The Drexel University Gospel Choir: A Black Geography

Presented at the Drexel College of Arts and Sciences Research Day

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(Slide 2) In 1946, singer and activist Paul Robeson recorded the song ‘Go Down, Moses,’ an old and popular Negro spiritual. The song is a declaration of freedom, telling Pharaoh to ‘let my people go.” In 1946, the second World War had just ended, marking the beginning of the Cold War and continuing the cycle of American imperialist violence globally. Western history tries to tell us that the Civil Rights Movement didn’t start until the ‘50s/’60s, but in 1946, the US was still heavily segregated. It was before Brown v Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act, but there was still a movement happening. Paul Robeson was an activist, performing and advocating for his people for decades, into the ‘60s when we performed ‘Go Down Moses’ again, “remind[ing] listeners of the ongoing struggles against slavery (in varying forms and degrees) around the world: Let my people go !’’ In the Winter of 2023, the Drexel University Gospel Choir (DUGC) performed the song again, with our Director encouraging us to lean into the dynamics of the song: the pain, the struggle and the journey. But how is this song relevant to us? How could this old spiritual, sung first by enslaved people in the 1800s, be sung by an activist under different conditions in the mid 20th century and then sung again by college students under even different conditions in the 21st? Part of it is history, and paying homage to those that came before us. But understanding history and time, in traditional African knowledge systems, is more than just honoring those who came before us. We collapse the rigid boundaries of Western time, and are able to see the meshing of our past histories, our current conditions and our future dreams, non linearly. We can create our identities, relationships and community by doing that. Gospel, as a blues tradition, “can be viewed as a permanent counter mobilization against the constantly re-emerging plantation blocs of the world and their intellectual fountainhead in the South.” We are not under the same conditions that Paul Robeson was under, but we are still connected, through history and expression, but also through the burden of racial capitalism continues on. This digital story places the DUGC as a Black Geography and continuation of the Gospel tradition.

(Slides 3-6) The Drexel University Gospel Choir was formed in 1978, by the founder, Miss Vashti ‘Tina’ Gorham. Miss Tina was director for 7 years, with Reverend Gregory Ross taking over as Director in 1985. Rev. Greg was a former choir member and student of Miss Tina’s. He was director for 33 years, retiring in 2018. In 2023, Ross Browne, a former choir member and student of Rev. Greg, took over as director. In the 45 years that the choir has been active, hundreds of students have been part of it, with many still being a part of the alumni network, and a few being part of the choir as current members. During the 45th anniversary weekend, many alumni spoke about how the choir was the place that they came to exhale. It was a place of comfort, and of community. The DUGC was not just a hobby or a place they came to make friends. They said that it was how they got through Drexel, as individuals and together. In Celeste Winston’s piece about maroon geographies, she considers ‘homeplaces’ as “spaces of care and nurturance [created] in the face of the brutal harsh reality of racist oppression … [and] sexist domination… forms a site of struggle and resistance that affirms Black people and sustains Black life. In our contemporary context, the homeplace remains a central site of Black “aspiration, cultural continuity, and survival.” When I try to conceptualize a black geography, that is what I think about. I think about a safe space within the chaos and mess. I think about a place tied to history, both of the physical space they are in, but also of the people that they represent. I think about sustenance and survival. I think about places that produce culture and continue forms of expression of said culture. I think about the formation of a language and belief system that is personal and communal to make sense of the world in a way that makes sense of the people within the geography. “Within and against the dominant modes of power, knowledge and space, these Black geographic narratives and lived experiences need to be taken seriously because they reconfigure classificatory spatial practices.” In this quote, Katherine McKittrick and Clyde Woods use the word ‘reconfigure’ to talk about the work that Black geographies do. To reconfigure is to rethink, reshape, remodel, with the purpose of creating a new understanding and way to live. When discussing Blues tradition, Clyde Woods continues, “the blues and the spirituals are not simply mechanistic responses to oppression. They are the conscious recodification of African and African American knowledge systems, soundscapes, spirituality and social research traditions.” Gospel music, the Blues, spirituals are all part of a process of re-anchoring and rearranging ourselves. And so that’s also a part of a Black geography. Woods goes on to cite a Martin Luther King Jr. speech given at a Jazz festival, “when life offers no order and meaning, the musicians create order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.” The DUGC acted as a homeplace for its members. It acted as a place of meaning making of the chaos that is experiencing Drexel University as a Black student. It has continued on in this, not just in Room 2023, where the choir rehearses, but in its members, wherever they are. Members used the choir as a way to perform, yes, but also as a way to self express and recalibrate.

