Sandra Tramel and her husband, Dennis, both 59, bopped to a recorded instrumental of "Thriller" as they reminisced over evenings they spent at the Uptown, which is now undergoing renovations.
She remembers scrubbing neighbors' steps and scrounging for baby-sitting jobs to buy tickets to the theater where she saw acts like Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Intruders, and Brenda and the Tabulations. "We always had a good time here," she said.
"It's almost like people are reliving their heyday," said Aissia Richardson, vice president of operations for the Uptown Entertainment and Development Corp.
Throughout the '50s, '60s, and early '70s, the Uptown joined the Apollo Theater in New York and notable venues across the country as part of a chain of venues that hosted African American performers on what was dubbed the Chitlin' Circuit.
At the tribute last night, a group of drummers rooted in African traditions played West African drumbeats, which are custom for male rites of passage. For Jackson they beat for his passage from the living to the ancestral world.
The crowd reflected on Jackson's ability to transcend race, class, and cultural boundaries to touch people all over the world.
"A lot of his songs can touch a part of my life," said Kimberly Tatum, who heard about the tribute on radio. She said she had listened and watched all day for a place to "celebrate Michael's homegoing."
Being at the Uptown to honor Jackson was the next best thing to being at the Staples Center yesterday in Los Angeles, Tatum said. "This is a little bit of closure for me."
Around the region, fans paid Jackson homage. Some sat at computers at home or work, folks watched video on their cell phones, passersby paused to gaze at TV screens.
