By Craig Horleman

Ennio Emmanuel travels in seemingly two different worlds.

For years, he was in the music business, living in Los Angeles but recording and touring the country as a Latin pop musician.

In Delaware, he is most familiar as director of Code Purple Kent County, an organization that helps those suffering from homelessness, abuse, financial struggles, drug addiction and mental issues.

Although those two aspects of his life seem to be opposed, Mr. Emmanuel tries to blend them together.

“Not everyone who can sing likes to do philanthropy. But there’s something in it that can be for everyone. There are a lot of people who might not sing, but they can be good at business. Or people in music, they like to teach and have a gift for teaching. And so Code Purple and my music and doing philanthropy in general with different nonprofits in the community has shown me that all of our different talents can come together and help each other. So I try to use all those avenues and the people that I connect with,” said Mr. Emmanuel.

He left the music business about five years ago to move back to Delaware, where he grew up. He first volunteered with Code Purple and then became its president in 2019.

Over the last year of the pandemic, which has left more of those in his organization’s care with mounting issues, Mr. Emmanuel has turned back to his music, writing and recording 20 songs.

The first song of his resurgent music career, called “Don’t Mean That I Don’t Love You,” was recently released, and a video was filmed in Washington. The song is available on iTunes, Spotify and other streaming services, and the video can be found on YouTube.

Mr. Emmanuel was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a mother who was a doctor and a businessman father.

His parents met in Delaware, while his father was in prison and his mother was interning with a government Latino affairs program. Mr. Emmanuel said his father found God in prison and was a leader of a church there, while his mother was trying to raise medical awareness.

Living in Brooklyn until he was 6, Mr. Emmanuel moved with his family back to Delaware and lived in various spots across the First State until graduating from Calvary Christian Academy in Dover.

His parents are both ministers now, so the church was and still is an important part of Mr. Emmanuel’s life. In fact, he got his love of music from his faith.

“I grew up in a pretty conservative, strict Christian household. I was the first born, and then, we had my brother. But my parents were also in a stage where they were growing all their businesses. They (were the) first generation to be in America from their families in Puerto Rico,” he said.

“My parents wanted to come back to Delaware and not only just be a part of it, living here, but they really wanted to be ministers here where my father almost lost his whole life to the prison system. He wanted to come back and make a triumphant return. So they have worked in churches a lot and have been avid volunteers, and so that’s where I learned a lot about music.

“My dad loved the Gipsy Kings, which is this Spain flamenco band, and so I had this Latin world mixed with the gospel world, which really helped grow my mind, and later on, when I grew as a teenager, I understood music and how to look it up myself. ... I found the songs that fit my voice and the music that I liked, and then, being able to experience music at home, going to the venues and local concerts, that kind of growth really paid off. And being in Delaware, you’re exposed to country music, you’re exposed to many different kinds of music, and I lived in West Virginia for a little while, so that grew my folk music love, as well.”

He went to Penn State University and then Southeastern University in Florida, where he graduated with degrees in pre-law, international business and theology.

The music business took him to California, but it wasn’t his true calling.

“I had great friends in Los Angeles, but I had a feeling that something was coming that was going to make it rough, and I wanted to be close to family, and my intuition was right because, right now, with everything we’re going through, I couldn’t have imagined not being close to my family,” he said.

“It didn’t disconnect me with a lot of my friends (in Los Angeles), but it’s a whole different world when you’re in an area that makes money off of entertainment, so there’s a lot of different types of people. But Delaware is growing. I think the last five years, I have seen growth. And I think, overall, because the internet has grown, anyone can produce and perform all from the comfort of your home. And I love live performances, more than anything. But I think the world is in a new stage, and that’s why I think everyone can do it. You just have to push yourself to that limit and in this time to follow your talents and your abilities.”

Through music, Mr. Emmanuel thinks people can also find healing.

