“The Wisdom of the African American Spirituals Tradition: From Slave Fields to Concert Halls,” a workshop with Dr. Arthur C. Jones

“The Wisdom of the African American Spirituals Tradition: From Slave Fields to Concert Halls,” a community workshop with Dr. Arthur C. Jones at Providence Public Library’s Donald J. Farish Auditorium. 

About Dr. Arthur C. Jones: Dr. Arthur C. Jones is the author of the newly reissued Wade in the Water: The Wisdom of the Spirituals and the Founder of the award-winning Spirituals Project, which has worked since 1998 to preserve and revitalize the music and teachings of the sacred folk songs called “spirituals.” At this participatory workshop, he will teach us about the cultural, spiritual, and musical legacy of African American spirituals, the songs created and first sung by enslaved African peoples in America. Exploring the African roots of the spirituals, Jones will reveal the way the songs conceal a language of freedom and resistance, and the way that their spiritual consolation reinforces community solidarity.

Arthur C. Jones, a clinical psychologist, is Professor Emeritus of Music, Culture and Psychology, University of Denver. In the early 1990s, his expertise in African American and multicultural mental health and spirituality merged with a serendipitous revival of his childhood love of singing, leading to sustained efforts to help preserve and revitalize the music and wise teachings of the African American spirituals tradition. He is the founder of the award-winning Spirituals Project, which is now an official program of the University of Denver Lamont School of Music.

The event takes place in PPL’s Donald J. Farish Auditorium and is free and open to the public. For more details and to register, please visit https://provlib.libcal.com/event/10576209

The Saturday workshop at PPL is followed on Sunday at 5pm with a concert by the Rhode Island College (RIC) Choral Program, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, at All Saints’. This concert is a collaboration of Dr. Jones and Dr. Teresa Coffman, Director of Choral Activities at RIC. Together they have crafted a program reflecting the richness of musical styles and messages created by composers who have designed choral arrangements of spirituals and gospel songs inspired by spirituals.

Both weekend events are free and open to all, and are supported in part by grants from the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.