Alisha Lola Jones Lecture to Be Delivert!
Alisha Lola Jones
Within historically Black Pentecostal churches that showcase gospel music, “deliverance” is a term that refers to a separation from the sinful lifestyle. While deliverance is used to characterize many types of spiritual healing, many Black congregations and gospel-music fans deploy the term while referring to a man’s “struggle” to resist homosexuality.
In her lecture “I Am Delivert!” on Thursday, November 21, Alisha Lola Jones, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Indiana University Bloomington, draws from Black male musicians’ narratives and recordings since the late 1980s, exploring a social history of anxieties surrounding the performances of deliverance testimonies in Pentecostal gospel music scenes. This second lecture in a series honoring the Black Studies Program at 50, will begin at 4:30 p.m. at Bond Hall of Swarthmore College. It is open to all.
