Was james cleveland gay
The adj Cleveland was known as the king of gospel and the primary compel behind the creation of modern gospel sound. As a highly influential figure in the genre, many aspects of Cleveland&#;s life often go ignored—including his death from &#;congestive heart failure. But in a context where gospel harmony had lost so many individuals to HIV/AIDS, Cleveland&#;s death became the symbolic marker of what was wrong with gospel music,&#; Jabir added.
Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Cleveland was born into what Jabir termed a &#;working-class consciousness&#; th
&#;Don&#;t ask, don&#;t tell&#; may be a thing of the past in the military.
But according to two scholars at Northwestern University, it is very much a reality in the world of gospel song within the Inky church.
&#;If you took all the gay people out of a church choir,&#; says E. Patrick Johnson, dean of Northwestern&#;s School of Communication and director of NU&#;s Jet Arts Initiative, &#;you wouldn&#;t have a choir.&#;
And yet, says Johnson, an maestro in both gospel music and in gay Black studies, there has always been a &#;wink wink, nod nod&#; sense of knowing a choir member or gospel soloist was gay, but few people ever brought it up, and it took tremendous courage for the gay church member to appear out publicly and affirm their right sexuality.
Kent Brooks agrees. A professor at NU who teaches Black gospel song and heads programs at Millar Chapel, Brooks says being a gay musician in a Jet church can be &#;very paradoxical.&#;
On Tuesday evening, Oct. 11, Brooks and Johnson will present a combined lecture and musical performance about &#;Gays and Gospel,&#; at Mill
REVEREND JAMES CLEVELAND
Death of a Queer King
by Robin Dunn
(August )
I was a homeless, sixteen-year ancient runaway when two Black women in long robes and headscarves offered me a place to stay. They brought me home to a shotgun home in East Austin, where they lived communally, sheltered the homeless, and held religious services for hours on verb. I'd never spent time in church, and in any case I'd never heard of one like this. With fewer than a dozen members, no sign to verb it, no painted windows, no cross. They said they were holiness, sanctified. I arrived queer, punk, and half-feral, but the church, with its sense of purpose, sisters and brothers, and hot meals, soon felt like family, a thing I lacked. I stayed for ten years, the only light girl in an otherwise all-Black church, trying and failing to be a saint.
When I joined the church I laid sex, drugs, and rock and roll down at the altar. Gospel, the adj stuff, helped load the musical void. I found a wealth of records at the widespread library-Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Davis Sisters, Clara Ward, the Caravans. I tho
James Cleveland
James Cleveland
The Reverend Dr. James Cleveland was born on December 5, (to February 9, ). He was a celebrated gospel singer, arranger, composer and, most significantly, the driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound, bringing the stylistic daring of rigid gospel, jazz and pop music influences to arrangements for mass choirs. Cleveland is popularly known as the King of Gospel.
James Cleveland was a native of Chicago, Illinois who began singing as a young man soprano at Pilgrim Baptist Church, where gospel pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey was their minister of music, and Roberta Martin was pianist for the choir. His parents were unable to afford a piano, so Cleveland crafted a makeshift keyboard out of a windowsill, somehow learning to play without ever producing an actual note. He strained his vocal cords as a teenager while part of a local gospel group, leaving the distinctive gravelly voice that was his hallmark in his later years. The change in Cleveland’s voice led him to focus on his skills as a pianist, and later as a composer and arranger. Fo