While the concert itself was extraordinarily uplifting, there was a woman there that took the cake.

Her name is Vanessa, Vanessa German.

She was the orator of the event who introduced the groups who were performing.

She also gave a message to the audience.

Vanessa German is one of those people whose words just stick with you.

The last time I went to Let Freedom Sing was when I was a freshman in high school.

One wouldn’t think that I would remember too much.

I didn’t think I did.

All I really remembered was the l-o-n-g hours of practice we had had to do before the concert.

However, when I arrived at Sixth Mt. Zion church on Saturday January 14, I immediately recognized this vibrant, charismatic, wonderful African American woman.

I remembered her talking about Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I’ve been to the Mountaintop" speech.

I remembered the fervor, the excitement in her voice when she spoke to the audience.

I remembered her rapid hand gestures as she struggled to get the message that was burning inside of her out to let everyone hear it.

That is a rare trait in a person.

The likelihood that I remember one person after years of not seeing or hearing about them is slim.

But this isn’t just any person.

Vanessa German has a gift.

She has the gift of speech and is not afraid to use it.

This year she said something so profound that I haven’t gone a day without thinking of it.

She channeled Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., speaking his infamous words found in a short clip on Youtube: "I come here tonight and I plead with you. Believe in yourself and believe that you’re somebody. Nobody else can do this for us…he [a person] must move down into the inner resources of his own soul and sign with the pen and ink of self-assertive manhood his own Emancipation Proclamation."

She recognizes that we have come far.

We have made immense progress, but we are not finished.

We are all somebody and, as citizens of the United States, we have the freedom to choose who we want to be.

But we have to do this ourselves.

We have to sign our own Emancipation Proclamation.

No one can make us into someone we don’t want..

We are who we are, and we can be whoever we want to be.

If you had been at the concert that day, you would have heard the urgency in her voice.

You would have been able to feel the necessity to be somebody rising up in your very heart and soul.

If you want to make a difference in this world, you have to put in the effort to make changes.

If you want to be a teacher, be a teacher.

If you want to be an actor, be an actor.

If you want to be a waitress, be a waitress!

Whatever you do, whoever you become, be that person with every fiber of your being.

We are all somebody, we need to figure out who that is.