Black History Month 2021 | B.Slade | Study Guide

Journey Through Gospel with B.Slade

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

FEBRUARY 2021

AT THE TOWN HALL in partnership with Con Edison

123 WEST 43RD ST NYC 10036 | (212) 997-1003 | THETOWNHALL.ORG

BLACK HISTORY MONTH Since 1997 Town Hall has provided, with the generous support of Con Edison and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, a free annual Black History Month Celebration that promises to both educate and entertain students throughout the five boroughs. This year’s event will be presented virtually in a pre-recorded video approximately 45 minutes long.

After the initial event, students will have the exciting opportunity to enter B.Slade’s NYC Virtual Choir Contest.

100 entries will be chosen to be featured in the final video.

How to Use the Study Guide The purpose of this guide is to provide teachers and administrators with contextual information about the performance, as well as activities and additional resources that can be used to develop lesson plans, to prepare students to be intuitive audience members and deepen their experience at Town Hall, and to offer additional pathways into possible connections with existing school curriculum.

The contents of this study guide were compiled and adapted by Britni M. Montalbano and the Black History Month team at The Town Hall Foundation.

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What to Expect in the Videos This year’s Black History Month concert will be presented in the form of two pre-recorded videos. The first will be the main event: B.Slade’s Journey Through Gospel. The second will include details on B. Slade’s NYC Virtual Choir Contest.

Journey Through Gospel explores the history of gospel music from its inception to its modern incarnations. Students will learn about people, sound, the place of music in our culture and history, and even themselves. They will begin to recognize how music reflects and informs our lives. This video will be available from 8 am Monday, February 22 - 3:30 pm Friday, February 26.

Host B.Slade will educate students about the genre’s storied timeline while performing songs relevant to each major era.

He’ll demonstrate how gospel music is entwined in Black history as he leads viewers through the Pentecostal Movement, the Underground Railroad and emancipation, and the fight for Civil Rights. The journey will end with contemporary examples of gospel and hybrid genres that have sprung from it.

B.Slade’s NYC Virtual Choir video, detailing entry guidelines, submission instructions, and directions for participating in the contest will be available starting at 8 am on Monday, February 22.

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Discussion Questions You may wish to consider the following questions as you read through the study guide.

These questions may also aid discussion with students after viewing the performance

Pre-Performance

• What role has gospel music played in United States history? Does it serve that same purpose today?

• Has music ever changed the way you thought about something? Explain.

• What are some messages or instructions you’ve heard in modern music?

• How can you use music to improve the world around you?

• What are your thoughts on gospel music going into the event? What do you expect the show to be like?

• How might the genre be different if it had developed outside of religious settings?

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Post-Performance

• What part of the show did you find most interesting and why?

• How did this performance meet or differ from your expectations? Did anything about the show surprise you?

• How is gospel music similar to or different from other genres you’re familiar with?

• Can you hear the influence of the songs in the show in anything that you’ve listened to?

Singer. Songwriter. Producer. Actor.

CEO. Visionary. Philanthropist. Imagineer.

Two-time Emmy Award-winner, four-time Grammy-nominated artist B.Slade, is called to write, produce and perform alongside his musical idols, from Janet Jackson and Patti LaBelle to Snoop Dogg and Kim Burrell.

B.Slade ranks as a top favorite amongst A-listers. He began his journey over 20 years ago, and has since written and produced over 300 songs. B.Slade makes memorable appearances in all genres of music. Most recently compared to Prince, B.Slade similarly plays multiple instruments and has an unmatched vocal range - so respected that he tours with both Patti LaBelle as featured vocalist and percussionist, as well as a featured vocalist on select dates with Prince’s former band The New Power Generation.

artists such as Chris Brown, Kanye West, Janet Jackson, Ty Dolla Sign, Ledisi, Eric Benet, and many more.

B.Slade has also penned the theme song and incidental music for the OWN Network TV Series “Flex & Shanice,” starring husband and wife Flex Alexander and Shanice Wilson. He also wrote and co-produced Shanice’s songs “Gotta Blame Me” and “We Can Fly,” which appeared on the series and feature B.Slade on co-lead vocals. B.Slade later co-directed (with Logan Alexander) and choreographed the music video for “Gotta Blame Me.” B.Slade also co-wrote and co-performed the theme song to the hit TV show “One On One” (also starring Flex Alexander), with Shanice. The show was recently added to Netflix’s programming.

