This year the 2025 Rodney and Lorna Sawatsky Visiting Scholar is Rev. Dr. Braxton Shelley, who will be giving a lecture that explores the worldview that gives rise to Black gospel music. Surveying a diverse array of gospel selections, this presentation will clarify what this tradition shares: the belief that musical sound can turn spiritual power into a physical reality.
The free, public lecture will be November 19th at 7:30pm in the Grebel chapel, with a reception to follow. There will also be a workshop on Gospel music on November 20th at 7:30pm.
Rev. Dr. Shelley is the George Washington Williams Professor of Music, of Sacred Music, and of Divinity at Yale University, where he is also faculty director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Music and the Black Church. A specialist in African American popular music, his research and critical interests, while especially focused on African American gospel performance, extend into media studies, sound studies, phenomenology, homiletics, and theology.
The free, public lecture will be November 19th at 7:30pm in the Grebel chapel, with a reception to follow. There will also be a workshop on Gospel music on November 20th at 7:30pm.
Rev. Dr. Shelley is the George Washington Williams Professor of Music, of Sacred Music, and of Divinity at Yale University, where he is also faculty director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Music and the Black Church. A specialist in African American popular music, his research and critical interests, while especially focused on African American gospel performance, extend into media studies, sound studies, phenomenology, homiletics, and theology.
For more information and to reserve your seat: https://lnkd.in/gk7qZwup