A Word of Welcome from Program Director Dr. Braxton Shelley
Welcome to the inaugural newsletter of ISM's interdisciplinary program in Music and the Black Church. Three times a year we will share news of programs and events that bring together scholars, practitioners and students of Black sacred music at Yale, drawing attention to this tradition's extraordinary influence on a host of musical cultures—confessional and commercial, American and global. Read more on the ISM website and enjoy reading about some of our past and upcoming highlights in this newsletter.
A New Class Explores the Musicality of Black Preaching
Pictured here, students in this semester's new class The Musicality of Black Preaching taught by Dr. Braxton Shelley are learning to develop a new vocabulary for describing the form and function of this genre of religious speech. The course also offers them the opportunity to engage with the manuscript of Dr. Shelley's recently completed book on the musical afterlife of Bishop G.E. Patterson. Distinguished guest lecturers will include Professor Maurice Wallace and Richard Smallwood. Read more.
FEATURED NEWS
Allowing Suffering to Speak: Black Gospel's Transfiguration of Sorrow Into Song
In November of 2021, The Music and the Black Church program held its inaugural event at the Yale Divinity School. Special guest, Professor Cornel West, the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary, described the power of Black sacred music and the centuries of struggle from which this tradition arises. Through the "gutteral cries and wrenching moans of our brothers and sisters in those slave ships", the laborers on plantations and inhabitants of ghettoes, he argued that Black Gospel is a method of conveying truth. Watch a video of Professor West's remarks.
ALUMNI NEWS
Gospel favorites delight the audience
Pamela Jean Davis, Minister of Music at the Fountain Church in Houston, TX and renowned composer and pianist, received a standing ovation at the inaugural event for her medley of gospel favorites. Watch the video here.
Coming soon, a celebration of gospel
On Nov. 17 the ISM will host an evening of black gospel music with Richard Smallwood and Vincent Bohanan, along with their ensembles, Vision and SOV. They will perform with a community choir drawn the New Haven area. Tickets are sold out but watch via live stream. Learn more.
Capturing the voices of Black musicians
ISM is collaborating with the Yale Library's Oral History of American Music (OHAM) collection to preserve the voices of key figures in black music. In November, Richard Smallwood and Vincent Bohanan will be interviewed. Read more.
