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DONNIE McCLURKIN

His spirit-filled single `We Fall Down' climbed R&B and gospel charts. Now with his new album and 400-member church, Donnie continues to stir the soul

When Donnie McClurkin sings, his joyful voice rises from a place where pain and sadness once resided. His third album, Donnie McClurkin ... Again, released in March, was long overdue for many of his fans. They were waiting for another anthem like "We Fall Down"--the single from his second album, Live in London and More--which topped both gospel and urban radio charts two years ago. The song, with its message of forgiveness and transcendence, struck a chord with listeners worldwide--perhaps because it was such a personal testimony.

The 43-year-old New York City native has had his share of forgiving and overcoming obstacles. He writes in his 2001 autobiography, Eternal Victim/External Victor, that he was born into a family of ten siblings and an alcoholic father. As a child he was molested by an uncle, then raped by a male cousin when he was a teen. He credits the church with helping him heal from those experiences.

"My dad was a Baptist, and my mom came from a long line of Pentecostals," he says. "They fought like cats and dogs over their differences and eventually stopped going to church. But they made sure the kids were raised in the church."

Even so, his family was shocked when, at age 13, he joined the choir at the Kings Temple Church of God and Christ in Amityville, New York.

"I remember running home and saying, `Ma, I joined the choir,'" McClurkin recalls. "She said: `Why did you do that? You can't sing.' That hurt my heart. But my family's always been frank. I couldn't sing a lick, but it was a matter of getting comfortable with my voice."

Even when he did get comfortable, he was often told by the choir ladies to "get some bass in that voice." But now he's known worldwide for his high tenor.

McClurkin is still deeply committed to the church. He was ordained a minister two years ago and is pastor of Perfecting Faith Church in Freeport, New York, which has more than 400 members. But you won't hear him singing during service: "I don't want people to come for the singing," he says. "I just want them to come to church."

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MYKELTI WILLIAMSON

In 1994's Forrest Gump, Mykelti Williamson was the slow but lovable, shrimp-obsessed soldier Bubba. Now he's back, but as Fearless, the compassionate detective with the sexy swagger on NBC's critically acclaimed action series Boomtown. He may play soldiers and cops, but in real life there's one thing he's afraid of.

ESSENCE: What's a big TV star like you doing up at 8:00 A.M.?

Mykelti Williamson: I'm in my office lying on the floor with some giant pillows, staring out the window. I can see the Hollywood sign. That kind of inspires me because it's like, "I was able to pull this off. What's next?"

ESSENCE: In Forrest Gump your character was sweet and guileless. Is Detective Fearless more like the real you?

M.W.: Fearless was tailor-made for me. He has the ability to be a hunter and to be tender.

ESSENCE: But are you really fearless?

M.W.: The only time I remember being terrified was on safari in South Africa, filming Ali with Will Smith. A male lion sunning himself by the side of the road got up and challenged me. The guides warned us that every month lions actually pull two or three tourists out of tents and kill them.

ESSENCE: Really?

M.W.: Yeah, they don't advertise that in the brochures.--JEANNINE AMBER

MUSIC

ZIGGY MARLEY

Ziggy Marley took a break from the Melody Makers--the three-time Grammy Award-winning group he formed with his siblings when he was just 13 years old--and emerges this spring with a solo effort, Dragonfly.

The CD isn't his farewell to the Melody Makers. Instead, he says, it represents a "natural growth" for him as a musician. The 34-year-old son of reggae icon Bob Marley continues to follow in his father's innovative footsteps. On his solo album, he collaborates with two of rock's heaviest hitters, Flea and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Their electric-guitar-infused joints like "In the Name of God" and "I Get Out" will undoubtedly stop a few reggae lovers in their tracks. But listeners shouldn't worry about Ziggy forgetting his roots. "Reggae is freedom," he says. "It comes from something that has life and does not stay stagnant."

Ziggy says he hopes the album will inspire the "good vibes" that his fans are used to and encourage newcomers to "just lose themselves in the music."--PENNY WRENN

CCH POUNDER

As a young actress striving to make her mark in Hollywood, CCH Pounder played "every poor mama victim" on TV shows such as Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice and Quantum Leap. Fast forward 16 years: Pounder's name has become synonymous with strong female leads. She's even earned Emmy nominations for her stellar guest appearances on The X-Files and ER.

Pounder's strongest role to date may be that of Claudette Wyms, an accomplished detective who smoothly navigates the tangled world of good and evil on the Golden Globe-winning FX cop show The Shield. "If you're a woman in a man's world, you either adapt or get mowed down," says Pounder of the part that was originally written for a man. As one of a few women of her rank, Wyms maintains a hard exterior but reserves any gentleness for the victims she encounters on the job.

Still, Pounder's greatest triumph is miles away from Tinsel Town. Nine years ago she and her husband, Boubacar Kone, created the Museum Boribana (boribanamuseum.org) in his native Senegal, which displays exhibitions from the African diaspora. "Most of us want a house on the hill and a pool. But that makes our world pretty small," says Pounder. "This museum makes my world pretty huge."--TAIIA SMART YOUNG

DANCE

PHILADANCO

What happens when you combine the technical formality of traditional ballet with the free-flowing movements of modern dance? The Philadelphia Dance Company sets out to do just that when its thirty-third annual spring concert series kicks off May 8. This year's program, to be held at the new Perelman Theater in Philadelphia through May 10, marks the premiere of a new piece by noted ballet choreographer Alonzo King.

Philadanco's founder and director, Joan Myers Brown, a force in the international dance world, says King's work "Steal Away" is a totally new approach for her company. "King's style is more balletic," says Brown. "It's an opportunity for my dancers to work in another style."

The company also salutes Louis Johnson, choreographer of the movie The Wiz, by presenting a reconstruction of his classic "Forces of Rhythm," which was originally created for the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1972. To learn about Philadanco's traveling performances, visit philadanco.org.--TRACY L. SCOTT

CATCHING UP WITH

JODY WATLEY

It's hard to believe that it's been almost 20 years since pop diva Jody Watley emerged from the shadows of the late seventies R&B group Shalamar to embark on a solo career that launched hits "Some Kind of Lover" and "Friends" in the late eighties, earning her a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1987.

"When I meet people now, they'll say, `We miss you, what are you doing?'" says the fortysomething Watley, fresh from touring the Midwest. "But I'm still working, whether I have a hit record or not." Although she's been immersing herself in a number of independent music projects, working the underground European and Japanese dance scenes, and promoting the release of her latest dance, R&B and jazz album, Midnight Soul, Watley affirms that her number one priority is parenting her two children--Aria, 10, and Lauren, 20, who attends college.

"I space my projects out and I take my kids with me," says Watley, who makes sure her children do their fair share of chores while on tour. "I've always tried to have my solo career blend in with my life."

With so many international music endeavors, Watley shows that being a career artist is a groove that's truly in her heart.--ELON D.JOHNSON