Image courtesy of Lincoln Center.org
Easter is celebrated by Christian communities around the world. However, for Black Americans Easter has a special significance that may differ from how other Christian communities embrace and celebrate this religious holiday.
For Black Americans Easter not only points to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, marking the beginning of Christianity, but also creates a spiritual petri dish of liberation, freedom, and hope. Jesus Christ’s resurrection represents a new beginning, freedom from the bondage of institutions and corrupt systems, and hope of a better and more just future. All these spiritual revelations and projections were incapsulated in David Geffen Hall’s celebration of gospel music as a part of their American Songbook series at Lincoln Center.
Image courtesy of lincolncernter.og
The “Revival: The Gospel According to Donald Lawerence” made a significant excavation into the origins and history of gospel music with an assemblage of 13 gospels singers and Grammy-winning artist Ledisi and Broadway music director Joseph Joubert. While this spirit-filled performance examined gospel music contributions to the American Songbook, there was much focus on how gospel music has been a source of liberation and hope for the Black community. And without gospel music, which is now catalogued as one of the original forms of American music, there would be no R&B music, pop music, hip-hop music, or club music. All these music genres come out of the black church in some form and now are aptly represented in modern contemporary Christian music.
What stood out most about this concert, so aptly put together for Easter celebrations, was that the music spoke to the Black American traditions of creating new musical genres out of pain, loss, and exclusion and transitioning those traumas into joy, celebration, and hope.
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And course, the vocal pyrotechnical skills of the gospel artists have to be acknowledged. Ledisi brought a particular sensitivity and authenticity to the gospel legendary songs “Precious Lord” and “Changed”. Additionally, “I Know I’ve Been Changed” was rendered with deep conviction by Latrice Pace. Joseph Joubert took Richard Smallwood’s classic “Total Praise” and turned the classic into a masterpiece of virtuosity and technical acuity. Gospel artist Kyla Jade blew the house off with her powerful rendition of the Clark Sisters’ “You Brought the Sunshine.” And lastly, Donald Lawrence performed his soulful “Not Making Sense, Making Faith” spoke to his own struggles and his victory.
—William S. Gooch
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