I’m drawn to the spirituals for the powerful artistic experience they offer and for the symbolic space they create—where the pain and beauty of the past are brought to life in ways that makes us more human. At a Spirituals Project concert, we experience what it is like to be united in our splendid diversity.

The spirituals are just as applicable today as they were when the slaves sang them 200 years ago. They bring a message of hope, resolve, strength and determination for a better life. When I sing them, they bring comfort, peace, and joy to my heart.

All music moves us on an emotional level. With the spirituals, the songs give me hope from people who experienced much hopelessness and despair. When I hear the songs, I know I can overcome any obstacles in my life and have a future filled with joy and faith.

When I first started attending concerts by The Spirituals Project choir, I realized that I knew all the songs and indeed had known them all my life. No matter who we are as Americans, the spirituals are in the deepest part of our collective consciousness. It is my honor to do whatever I can to help keep this art form alive.

My involvement with The Spirituals Project is a gift that keeps on giving. Every time I hear our choirs in performance, I am reminded of just why I passionately committed myself to the Civil Rights struggle when I lived in New Orleans, and why I will always work for social justice in my community and beyond. When I listen to these songs of hope and determination, Maya Angelou's voice comes to me loud and clear: 'No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on and it will be a better tomorrow.'

To me, the spirituals are the first American art form, and the American voice is writ large throughout them. They were brilliantly composed, both lyrically and musically, and first sung, by my ancestors; and when I sing them, I am inhabited by those peoples’ spirits. The songs speak of love, life, and liberty – whether you are physically free or not; and the grace of God that makes all things possible, especially freedom from slavery and freedom from enslaving others. The spirituals remind me that those who first sang them were some of the strongest, intelligent, purposeful, grace-filled, powerful, and loving people ever to inhabit this continent. We must strive mightily to become their equals.

Spirituals lift my soul with powerful messages of triumph in adversity and love in response to injustice. They trumpet the message that nothing can separate us from the love of God!

The spirituals are huge; it’s hard to put into words what they mean to me. The reason I sing these songs is out of respect. You can see through these songs the struggles, the pain, the hope, the joy, and the love. All of these words are there in the songs. I think all these words tell a story inside the songs. The stories and their words are all true because our people wanted to survive and educate us. They had to have had faith in God to be delivered from the shackles of their lives. I become emotional over it and the deep respect for this art. I can’t imagine their pain and the togetherness which helped them survive. Out of respect for my ancestors, I can sing the songs, and I’m humbled, grateful and privileged for what they have given me. I sing these songs to make sure that my children and younger generations know the music the way my parents handed these songs down to me. I can’t remember singing them since I was two, but these are rooted in me to be part of my life since it began in segregated Birmingham, Alabama. We have come a long way.

The spirituals are a connection that constantly reminds me that I stand on the shoulders of those who preceded me. In today’s Internet speed, materialistic “me” society, the spirituals link me emotionally and spiritually to the historical legacy, contributions, triumphs, struggles and resilience of the ancestors.

The spirituals remain very personal and spiritual for me. I come from a musical family; we have great respect for the music we share, and the spirituals are a very important part of that repertoire. I’ve grown up with spirituals, and as an educator, researched them to gain a better understanding. I just simply enjoy singing them! This music just rings peace into me. Once you clearly understand the spirituals, you find peace, you find joy, and you’ll even find sorrow. But no matter what, it’s all good.

From the first time I heard Kumbaya in grade school to all the other spirituals, a sense of comfort was always there with this music. It’s so simple and so remarkably powerful. There’s a song for nearly everything – joy, sadness, or the reality of the day. No matter if I feel like the sorriest person, the music will always pick me up like a good friend, dust me off, and tell me to keep going—and with dignity.

I was the last kid in school who liked history. And these days, history is what has captured me. Our history has been sometimes lost; the only way to keep it alive is to tell stories and sing these songs. They bring our story alive. The spirituals have reconnected me with my past and my culture, not only because the music sounds wonderful, but because it has such important meaning. Many times, we listen to music and just enjoy the sound. But there is so much more to a spiritual than that. There is always a story behind each song which reveals so much underneath, through different meanings.

The spirituals inspire me; they keep me grounded and happy. I work with an organization which has a weekend program, The Underground Railroad Training Odyssey. As I started to do more work on this and learn more about the spirituals code songs during the Underground Railroad, I realized that these songs were not just about escape and freedom but went far deeper. These songs went down into the spirit and lifted people up in their everyday lives, at work, at play, at many different moments. I began to research what the music did for the people in the face of everyday life.