The Sonic Souls of Black Folk

Throughout American history, the rich sound of black sacred expression has colored the American cultural landscape. Sacred sound has been a medium through which black communities have raised protest, advanced social movements, challenged ideologies, mourned injustices, and given praise. Various forms of black sonics—instrumental music, vocalized and chanted sermons, gospel choirs, percussive repetitions, poetry, and shouts of agony and exuberance—constitute black sacred sound. 

The Crossroads Project invites panelists to a conversation on the sacred sound of black religion. Through our collective reflection, we hope to explore how the category of “sacred sound” enables new understandings of black religion in America. Panelists and speakers are asked to consider what sets of data, resources, repositories, and methods of study are most useful for theorizing the category of black sacred sound. We also hope to uncover how the study of black aural traditions enables new ways of understanding relationships between gender, sexuality, performance, and religion. 

In many African American religions, the crossroads symbolizes the mystical barrier that separates the world of deities and ancestors from the material world of humanity. Utilizing the crossroad as a dialogical model for interdisciplinary exchange, The Sonic Souls of Black Folk symposium envisions a dialogical exchange that includes both contemporary and ancestral interlocutors. Our collective reflection aims not only to invoke previous generations of scholarly wisdom, but also casts new visions for the future of African American religious studies. 

Panelists: 

Alisha Jones- University of Cambridge 

James Hill Jr.- The University of Oaklahoma

Vaughn Booker- Dartmouth

Ralph Craig III- Stanford University 

Ambre Dromgoole- Yale University 

Moderator:

Alphonso F. Saville IV- Princeton University 

Keynote Speaker: 

Maurice Wallace- Rutgers University 

Event Schedule:

9:30am           Keynote address 

                        Maurice Wallace, Rutgers University 

11:00am          Panel 1  

“Gospel, Gender, Sexuality, and Swing: Boundaries of Black Sacred Sound” 

Alisha Lola Jones, Cambridge University 

Vaughn A. Booker, Dartmouth College 

12:30pm         Break

2:00pm            Panel 2  

“Black Performers and Personalities: Sacred Dimensions of Personhood through Black Sound” 

Ralph Craig, III, Stanford University 

Ambre Dromgoole, Yale University 

James H. Hill, Jr., University of Oklahoma 

Can't make it in person?

Join us via livestream: https://livestream.com/accounts/1973198/sonic-souls