(Slide 7 & 8) Personally, my biggest survival tactic at Drexel has been finding those places to self express and calibrate. I think this is true for many students. We all have to deal with the 10 week quarter system. We all have to deal with a lot of work and balance finding jobs and co-ops in between. Many of us are navigating adulthood for the first time and grappling with who we really want to be in the world. But as of now, only 8.8% of the Drexel population deals with navigating being Black and the anti Blackness that this world, the corporation that is Drexel, the city of Philadelphia and this country have on top of that. In my time at Drexel, everyone went from being colorblind to now being ‘aware’ and working on ‘diversity’ and believing that Black lives are worth something. My classes have gone from the typical anti Black, ignorant statements, to people speaking as authoritative figures in Black issues and still being ignorant. The performances have been truly something to watch. Now that’s not to say that all the changes have been bad, but it is to say that there is almost never a break from the disorder. One of the places I found to exhale was the Gospel choir. Part of it was the fact that it's a majority black class/club, and so there aren’t as many of the dynamics that others bring in. But the other part of that is the personal connection that I have with Gospel music. Even as I have major doubts and questions about Christianity and how it is practiced, there aren’t many things in this world that are as uplifting, fulfilling and almost cleansing to me as Gospel music. My experience is not unique. I know this because my family has been members of churches in Nairobi, and Virginia. Though the language is sometimes different, the songs are often different, the spirit and energy is almost the same. This is historical of course, with many elements of Gospel music being the same (call and response, repetition) globally. But it is also about the concept of transcendence and how Gospel music facilitates that. The DUGC facilitated that, and that has been part of my self preservation at Drexel. That experience is also not unique to me. During the 45th anniversary weekend, many alumni spoke about how being part of the DUGC was their response to the struggles that they faced at Drexel. Many talked about financial hardships, not feeling seen or understood in their classes, feeling overwhelmed by the entire process, or not being able to find a real community at Drexel. I learned very quickly that Drexel University is set up where students find themselves isolated and disconnected from others. The DUGC was and is an outlet, and a place of meaning making. Like MLK Jr. said, “when life offers no order and meaning, the musicians create order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.” Room 2032, and Drexel University are not the only places where the DUGC has recreated and reconfigured and made meaning of the world. One of the things that the DUGC was able to do was go on tour across the US, and even to Canada and Jamaica. Even currently, we continue to have engagements outside of Drexel in churches in Philly. Being able to take that spirit into other geographies, both Black and non Black, is being able to tell the story of the DUGC, it’s members and the community that it has built. Ngugi Wa Thiong'o talks about how for his community, the theater was not just a room or a building. Because it was so intertwined with life, and really was a reflection of it, it happened wherever they went to perform and in all “empty spaces.” And so the DUGC created a space where members can exhale and express for their own sake, and also for others. Many authors talk about the importance of time and the past in Gospel music. Joyce Marie Jackson says “..the resultant development of dynamic styles of performances illustrate both continuity and change, since many of the aesthetic values and musical practices intrinsic to gospel music represent a definite link with the traditional past.” Jackson is talking about continuity in time, and how Gospel as a tradition is very reliant on the past. I want to raise space as a big part of that as well. Time reflects era, historical happenings, things like that. We cannot separate that from place. Clyde Woods talks about how what we now call the Blues began in the 1800s, in the Mississippi Delta. From the Mississippi Delta it went to the rest of the South, to across the country. It manifested itself in Gospel music, Hip-Hip, Jazz and other genres. Each of those iterations are important not only because they reflect the time, but also the story of the place they are from. Gospel specifically is thousands of years old, having roots in traditional African spirituality, continuing on through chattel slavery, through the Reconstruction Era, Civil Rights Movement up until now. Each stage, song, or performance tells the story of a people and a tradition that have survived. So the DUGC traveling is more than taking a school trip. But it is about continuing the legacy and spirit of the Gospel tradition.