As a highly sought-after songwriter and producer, B.Slade has written or produced for some of the biggest artists in the industry including Chaka Khan (“I Love Myself”), Sheila E. (“Fiesta”), Snoop Dogg (“Words Are Few,”, whose video garnered over 2 million YouTube plays, among other tracks on Snoop’s #1 Gospel album, “Bible Of Love”), Faith Evans (“Paradise”), and Angie Fisher, for whom he wrote and co-produced her 2014 debut smash hit single, “I.R.S.,” garnering Ms. Fisher’s first Grammy nomination and B.Slade’s third. B.Slade has also collaborated with

B. SLADE 5

The Historical Backdrop of

Gospel Music

The history of slavery in the United States predates the founding of Jamestown, America’s first colony. Between 1526 and 1866, an estimated 12.5 million Africans were abducted and brought to the Americas.

Of the 10.5 million enslaved Africans who survived the voyage, about 400,000 were brought directly to the United States to work on tobacco, cotton and rice plantations.

The majority of enslaved Africans brought to what is now the United States arrived in the 18th century. This period saw the rise of spirituals. Also known as Negro spirituals or spiritual music, the genre sprung from the tradition of “praise house,”

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Down, Moses” and “Follow the Drinking Gourd” were encoded with direction on how to do so.

During the American Civil War, Black folk songs and spirituals spread across the Union and Confederacy to reach many people who’d never heard them before, leading some of those people to write abolitionist poetry in response. Though not all slave music that preceded or coincided with the Civil War was religious in nature, it was mostly those songs that persisted in their popularity through the end of the war.

informal gatherings of enslaved Africans that included music, dancing, and chanting, and was often formatted as a call-andresponse. They were typically sung with a leader improvising a line of text and a chorus of singers providing a solid refrain in unison.

When hymns gained popularity in the 19th century, Black music experienced a stylistic shift as it started being set to melodies written by white composers.

Classical scholar William Francis Allen created the first collection of these songs, Slave Songs of the United States, despite the difficulty in gathering them from their oral tradition. Hymns, like the spirituals that came before them, were sacred songs that often took the form of calland-response. Most churches used clapping and stomping to accompany the a cappella singing of their hymns.

These songs served a handful of purposes for the enslaved people singing and hearing them. They could be used to pass down group history and values, to serve as protest songs, and even to convey important covert messages.

“Steal Away to Jesus,” for instance, is seen by some commentators as an incitement to escape slavery, while “Go

By the 1920s, recordings of sermons accompanied by choral and instrumental music and congregational participation were incredibly popular among Black American churches. Choirs often featured the extremes of female vocal range in call-andresponse counterpoint with the preacher’s sermon. Gospel music of this era was also

characterized by improvised recitative passages, melismatic singing (singing of more than one pitch per syllable), and an extremely expressive delivery.

It was during this time that the Great Migration of Black Americans from the rural South to the urban North sparked a cultural rebirth known as the Harlem Renaissance that turned a spotlight on Black literature, art, politics, and music Northern cities like Chicago and Philadelphia, and cities along the way there like Memphis and St. Louis, also became cultural hubs.

Some important players in the Black gospel tradition were Roberta Martin, a gospel pianist based in Chicago with a choir and a school of gospel singing; Mahalia Jackson, who toured internationally and was often broadcast on television and radio; and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, whose guitar and vocal performances introduced gospel into nightclubs and concert theatres.

Tharpe was the first great recording star of gospel music and a pioneer of rock and roll.

She attained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and rhythmic accompaniment. she was among the first popular recording artists to use heavy distortion on her electric guitar, presaging the rise of electric blues. She pushed spiritual music into the mainstream, aiding the rise of pop-gospel.

Though her willingness to blur the line of sacred and secular,

including her performances in nightclubs, offended more conservative listeners, she never left gospel music.

