Author and musician Randye Jones will discuss her new book, So You Want to Sing Spirituals: A Guide for Performers.

Although the book covers a range of subjects related to studying concert spirituals both for solo voice and choral forces, Jones’ current plan for the talk is to focus on the question of whether non-Black students should study and perform these songs. The presentation will spend some time on historical concerns, on points to consider when deciding whether to study spirituals, and on some thoughts about using dialect in performance.

While researching for the book, Jones drew from resources at the libraries of Grinnell College, which encouraged enhancement of their score, recordings, and books collections in the area of concert spiritual performance. Jones plans to share a bibliography of materials available in the libraries as well as to have some of this material on display for the talk.

Jones’ book talk will serve as an opportunity for attendees to participate as well—after all you can’t talk about singing without doing some.

The book talk is free and open to the public.