(Slides 9-12) The question of freedom dreams is interesting within the context of Gospel music. Braxton D. Shelley talks about the ‘Gospel Imagination,’ and how it is reliant on the idea of transcendence. Transcendence is about finding the connection with the spiritual realm, with nature, with something that is not solely on this planet. Much of Gospel music is about getting to that place. You’ll often hear phrases like ‘the house of the Lord,’ or ‘the shelter of the Most High,’ or ‘the caught the Holy Ghost/Spirit.’ All of those are about the experience of being in commune with ‘the Spirit.’ Gospel music, the way it is performed and sung, with elements that involve those singing and those watching is the connection to that place of transcendence. It’s no surprise that many songs sung by the DUGC share that same will and testament. For the 20th and 45th anniversary concert, the DUGC sang the song ‘The Will of God,’ which talks about how the safest place on earth is the will of God. The freedom dream of Gospel music is often safety, freedom of self expression and space to exhale. Joyce Marie Jackson says that “the African American ‘folk’ church has historically represented the single cultural institution through which African Americans have been able to express themselves freely and without constraint.” The freedom dream is also self definition, away from any of the rigid limitations that Western systems put on us. For the members of the DUGC, all of that has rang true. Singing, rehearsing every week, performing everywhere that they could is all part of living that freedom dream, even within the walls of Drexel University. The gospel transcendence was accessible through the DUGC.

(Slide 13, 14) On March 11th, the DUGC celebrated its 45th anniversary with a big concert that included all three directors, the current choir and dozens of alumni that came back to celebrate. They brought their kids and everything! The anniversary concert is what solidified the DUGC to me as a Black geography. It was truly like a family reunion, with everyone very engaged, telling stories of their time and the DUGC and how it impacted them. Their experiences were in the same vein as what I’ve read about the history and complexities of Gospel music. The community that they have created and that they sustain is central to the entire experience, something that is absolutely part of indigenous African knowledge systems. We know, live, learn, grow, together. Communally. I’ll end with a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks called ‘Paul Robeson’ that captures the spirit of the DUGC, and all Black geographies very well.

Paul Robeson, by Gwendolyn Brooks.

That time

we all heard it,

cool and clear,

cutting across the hot grit of the day.

The major Voice.

The adult Voice

forgoing Rolling River,

forgoing tearful tale of bale and barge

and other symptoms of an old despond.

Warning, in music-words

devout and large,

that we are each other’s

harvest:

we are each other’s

business:

we are each other’s

magnitude and bond.

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Citations

Brooks, Daphne. “ Divas and Diasporic Consciousness: Song, Dance, and New Negro Womanhood in the Veil.” Essay. In Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910, 307–10. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006.

Brooks, Gwendolyn. “Paul Robeson.” Essay. In The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks. New York, NY: Library of America, 2005.

Clark Sheard, Karen. The Will of God. CD, n.d.

“First-Year Student Population Profile.” Drexel Home, December 8, 2022. https://drexel.edu/admissions/apply/undergrad-instructions/first-year-student-population-profile.

Jackson, Joyce Marie. “The Changing Nature of Gospel Music: A Southern Case Study.” African American Review 29, no. 2 (1995): 185–98. https://doi.org/10.2307/3042290.

McKittrick, Katherine, and Clyde Adrian Woods. “Sittin' on Top of the World. The Challenges of Blues and Hip Hop Geography .” Essay. In Black Geographies and the Politics of Place, 46–77. Cambridge, MA: Between the Lines, 2007.

McKittrick, Katherine, and Clyde Adrian Woods. “‘No One Knows the Mysteries at the Bottom of the Ocean.’” Essay. In Black Geographies and the Politics of Place, 4–5. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2007.

Robeson, Paul. Go Down, Moses, 1946.

Shelley, Braxton D. “‘A Balm In Gilead’: ‘Tuning Up’ and the Gospel Imagination.” Essay. In Healing for the Soul Richard Smallwood, the Vamp, and the Gospel Imagination, 38–91. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.

Thiongʼo, Ngugi wa. “The Language of African Theatre.” Essay. In Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, 36–37. East African Educational Publishers, 1994.

Winston, Celeste. “Maroon Geographies.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2021, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2021.1894087.