Celebration of Negro Spirituals

In recognition of African American history month, the Loma Linda University School of Religion’s humanities program will present “Celebration of Negro Spirituals.”

The celebratory concert will take place on February 12, 2011, at 6:30 p.m. at the Campus Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church in Loma Linda, California. Featuring Shelton Kirby, Adrian Pressley,  and the Master’s Call Choir, this event is free and open to the public.

“As I think about this celebratory tribute to the negro spiritual, I am reminded of the people who inspired this musical gift to America,” says Ramona Hyman, director of humanities, LLU School of Religion. “I imagine Harriet Tubman singing the songs as she traveled back and forth (19 times) leading enslaved blacks to freedom via the Underground Railroad. I am reminded of the African American scholar W. E. B. Dubois who called the spirituals the ‘sorrow songs.’ These songs are, indeed,  a part of the American story. For many of its singers, they have been the ‘bridge over trouble waters.’”

For more information on this event, contact Dr. Ramona L. Hyman, at <rhyman@llu.edu> or (909) 651-5097.