News Americas, HOUSTON, TX, Mon. Nov. 18, 2019: Rapper Kanye West appeared at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas Sunday and opened up to Pastor Joel Osteen about his father’s work in a Caribbean nation.
West, who took his ‘Sunday Service’ to the Church Sunday night in a free “Jesus Is King” concert that attracted thousands to the church and thousands more online, leading to the site crashing, said earlier in a conversation with Osteen that his dad “is working in building a water purification center in the Dominican Republic.”
West’s father Ray West owns Good Water Store and Café in St. Mary’s Square. He also started a foundation called Good Water and focuses his work on the Dominican Republic. He was last year diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Ray West was a member of the Black Panther Party during the 1960s and 70s. After Kanye’s birth, however, he left the organization, and began a career as a photojournalist. He worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution during the 1980s and became one of the first African American men to excel in the field. Some of his most iconic work includes a portrait of poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, photos of the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, and photos of President Ronald Reagan in 1983.
Kanye and his choir performed for about two hours at Lakewood Sunday night, which was also live streamed on Facebook and YouTube.
Ray inspired Kanye’s two-part single “Father Stretch My Hands,” which he performed last night at Lakewood.
