African American spirituals are a part of our collective culture, but their roots and true meanings are not universally known, even within the African American community. Yolanda F. Johnson, who is working to build understanding of the genre, will share her expertise on the subject during “A Spirituals Experience,” a special event this Saturday, April 2, presented by RiverArts at First Baptist Church in Tarrytown, where Johnson is the music director.
Johnson, a soprano, has traveled the world performing opera and other genres. But spirituals have always remained close to her heart. She grew up singing them in church in Omaha, Neb. One of her albums — “Feel the Spirit!” — showcases her talent and understanding of her material.
Johnson originally developed “spiritual experiences” events to teach the worshippers at First Baptist about the songs performed during services. “I think every time I perform this, people come away enlightened,” she told the Enterprise. “I think that there’s a universality to this music, and it’s why I believe it has come to belong in the American song repertoire. The text around these lived experiences is so universal in nature, it helps us to develop a certain empathy to the lived experience of others.”
The event is part of RiverArts’ Artist Conversation Series, produced by former RiverArts’ board member Marie-Louise Miller. After Johnson’s presentation, Miller will interview Johnson, and members of the audience will be able to ask questions.
According to RiverArts’ artistic director, Kate Ashby, “This program expresses in a powerful way the vitality and resilience of the human spirit. Yolanda is a magnificent vocalist and conveys to the audience the depth and power of these songs, leading listeners to better understand their significance and place in history.”
Johnson reveals that spirituals familiar to Americans had their melodic roots in Africa, with lyrics often serving as veiled references to enslavement. Forced to speak English, the enslaved Africans composed songs that often had hidden meanings. While seemingly based upon Christian scripture, the spirituals served as a form of code that enabled the enslaved to communicate with each other without their enslavers knowing.
How to escape became their overarching goal, and they might plot an escape through innocuous-sounding religious songs.
“One example is ‘Every Time I Feel the Spirit,’” Johnson said. “That could let you know there was going to be a secret worship service.” A song with the line, “Jordan River is chilly and cold” could mean an escape was planned.
“The slave owners would try to indoctrinate them by saying, ‘The Scriptures say slaves should obey their masters,’” Johnson explained. But that didn’t feel right to the enslaved, who developed their own form of Christianity. Even as they were taught the Christian bible, they grew to feel solidarity with the Jews, and the story of Moses delivering them from slavery.
“They would have their secret worship services,” Johnson said. References to the river Jordan could have multiple meanings: it could be informational — that the escapee would have to cross a river — or it could be reassuring, implying that somebody was coming to help them escape. “Wade in the Water” seems to be about baptism, but it could also be a way of warning runaways that slave-catchers were nearby, and the escapee should dive underwater and hide.
White singers in the post-Civil War era sometimes performed these songs without knowing the intent of their original composers, let alone acknowledging them.
“Even when [Black people’s] music was appropriated by white entertainers, what were they going to do?” Johnson said. “Even if that happened now… you’d feel part of your identity is being siphoned.”
Johnson is a member of the voice and music composition faculty at the Mozartina Music Conservatory in Tarrytown, and is on the artist roster of the Westchester Chamber Soloists.
In addition to her events about spirituals, she created and performs in a concert program called “Music She Wrote,” a celebration of women composers starting with Gregorian chant composer Hildegard von Bingen, moving through the centuries to classical composer Fanny Mendelssohn, and then on to the modern age.
Johnson is also a philanthropist and consultant. She is the founder and president of YFJ Consulting, LLC, and founder of Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy. She is an advisory board member of the Foundation for Post-Conflict Development for the United Nations, a board member of the Lehman College Art Gallery, and the first African American president of Women in Development, New York.
DETAILS:
Tickets to “The Spirituals Experience” on April 2, at 7 p.m., at First Baptist Church, 56 S. Broadway, Tarrytown, are $25 at riverarts.org. Proof of vaccination and masks are required to attend this event.
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