Sep 24 2025

Faculty Fellow Lecture Series: Johari Jabir, Associate Professor, Black Studies, “No Ways Tired: The Life Legacy and Making of the King of Gospel, Rev. James Cleveland”

Faculty Fellow Lecture Series

September 24, 2025

4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Location

Institute for the Humanities, 153 Behavioral Sciences Building

Address

1007 W. Harrison St., Chicago, IL 60607

Johari Jabir

Johari Jabir is a contemplative artist, scholar, and aspiring episcopal priest. Johari was born and raised in the Black Working-class community of St. Louis, MO. He is a roots musician with modern tendencies; gospel music has been the primary vehicle for his musicianship. Johari is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Black Studies at UIC.

Johari’s work as a musician overlaps with his scholarship and teaching. His first book, Conjuring Freedom: Music and Masculinity in the ‘Gospel Army’ of the Civil War considers the nightly conjuring practices of the soldiers in ring shout. He is currently working a second book entitled, No Ways Tired: A Biographical Meditation on Rev. James Cleveland, the King of Gospel Music.

As a teacher, Johari specializes in early undergraduate education. He is taught inside prisons as a prison abolitionist, and other sites of community-based education.

Contact

Institute for the Humanities

Date posted

May 28, 2025

Date updated

May 29, 2025