Faculty Fellow Lecture Series: Johari Jabir, Associate Professor, Black Studies, “Peace Be Still: Sonic Politics and Social Medicine in the Music of Rev. James Cleveland, the King of Gospel Music”
Faculty Fellow Lecture Series
September 24, 2025
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Location
Institute for the Humanities, 153 Behavioral Sciences Building
Address
1007 W. Harrison St., Chicago, IL 60607
Calendar
Download iCal File
Rev. James Cleveland was a singer, pianist, composer, arranger, organizer, entrepreneur, pastor, and music producer. Born in Chicago in 1931, his talent was nurtured early by the “father of Gospel Music,” Thomas A. Dorsey. Aretha Franklin called Cleveland her first mentor, as did Billy Preston. Following Cleveland’s groundbreaking release, “Peace Be Still” in 1963, he was annointed the King of Gospel Music. James Cleveland was a closeted Black Gay Man who died from AIDS complications in 1991. For some, the cause of his death and his silence about his sexuality defines his humanity, which Johari Jabir excavates in his forthcoming biography, No Ways Tired: The Life, Legacy, and Making of Rev. James Cleveland, the King of Gospel Music. In this talk Jabir will provide a portrait of Cleveland, the person, and will discuss two aspects of Cleveland’s music relevant to us in such a time as this: Social Medicine and Sonic Politics.
Johari Jabir is a contemplative artist, scholar, and aspiring episcopal priest. Johari is a roots musician with modern tendencies. 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: The Life, Legacy and Making of Rev. James Cleveland, the King of Gospel Music, is a Black working-class history of gospel music.
Contact huminst@uic.edu for accessibility requests.
Date posted
May 28, 2025
Date updated
Sep 3, 2025