed in her growing-up years. “We managed to not grow hungry, and we had fun things to do like Halloween costume parties at the police station.” It’s Cha’Rel’s joy to help our residents thrive with community support. Tutoring, employment connections, music lessons, holiday events and resources, and social groups. “Inner City Health Center is right across the street, and we partner with them for our residents’ care. And I still go to my own therapy there with their counselors!”

Community support got Cha’Rel’s family through decades of challenges, beginning with the church elders’ hands at the altar. Her advocacy at CBC ensures the same opportunities for our residents.

Cha’Rel still thrills many audiences with her voice, as she will for MHM’s fundraiser on June 5 for Cha’Rel Sings the Decades. She’s still a “girl with dreams,” open to where the musical career path might lead. Her role at CBC is the perfect fit for this season. “I know God hears my prayer and hears my cry. He sees me. I’m so blessed to offer me, and all of me, with our beautiful community here.”

Music is only one of the many ways Cha’Rel inspires and advocates for our residents who have found safe, stable, affordable Housing That Heals. “At CBC babies are born. Heartbreakingly, babies pass away. People arrive excited. People are carried out on a stretcher. People are working, playing, and relaxing. Families enjoy community events and concerts.” Cha’Rel is right there in the middle of it, mingling her life’s song with theirs.