“As an artist and being able to have some type of platform, especially working with people who are in recovery, it’s all about trying to find innovative ways for people to recover from drugs and alcohol through music. If everyone can find a love for every type of music and you use music as a way to understand life, it can really help people heal and grow, and it’s partially why I love music because that’s what it does for me,” he said.

Turning away from music for a few years to deepen his philanthropic work with Code Purple and others showed Mr. Emmanuel how much music means to him.

“I just found out I needed music. I need to be able to write music and just to be in that part of thinking creatively. I can be creative. What kind of video do you want to do for this song? And working with different artists and just doing that actually helps me think and find new ways to do what we do, so we can be more effective,” said Mr. Emmanuel, who also runs an insurance agency and a business that helps LLCs.

He wrote the song, “Don’t Mean That I Don’t Love You,” six years ago, while he was on tour. Initially, it was written to convey that even though he was far away from those he cared about, they were still in his heart.

As the years have gone on and he has gotten more involved with those less fortunate, the meaning of the song has evolved — into addressing those he hasn’t been able to help and also with God.

“Hearing it back and now even watching the video for it, there’s a couple times where I look up to the sky. I know there are moments where I feel like I’m letting God down by maybe not being as much of a change or performing the best that I can. And so listening to the song, my mind goes through a whole bunch of emotions,” he said.

“There are so many people to help because they fall through the cracks, and we try to fill the cracks. But there’s still need everywhere. We do a lot of humanitarian work in Haiti and Honduras. We’re trying to build an orphanage in Haiti, to help fund clinics in the mountains in Honduras, where there’s not a lot of medical care. I’ve been doing that for like 10 to 12 years. And so even going there, the need is worse than it was last year. And with those moments, those people are always with me, everywhere I go. There’s no way to really not be able to think about the pain that people go through on a daily basis. And so the song really does resonate with me in that realm.”

In the future, he plans to continue releasing more songs, making more videos and doing a podcast that connects music and philanthropy. He also hopes to get back on the road.

But that doesn’t mean his charity work or connection to Code Purple will stop anytime soon.

“My life is dedicated to philanthropy and helping people out and making sure that they’re taken care of,” he said.

“And you just pray every day that God gives you the patience and the wisdom to handle it all. But everyone that surrounds me knows that my focus is on helping people in that way. I do have to always feed back into that.”

For more on Mr. Emmanuel, visit ennioemmanuel.com.

New website for MAL

The Mispillion Art League recently opened a new shopping website. The shop features the work of MAL artists.

The site does not currently offer any shipping. All purchases can be picked up at MAL and delivered to your car. MAL is located at 5 N. Walnut St., Milford, and operating hours are Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 430-7646 with any questions.

In-person classes are being offered following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Find the January–June Class Catalog at mispillionarts.org or pick up a printed copy at MAL.

MAL will also be hosting the third annual Big Draw Festival DE in October, offering art-making and fun to the community and the state. Look for more information and details in the coming months. Follow MAL and The Big Draw on Facebook.

New head of art museum

Speaking of art facilities, the Delaware Art Museum’s board of trustees recently announced that Molly Giordano will serve as its next executive director.

Ms. Giordano, with her 10-year tenure at DelArt, steps into the directorship as the museum rebuilds from the impact of COVID-19. In addition to rebuilding visitation and in-person programming, Ms. Giordano will oversee a major gallery reinstallation, capital improvements to strengthen the core facility and numerous upcoming exhibitions, including one celebrating African American art.

Ms. Giordano joined the museum in 2010 to ramp up DelArt’s centennial celebration. Soon after, she led the “Art is Everywhere” campaign, bringing reproductions of masterworks from the collection to cities throughout Delaware. Her work in successive leadership roles at the museum contributed to the completion of an institutional rebranding, diversification of audiences and increased fundraising. In 2017, she led the museum’s strategic planning process.

Now showing

New in theaters this weekend is the Billie Eilish documentary, “The World’s a Little Blurry,” the animated “Raya and The Last Dragon,” the sports drama, “Boogie,” and the thriller, “Chaos Walking.”