African-American voices in Appalachia resonate with Spanish gospel choir
By Jean Elliott, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and Lindsey Love ’09, communication major
It all started with a research project ...
As rich gospel harmonies drifted over Virginia Tech’s Kentland Farm, Morgan Cain Grim stood in the back of the crowd and smiled. The songs were delivered with a slight Spanish accent by a group of young people whose energy and hope belied a tough childhood. Beyond the joy of the moment, she smiled because she had helped bring the troupe to visit where gospel music was born.
The seeds for that evening had actually been planted three years before, rooted in an undergraduate research project for University Honors. Cain Grim, an ambitious freshman who had convinced her advisor that she was, indeed, capable of taking on an honors project so early in her career, focused her efforts on Wake Forest, Va., a small, historically black community in Southwest Virginia, near Virginia Tech. Cain Grim, a religion and culture major from Floyd, Va., spent two years interviewing and transcribing community members’ oral histories, which she published in a 350-page manuscript entitled “Wake Forest: Voices That Tell of a Faith Community” in May 2008.
Funded by an Undergraduate Diversity Research Grant, a collaborative effort between the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Center for Academic Enrichment and Excellence, Cain Grim’s research helps to preserve the community’s rich cultural heritage through their stories, prayers, and songs.
“There is little I could say to adequately express what my involvement in Wake Forest has meant to me,” writes Cain Grim in her preface. “I am forever grateful to the community members who opened their homes, churches, minds, and hearts to me while I was working on this research project. Not only have I been given an enlightening opportunity to witness community life outside my own, I have had the opportunity to help increase the available scholarship pertaining to African-American communities in Appalachia — of which there is currently a very limited amount.”
– Morgan Cain Grim
She interviewed 19 individuals about the Wake Forest community. Her transcripts reveal both a chronology and a heritage. The book progresses from “The Dawn of Wake Forest,” which discusses how slaves from Kentland Farm developed their land, to “Faith in the Forest,” which explores the rituals of baptisms, communion, weddings, and funerals, and reveals the impact of church on the community. Howard Eaves is quoted as saying, “I think you can honestly say that the religion had something that unified ... keeping a lot of the community things going. It wasn’t about the religion a lot of times, just everybody coming together.”
The Reverend Eyvonne Spencer agreed, “Church is the center of community in Wake Forest ... the glue that holds them together.”
That and song, as evidenced by having both senior and junior choirs. “We traveled everywhere. We were big stuff,” said Eaves.
Cain Grim also examined family and fellowship, with focuses on parenting and community celebrations, racial harmony, and respected elders. Churches, values, and the future of the community are important threads.
“The spiritual life in Wake Forest, grounded in music, faith, prayer, and a strong sense of community, provided a hope and unity necessary to overcome real and present bondage, not to mention offering motivation to independently develop a thriving, sustainable community following emancipation,” says Cain Grim. “Wake Forest’s ancestors were heroic pioneers who laid the foundation for such a faith community.”
“There is little I could say to adequately express what my involvement in Wake Forest has meant to me,” writes Cain Grim in her preface. “I am forever grateful to the community members who opened their homes, churches, minds, and hearts to me while I was working on this research project. Not only have I been given an enlightening opportunity to witness community life outside my own, I have had the opportunity to help increase the available scholarship pertaining to African-American communities in Appalachia — of which there is currently a very limited amount.”
Anita Puckett, director of the Appalachian Studies Program, confirms the magnitude of the work. “In combination with the Nicolai/Kessler tapes in Virginia Tech library’s Special Collections, Cain Grim’s oral history audio recordings comprise one of the larger oral history collections in the southern Appalachian region that focuses just on an African-American community in Appalachia.”
Time for study abroad ...
After completing that project, Cain Grim longed for a much-needed mental break, so she jumped at the opportunity to study abroad in the summer of 2008. Awarded travel grants from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences’ Undergraduate Research Institute and University Honors, Cain Grim was able to visit Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland. During her first day in Spain, she stumbled across a bizarre opportunity when she met Barcelona Institute of Gospel leader Oscar Alberdi at a host family’s dinner gathering. Eager to learn about the places where gospel music was born, Alberdi was enthralled as Cain Grim discussed Wake Forest’s religious history and culture.
“He wanted me to share the true character of an African-American community,” says Cain Grim, “and how song, prayer, and unity were vital to keep the community strong.” She proceeded to give three lectures to the 300-member institute. At the end of her stay in Barcelona, Cain Grim learned that Alberdi’s deepest desire was to bring the 20 founding members of the institute choir to the United States to visit Wake Forest and the Auburn, N.Y., home of slave-turned-abolitionist Harriet Tubman, whose life and actions inspired the singers’ lives. Eager to help him fulfill his wish, Cain Grim arranged a trip in July 2009 for the group.
“When I discovered that the Barcelona Institute of Gospel had adopted the history, energy, and soul of gospel music and the amazing legacy of Harriet Tubman in order to reach youth on the streets of Barcelona, I realized an incredible parallel to Wake Forest,” says Cain Grim. “Just as Wake Forest had utilized gospel music, prayer, and community to mobilize and overcome oppression, young people in the streets of Barcelona were doing the same, also developing a sense of community, purpose, and hope. Both the power of gospel music and the influence of historical heroes who bravely faced slavery — whether Harriet Tubman or Wake Forest ancestors — brought these two communities, oceans and generations apart, together.”
As rich gospel harmonies drifted over Virginia Tech's Kentland Farm, Morgan Cain Grim stood in the back of the crowd and smiled. The songs were delivered with a slight Spanish accent by a group of young people whose energy and hope belied a tough childhood. Beyond the joy of the moment, she smiled because she had helped bring the troupe to vist where gospel music was born.
With the support of various organizations from Virginia Tech and the local community, including Virginia Tech’s Appalachian Student Organization, Appalachian Studies Program, Interdisciplinary Studies Student Organization, Spanish Club of Virginia Tech, the Office for Equity and Inclusion, the Black Student Alliance, Virginia Tech Humanities Program, and the Coal Mining Heritage Association of the New River Valley, the Spanish singers were able to travel to the United States to hear first-hand accounts from African Americans of gospel’s ability to offer hope in desperate times. The group’s journey began at Virginia Tech’s Kentland Farm, where the settlers of Wake Forest were once slaves, and concluded two weeks later in Floyd. During their visit, they had the opportunity to perform 10 times at various venues in Virginia and New York, including FloydFest 8 and Harriet Tubman’s home.
Taking on the duties of a road manager, Cain Grim accompanied the Spanish choir on their tour. Connecting with the singers as friends and travel companions, Cain Grim found the trip rewarding. “Our two-week journey together was the most amazing adventure of my life thus far,” says Cain Grim. “Each day was not only entertaining, enlightening, and gratifying, but their pilgrimage created the most culturally and spiritually intense experience I think I will ever encounter.”
Cain Grim also has the satisfaction of seeing an exchange that may continue indefinitely. During the visit to Harriet Tubman’s home and grave, the Barcelona singers performed a gospel opera that they had created in her honor and met Tubman’s niece, Pauline Johnson. The choir from the People’s AME Zion Church in Syracuse, N.Y., then shared a meal with the visitors. As the two groups bonded over food and song, a sense of community was established, and the Spanish choir extended an offer to their hosts to sing at a festival in Barcelona.
