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Fisk Jubilee Singers and the Future of Negro Spirituals

Fisk singers

If there was any doubt of the crucial role of the famed Fisk Jubilee Singers in African-American music history and the continued relevance of Negro spiritual music, one song from Duke Chapel Dean Rev. Luke Powery put that to rest. 

At a panel tied in with the Fisk Jubilee Singers concert this weekend, Powery began his talk by singing a negro spiritual to a silent and attentive audience in Old Chemistry Building.  Powery spoke of his struggle with appropriating the spirit of the past and being true to the suffering the songs reflected, their expressions of life and death.

Professor Maurice Jackson of Georgetown gave a synopsis of the rich history of Negro spirituals and how various musical artists had revived them from the time of slavery until today.

Paul Kwami, director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, said people still ask him, "Is the Negro spiritual a dying art?" His answer is "No," adding that the demand for his group is more than the student group can fulfill. He said he teaches his singers to connect to the meaning and history of the spirituals as a way to keep them modern and relevant. 

During a question period, Professor Mark Anthony Neal pointed to examples of spirituals in current hip hop, which he asked his Twitter following to provide during the event.

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The panel was sponsored by the Scholars and Publics Forum of Trinity College and was moderated by the forum's chair Professor Laurent Dubois.

Text by Amanda Peralta.  Photo by Megan Morr/Duke University Photography