88 Keys, NRJ’s choir for API LGBTQ and allied people of faith, just started our second season. We rehearse at Pine United Methodist Church in San Francisco every Thursday from 7-9pm. People of all levels of experience are invited to come sing with us. If you’re interested in joining the choir or if you’d like 88 Keys to come to your church, classroom, or community event, please email lauren@netrj.org.

The choir started in the spring of 2013 through NRJ’s partnerships with API-welcoming churches in the Bay Area. We decided to call the choir “88 Keys” because there are 88 keys on a piano and we wanted the name to represent the diversity of our group. The choir is inter-generational, interdenominational, and includes LGBTQ people and straight allies. As Rev. Lloyd Wake said, “Each key on the piano plays a different note, but when played together, they make beautiful music.”

The goals of the choir are to build solidarity between API LGBTQ people of faith and API allies, to increase visibility of API LGBTQ people of faith and allies in API churches and LGBTQ community events, and to have fun singing together. Last season, we sang at church bazaars and Reconciling Sunday worship services to raise awareness about API LGBTQ experiences. We’re looking forward to adding performances at LGBTQ community events to our schedule this year.