A, Woman, Class of 2018
Interview Transcription
(Filler words such as “um” have been omitted)

Sharldine Desire: When did you first start singing gospel music and why?
A: Ever since I was young and I went to church at Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. So for as long as I remember, I’ve never not heard gospel music.
SD: You’ve never not sung it either?
A: Yeah
SD: Did you like it right away? And what about it kept your interest?
A: Yes, it’s basically part of my culture, even though I am African, we do borrow from gospel in our own songs at the same time…we do sing that. So when we’d gather around to pray, before every prayer is praise. So we’d sing gospel songs—maybe we’d sing a gospel song and then we’d sing an African religious song…
SD: Yeah it’s very much the same for me, being Haitian. So why did you join gospel choir at Williams? What was your motivation for that?
A: That’s a great question. Part of the reason why I joined gospel choir—it was actually my default option…I tried out for Purple Rain and I didn’t get it so I decided to try gospel choir. I think one of your members referred me to it. But I think it was like a blessing in disguise in the sense that like where I am now, I can’t see myself even being part of another group because gospel choir has just become such an integral part of my being here at Williams. And also Naomi, whose a member, she sort of made me feel comfortable going there because I knew I’d have a friendly face.
SD: So going off that, how do you think being part of gospel choir has impacted your life here so far?
A: I think it’s definitely…the people I’ve met, they’ve definitely changed my views on a lot of things. I tell this to people at home, that gospel choir is like my family inside of Williams in the sense that like…I often find myself unable to have a space where I can be myself and just be free to discuss everything I want or just act goofy, make jokes…but when I’m at gospel choir, the atmosphere is just very welcoming, inviting and just carefree. It’s like that place that you know you’re definitely going to de-stress, and all the work that you’ve gone through, all the troubles that you’ve been through for that week, you just come there and you just unwind…
SD: How do you interact—or do you interact—with gospel music outside of the choir?
A: Yeah actually…like gospel choir coupled with a conversation I had with one of my friends sort of helped me shift spiritually, like a sort of spiritual growth. So that conversation plus being surrounded by Christ and people who want to be Christ-like has definitely changed me in many ways. For example, I don’t listen to secular music anymore, in fact all I listen to is gospel music and at times I find myself…that’s all I’m singing and some of the songs bring me to tears and I’m just like…this was not me prior to gospel choir and the people I’ve met prior to gospel choir.
SD: So what’s the difference, do you think, when you’re singing or listening to gospel music by yourself and when you’re learning a song or performing a song with GC?
A: When I’m listening or singing on my own it’s more personal, like it’s just me and God and at the point I’m very vulnerable cuz it’s just us, just me and God in that moment and I will sing with all my might unrestrained and it just hits closer to home. I’ll listen to the lyrics and not just listen to it but also apply it to my life. It becomes a part of me. But with GC it take a while with that only because of the structure and you definitely need structure because it’s a gospel choir, but that’s just the difference because when you’re in GC you’re trying to learn a song and do the song justice by fulfilling every component, whether you’re a alto, tenor, soprano or a bass. So in GC I’m basically singing the words but there’s no meaning after until I take those songs to my room and I sing them and I start really feeling it.
SD: Good, so do you enjoy the performance aspect of GC?
A: Definitely…after our first concert I received a lot of feedback about our performance in general and how it touched a lot of people who were not necessarily spiritual and they said that it really made them reconsider that. It’s just being able to directly be a tool used by God to impact people. If God gives you a talent, you better use it and by you using it, it’s helping in his overall and general will.
SD: So kind of related to that, if you want to say anything more—how do you think it’s read here at Williams? How do you think gospel music and our performing it is read or understood?
A: From my understanding, our generation or our group, our gospel choir group is different from anything Williams has seen. I mean there’s been gospel choir since I don’t know when but we’re definitely not the first. We have freshmen who came in, we have just new people but after Mountain Day, a lot of people said that they were really with it because of our rendition of “This Little Light of Mine” and “Go Tell It.” It was more of a contemporary rendition and it wasn’t all like…I don’t know, normally gospel music has a tendency to be overpowering and people often feel uncomfortable because maybe they don’t understand it but we perform our songs, and even on Mountain Day, in a way that’s more relatable to students.
SD: What role do you think gospel music has played throughout history in the black community?