Throughout the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, gospel music was used to attract and engage crowds, foster solidarity, and encourage participation. Though not initially created specifically for the movement, these songs echoed the thoughts and feelings of activists during this era. These freedom songs were created and continued by the shared goals of the people singing them. Some were simply structures into which lyrics suiting activists’ current needs could be inserted. They played an important role in the movement, keeping activists motivated during grueling protests and providing them mental and emotional strength against the physical brutality they often faced.

The shift to contemporary gospel began in the 1970s and had established the new subgenre by the following decade. Influential crafters of the genre included the Clark Sisters, and Andrae Crouch, often referred to as “the father of modern gospel music.”

Crouch was an American gospel singer, songwriter, arranger, record producer, and pastor.

As a key figure in blending contemporary secular music and gospel, he helped pave the way for early American contemporary Christian music during this era.

In addition, he helped to bridge the gap between Black and white Christian music and revolutionized the sound of urban gospel. Despite some controversy over this blending of styles, his songs have become staples for churches around the world.

Expression in Gospel Music Gospel music can be written and performed for a variety of reasons. It can be intended as commercial entertainment, a part of ceremony or religious worship, a brand of activism or protest, or simply the product of creativity and a desire for personal expression.

Gospel music has, since its inception, been taken well beyond the Black church.

Today’s gospel music is more complex than its traditional counterpart and features a wide variety of performers and performance styles. It can be sung in ensembles or as solos; presented by people of different races, genders, and ages; and accompanied by synthesizers, drums, or even full orchestras.

The impact of the genre continues today. Its influence extends to the work of many modern-day performers, including pop stars like Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, and John Legend.

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The Evolution of

Gospel Music When the term “gospel music” was first coined, it was used to describe a style of church song that was easier to grasp and more easily singable than the traditional hymns of the time.

A hymn can be described as a lyric poem designed to be sung as a form of worship.

Hymns are generally simple and metrical in form, genuinely emotional, poetic and literary in style, spiritual in quality, and so direct in theme as to instantly unify a congregation singing it. An example of this kind of hymn would be “O Gladsome Light.”

The genres shared commonalities, both being categories of Christian church music, yet they were distinct. Gospel songs generally include a refrain (or chorus) and usually (though not always) a faster tempo than the hymns. As examples of the distinction, “Amazing Grace” is a hymn (no refrain), but “How Great Thou Art” is a gospel song.

Prior to the Great Migration, most Black Americans lived in the Southeastern United States, from which Traditional Black gospel music originates. This form of music was heavily inspired by the hymns and spirituals preceding it. However, proponents of standard

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hymns were hesitant to accept the newly emerging gospel music. Some believed that widespread adoption and commercial success would deteriorate the purity of their worship songs. But as the churches embracing gospel music grew in size and influence, the genre became more accepted by the mainstream.

Developing out of the fusion of traditional Black gospel with the styles of secular Black music popular in the 1970s and 1980s, urban contemporary gospel is the most common form of recorded gospel music today. It relies heavily on rhythms and instrumentation common in the secular music of the contemporary era (often including the use of electronic beats), while still incorporating the themes and heritage of the traditional Black gospel genre. Kirk Franklin is the foremost (and by far the best-selling) individual in this genre, while Andrae Crouch, the Clark Sisters, and Yolanda Adams are also extremely popular and noteworthy.

Sometimes referred to as country gospel music, Christian country music is a subgenre of gospel music with a country flair. Christian country music over the years has progressed into a mainstream country sound with inspirational or positive country lyrics. The genre hit it’s the height of its popularity in the mid-1990s.

Today, with historical distance, there is a greater acceptance of various styles of gospel music into official denominational hymnals.

For example, the United Methodist Church made this acceptance explicit in The Faith We Sing, a 2000 supplement to the official denominational hymnal. In the preface, the editors say, “Experience has shown that some older treasures were missed when the current hymnals were compiled.”

Songs of Hope Amazing Grace Composer John Newton, a slave-trader-turned-abolitionist who penned the lyrics to this prominent hymn in 1772, believed grace to be God’s unmerited favor to lost souls. When Newton put the internal rhyme “Amazing Grace” together, it wasn’t purely for poetic reasons. It was written to reflect his personal tale of redemption. He referred to his finished work as “the definitive song of the personal conversion experience.” The popularity of “Amazing Grace” in the U. S. has been attributed to the period of religious revivalism into which it was released.

