Youths give Negro priests a new life – wafb

Baton Rouge, La. (Wafb) – They are songs that tell stories of suffering, faith and hope, but this part of American history, which has existed for hundreds of years, is in danger of slipping away. Negrors were created by the Africans during slavery and were passed down from generation to generation. In Baton Rouge, local musicians old and young work together to preserve this valuable heritage.

On Monday night, a space, usually filled with laughter and talkative children in Martin Luther King, Jr., the Christian Academy, overflows with the sounds of the past. Adults sing songs dating back to a long time. They are the songs that once soothe the souls of the enslaved in the face of overwhelming pain.

“Most spirituals are about their relationship with God and the search for a better day,” said Clarence Jones.

Clarence Jones began heritage 49 years ago to preserve the inheritance of Negro spiritual. African American songs for survival led to other genres we hear today.

“The children of the Negro spiritual must be blues, and then jazz and research came and B, and they all used what was developed in the spiritual, which was improvisation,” Jones said.

Beat and tunes change over time, but the words and their meanings remain the same.

“It’s very therapeutic,” said Carl George.

The tenor of the heritage Carl George says that the knowledge of the mental and emotional power of his ancestors leads him.

“They were convinced that freedom was coming from within. This freedom came from within. They were not slaves in their minds, “said George.

But they were supported by the sounds that brought them peace and often joy.

“Because in joy they actually speak to the Lord and the Lord brings them out,” added Janice Stewart.

Removing them from the fields where they worked into slavery and outside the chains that caught their physical bodies.

“Most importantly, we keep what was ours,” Jones said.

This is a mood shared on the campus of the South University by the Gospel Choir.

“If you don’t know where you came from, you don’t know where you are going. This is our heritage, this is us, part of our foundation. What brought us, ”said Ernest Bauman, Jr. Bowman is an adviser to the evangelical choir in Southern.

Now a new generation of votes is being seasoned in honor of those who have gone before, which is something that senior Ashley Lovelas at South University does not accept.

“Singing the songs that encouraged them to say that I don’t know where I will go to the end … or I don’t know if I will see a better day, but this song is right now it brings me joy. This is forever and valuable to me, “Lovelas said.

From the study of a traditional, slow gadget to a more version with a twist in the 21st century, the Negro spiritual endures the test of time.

“You see everything is necessary for this period of time and we did it. The same song, the same message, with just a little extra funk to it, “Lovelas said.

This is a youthful energy breathing new life in the old texts of different times.

“It is important for those who are my generation … at my age who may not grew up in the church who may not like history, but they need to understand that this story should live for these ancestors. These songs were caused by pain, “added Horus leader James Elliott, Jr.

The deliberate people were not allowed to read or write, so the Negro spiritual often carried hidden messages. Coded songs were a form of secret communication for those who fled from plantations south to the safety and freedom of the North.

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