The Gospel Truth

I was raised up in COGIC Christianity with southern Baptist roots. My father hailed from Macon, Georgia and my maternal grandmother from Memphis, Tennessee. My deepest connection to the church was always music. Praise and worship. Gospel music was the reason I knew God was real. It was the first (and for the entirety of my adolescence, only) gateway to feeling and experiencing Spirit. It was the only thing that moved me from the inside out.

It was the bridge that connected me to Jesus in a real and honest manner. No matter my relation to the church throughout my life, Gospel remains a constant in my Spiritual journey. Because at the root of Gospel music is an urgency to converse with our Creator. It is a vehicle to carry us back to the celestial bodies that we originate from.

It was birthed from songs our ancestors wrote in fields so far from our earthly home. Songs were and remain some of our most potent prayers. For some, they are our most powerful allies in spiritual work. In the midst of despair and religious corruption, melodies that lived in our blood and rhythms dwelling in our bones could not be eradicated. It’s why Hoodoo practitioners utilized Negro spirituals to remove blockages and manipulate energy in a world built to strip them of any personal power.

It’s why no matter what you call yourself, when you hear a vocalist who was trained in the church sing a song, it touches your spirit. Because they made contact with those starry constellations. And it reverberated throughout our lineages. Because through those songs, we told our stories. We offered our most sacred prayers, often so simple, yet so powerful when spoken and sung from the deepest places within us.

3.20.21