Related Resources

Rev. John Newton

• John Newton: Former Slaver and Preacher | The Abolition Project • The Real Story Behind Amazing Grace

Wade in the Water The song takes its inspiration from the Bible, referencing the Old Testament’s story of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt and the New Testament narrative about a healing pool of water, as told in John 5. It’s believed that “Wade in the Water” and similar songs may have contained explicit instructions to fugitives on how to avoid capture and the route to take to successfully make their way to freedom.

Harriet Tubman

Because many of those enslaved knew the secret meanings of these songs, they could be used to signal many things. For example, Harriet Tubman used the song “Wade in the Water” to signal listeners to get off the trail and into the water to make sure the slavecatcher’s dogs couldn’t follow their scent.

Related Resources

• Music of the Underground Railroad • Singing in Slavery | PBS • Songs of the Underground Railroad | The Harriet Tubman Historical Society

• Go Down Moses | Library of Congress

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Songs of Hope Precious Lord Take My Hand Written by gospel musician Thomas A. Dorsey in 1932 in response to the deaths of his wife and infant son, the song was crafted to depict not only his grief, but the universal experience of anyone who’s dealt with deep personal loss. First recorded in 1937 by the Heavenly Gospel Singers, the song then went on to be recorded by many well-known artists, including Elvis Presley, Roy Rogers, and Mahalia Jackson. Favored by famed civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., it was sung at many of his rallies up until his assassination.

Related Resources

• NPR on “Precious Lord” • Hymn Story: Precious Lord • Thomas Dorsey: This Far by Faith | PBS • From Riots to Renaissance

Mahalia Jackson

Didn’t it Rain Singer and composer Henry Thacker Burleigh is known for arranging spirituals in a more classical form and making them available to classically trained artists. One such arrangement was for “Didn’t It Rain,” which he first converted to sheet music form in 1919. In the following decades, the song was popularized by artists such as Mahalia Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Related Resources

• Henry Thacker Burleigh | Library of Congress

• Mahalia Jackson Lord’s Prayer Live @ Newport 1958

• Choral Arrangements of Spirituals

Revolution (Kirk Franklin) Gospel musician Kirk Franklin, in keeping with his reputation for pushing boundaries within the industry, released “Revolution” in 1998. The song’s lyrics cover a wide span of topics not often touched on by the genre. Among other things, the song discusses the environment and pollution, racism, and community. The song was used at protests during the summer of 2020 as demonstrators fought to have racist statues removed from the state capitol of North Carolina.

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Related Resources

• How This Kirk Franklin Song Revolutionized Gospel Music | HuffPost

• The Fight Against Confederate Monuments

• Why America is Wrestling with Confederate Monuments | PBS

Songs of Hope We Shall Overcome The song was a Civil Rights anthem in the 1950s and 1960s. It brought protesters hope, comfort, and courage as they faced the battle for equality. Protesters sang it when they marched, and also when they were attacked by police dogs, brutalized, and dragged to jail for their activism. As the movement gained momentum, the song became increasingly popular. This and other protest songs provided the soundtrack to the Civil Rights Movement.

This song was pieced together by many people from different places. Part of the melody seems to be related to two European songs from the 1700s, “Prayer of the Sicilian Mariners” and “O Sanctissima.” In the U.S., enslaved people matched similar tunes in the songs “I’ll Be All Right” and “No More Auction Block For Me.” Lyrics of “I’ll Overcome Someday,” another gospel song, were later added to the mix. Around 1945, gospel arrangers Atron Twigg and Kenneth Morris apparently put together the essential pieces of the now-famous words and melody. Its history as a protest song can be traced to a labor strike against American Tobacco in South Carolina, who sang it while picketing.