A: I think gospel music in general, the whole merit of it is that it got black people, oppressed people through the hard times. And even in the songs, when you listen to the lyrics, it’s the desperation of a group of people who have been oppressed and they’re conveying that desperation into words. So the power that is exuded through those lyrics, it’s just something phenomenal in the sense that you have this group of people that were oppressed but were still able to create this beautiful art so it’s just a true testament to that group of people.
SD: So do you think it still plays that role in the black community today?
A: Um…I think we’re definitely in a different time. We don’t sing the “Oh Freedom” or the Negro spirituals as much because we’re not in that time period per se. I feel like gospel music now is meant to sustain your faith and it’s meant to also help recruit and evangelize, where as gospel music in the past was meant to get people through a hard time.
SD: But for you, doesn’t it still do that?
A: Get me through hard times? Absolutely. It’s just something that I know. Each song is different and there are also different songs that cater to my situation. For instance, when I’m feeling down I’ll listen to “My God is Awesome” and know that he is great. I can listen to “Take Me To The King” and know that other people have struggled the way I’ve struggled and they found God and sought God to get them through it.
SD: How about outside of the black community? So it seems that even for you here at Williams, for people going through their own struggles in the modern time, gospel is still that thing that keeps them going in a lot of ways, but do you think that it does the same thing outside of the black community? Do you think that it has a similar effect on other groups of people?
A: Like white people?
SD: White people, other people…
A: Um…no, because it’s not in their history. It’s a part of black history, it was created by blacks…so you know, I can’t speak for all white people but I feel like a white person can listen to the same gospel song that a black person is listening to and take the lyrics and the words at face value and be like “Oh it’s a catchy tune” but they don’t really understand the gravity of the words, whereas a black person may appreciate it more because the art is just so purely rooted in what a black person’s history has come from. So I don’t think—like for instance, there were some songs performed by gospel choir where it was a struggle because the choir is generally mixed, which is great, but at the same time you had—I noticed that the African-American or black students in the group, they would sing the song with all their might and their power but the non-blacks in the group, they didn’t necessarily convey the passion and emotion behind the words. It seems like just words to them, while an African American student will actually feel the words.
SD: Okay, so those are all the official questions but I kind of just wanted to hear a little but about—and you spoke to it, definitely—but your personal experience at the concert. Like the audience and what it was like for you, this was your first concert and the first thing that had our name on it, so what was it like for you on stage?
A: Prior to gospel choir, I never really sang in public or never really sang at all because I’ve had a couple bad experiences with that and I never really got any good feedback so my confidence with that was really low but with building it with gospel choir and growing as a singer, a vocalist—it was just nice to see that a lot of people had good feedback on my performance and the whole entire performance in general. I didn’t realize how your voice could be a tool, like I said before, for God, and that my voice could be a tool and that I could help with that overall agenda. I think gospel choir, that performance, definitely reassured me that I can do it and that this is something I want to continue doing. But I was definitely surprised at myself for being able to do that because right before I was extremely, extremely nervous and I don’t really have a lot of confidence in it but afterwards, the feedback I got definitely reassured me that I’m in the right place.
SD: And how important do you think the audience is…and their reaction? Like how important was it for you that they reciprocated?
A: Well when I’m performing I try not to look at the audience because it just makes me nervous but I noticed when other people were performing the looks on their faces—it was a look that I’ve seen before, only because gospel choir performed earlier in the year at a church that’s like 30 minutes away from here and the church is definitely not a “black church,” it’s very structured and they sing the hymns, it’s definitely nothing that I was used to and definitely far from Baptist, Lutheran type churches that I’ve seen so when we sang our songs and everyone—their eyes opened and people were getting out of their seat and people were getting their phones out because I could tell that they had never been exposed to gospel music and the beauty of it and how pure and great gospel music can be. And I think we got that same reaction at the concert in the sense that people didn’t understand—like it’s one thing to hear gospel music, it’s another thing to see it performed. And when you see it performed and the acoustics are just right and it just fills the whole room…it has the propensity to invite the Holy Spirit in and I think that that’s what a lot of people were feeling, they just didn’t know what it was. That feeling where they just can’t put their thumb on it, there’s just something there. And one thing that I kept hearing was that this performance gave them chills, what is that chill? They don’t know what that chill is but they know that it gave them chills…

 

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