Have a Little Faith

Grammy Award Winner Mavis Staples is reveling in the success of her music used as a cornerstone of the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center Support Groups project, The Healing Power of Music. Ms. Staples’ 2004 album “Have a Little Faith” played a pivotal role in the inception of this much-needed program offering musical respite from the challenges faced by patients of Feist-Weiller, LSU Health, and Ochsner Health System (formerly University Health). The groups offer patient support for cancer patients and sickle cell patients. Support group leader Ron Nierman says that since its founding in 2011, The Healing Power of Music has expanded to embrace soul, jazz, R&B, pop and classical music, largely due to its special benefactors, Jan and Stuart Briscoe. In November 2018, Ron Nierman and his wife Jackie met with Mavis before her concert at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette to give her an update about the program. Mavis was overjoyed to learn that Alligator Records President Bruce Iglauer has made it possible for all new group members to receive the “Have a Little Faith” CD as a welcome gift when they attend their first meeting.

Will Mavis be coming to Shreveport? Stay tuned!!!

For more information about Ron Nierman and Mavis Staples, check out the November 8, 2018 edition of SB Magazine.