Related Resources

• We Shall Overcome: The Story Behind the Song | The Kennedy Center • The Surprising History of We Shall Overcome | The Atlantic

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Gospel History at a Glance 17th and 18th Centuries: Colonial & Revolutionary Era

1930s and 1940s: The Great Depression & World War II

• Nearly 400,000 enslaved Africans

• Rock and roll and pop-gospel emerge as

are brought to the American colonies

• Negro spirituals emerge as a form of expression

• John Newton composes “Amazing Grace” in 1772

distinct genres, pioneered by Sister Rosetta Tharpe

• The 1945 labor strike against American

Tobacco in South Carolina popularizes “We Shall Overcome,” which goes on to become a Civil Rights anthem

19th Century: The American Civil War

1950s and 1960s: The Civil Rights Movement

• The Abolitionist Movement takes hold in

• Freedom songs become popular as a way

• The Underground Railroad forms and helps

• Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights

the United States

usher nearly 100,000 to freedom

• Black folk songs and spirituals spread across the nation

• Abolitionists write poetry in response to spirituals

• Hymns increase in popularity • White composers begin setting Black songs

to aid the activism of the era

Act of 1964, ending segregation in public places and banning employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin

• Coretta Scott King holds Freedom Concerts as fundraisers for civil rights activism

to written music

• William Francis Allen writes Slave Songs of the United States in 1867

• Henry Thacker Burleigh makes spirituals available to classically trained artists

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Traditional gospel music develops

1970s through Present Day: The Rise of Contemporary Gospel

• Gospel music begins to evolve into a more modern music form

• Urban gospel music is born from a fusion of Black and white church music and secular Black music

1920s: The Great Migration

• Gospel music evolves to include improvised

recitative passages, melismatic singing, and an extremely expressive delivery

• Country gospel music emerges and gains popularity

• Protests in 2020 utilize urban gospel to fight for the removal of racist monuments

• Many Black Americans migrate from the rural South to the urban North

• The Harlem Renaissance brings attention

and acclaim to Black literature, art, politics, and music

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What do you think?

Based on what you’ve learned about in this study guide, how do you expect gospel to evolve and be used in the future?

Additional Resources Articles & Essays African American Gospel | Library of Congress Slavery in America: A Timeline | History.com The Slave Trade Clause | National Constitution Center African American Spirituals | Library of Congress The True Story of “Follow the Drinking Gourd” The Black Church – American Experience | PBS The Great Migration | History.com Roberta Martin | ALLMUSIC Music in the Civil Rights Movement | Library of Congress Music in the Civil Rights Movement: American Experience | PBS The Rise of Urban Contemporary Gospel Why Black Gospel Music Still Matters

Music & Videos O Gladsome Light Concert of African American Music from the Civil War The Clark Sisters | Spotify How Black Artists Helped Shape Country Music When the World Is Burning, Is Art a Waste of Time? | TED

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B.Slade’s

Here are some tips to consider when recording your video:

NYC

1. Select a Recording Area: To avoid distractions during the session, set-up in a quiet room; or during the session.

Virtual Choir Contest

2. Headphones or Earplugs: Use headphones to block out background noises.

3. Lighting:

Students grades 6-12 from participating schools are encouraged to enter B.Slade’s NYC Virtual Choir Contest.

The top 100 submissions will be included in B.Slade’s upcoming video for “Faces of Love.”

Create a visually pleasing image by using lighting. For lighting, place a lamp directly in front of you and behind the camera. For the area behind you, consider a blank wall canvas.

4. Attire & Appearance: Well-groomed The color scheme is red, white, and blue. Tenors should wear white attire against a black background, altos blue against white, and sopranos red against white.

5. Eye contact: Keep in mind to make direct eye contact with the camera.

Video entries can be submitted following the directions here. Note that entrants must also submit the provided permission forms, signed by a parent or guardian which can be uploaded here. File names must contain both the student name and the name of their school. Entries must be submitted between Monday, February 22 and Friday, March 5.

Questions can be directed to:

bhm@thetownhall.org with the subject line “NYC Virtual Choir.”

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6. Your video should show you, front facing, from the torso to just above the top of your head.

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The Black History Month Celebration Concert is made possible, in part,

by Con Edison and The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

We would also like to thank the Henry Nias Foundation, a long-time supporter of Town Hall, for their contribution in making this program available

123 WEST 43RD ST NYC 10036