Good friend Barb pointed out this excellent article Black Spirituals as Poetry and Resistance. Throughout the prose are wonderful spiritual musical snippets. Included is this reference
“In 1945, Thurman wrote a slim, elegant volume called “Deep River: An Interpretation of Negro Spirituals.” In it, he points to three sources on which enslaved people drew in their creation of spirituals: the Old Testament, the world of nature and their interior lives. In particular, Thurman notes that “the Jewish concept of life as stated in their records (in the Old Testament) made a profound impression on this group of people, who were themselves in bondage. God was at work in all history: He manifested himself in certain specific acts that seemed to be over and above the historic process itself” — one of those acts being death. To talk of death was to recognize God and to recognize that we belong to a pattern of life that supersedes the structures of white supremacy that tell us we are merely a cog in the world, only valuable for our labor to owners, bosses, the ruling class. Death, and the poetry we make around it, becomes a way to acknowledge a world other than our own.”
Recognizing through song that we belong to a pattern of life superseding the structures of white supremacy (and so many other human-fashioned structures) provides wonderful perspective at all times. God’s Gonna’ Trouble the Waters. All God’s Chillin’ Got Wings. Swing Low Sweet Chariot. The lyrics, melodies and interpretations of these and many spiritual songs are POWERFUL!
SUGGESTED ACTION: Listen to some of the spiritual snippets in this article, to spirituals in our Christian Playbook YouTube Playlist or other music that stirs your spirit
Enjoy the day, filled with the Spirit!
P.S. https://www.negrospirituals.com/ has some fascinating information and links should you wish more time with this topic… For instance, the “ring shout” reference has some similarity to the recent whirling dervish approach
Lectionary Texts for Sunday, March 7, 2021:
Lenten Prayer by Rev. Dr. LP Jones: opportunities to read or listen
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