Twenty Years Gone

Back in high school, one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs was “Ten Years Gone” from the Physical Graffiti album. It was a melancholy sort of song, and I did melancholy really well as a teenager. With Robert Plant’s pensive lyrics about days gone by and Jimmy Page’s layer upon layer of forlorn guitar, it was a [...]

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Still Divided by Faith (plus, a hope that sustains)

I was buried in a writing project when the CNN special Black in America first aired a couple weeks back, so I missed writing about it then. I caught it in bits and pieces. If anyone out there has comments or reviews they’d like to share here, please do. Related to that special, CNN.com has [...]

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Rebel Songs

Ever lose track of time while you’re reminiscing on YouTube? Sometimes the endless videos on there send me traveling down Memory Lane for longer than I care to admit. Let’s just say I could probably be using my time more wisely. The thing is, I have all these music memories from the ’70s and ’80s—amazing [...]

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‘Oh, say, can you … Lift every voice?’

National Anthem-gate is causing quite a stir in Denver. Has anyone caught drift of this controversy yet? It seems jazz singer Rene Marie really pushed the limits during a civic event in the Mile High City.  My old friend Steve Chavis offers some great thoughts about it over at his excellent blog, The Old School (and I’m not [...]

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What I Discovered at Calvin

On Sunday I returned from the Calvin College Festival of Faith & Writing. What a great event! If you love books, writing, poetry, theology, the arts, intellectual engagement, etc., you’ll dig this biennial conference. I had the privilege of doing one solo presentation about my book, and I took part in two panel discussions–”Writing Toward [...]

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Our Music Tells the Story

New York Times columnist David Brooks offers up an interesting piece on how the ever-increasing segmentation in popular music reflects the divisions in other areas of our society. I love classic rock music—along with gospel, jazz, R&B, classical, and other styles—so this was an intriguing (and fun-to-read) essay. But I’m wondering how well the analogy [...]

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Cornerstone Reflections

Thanks to all of you who inquired about how my trip to the Cornerstone Arts Festival turned out a couple weeks ago—especially Shlomo. I’m sorry that it has taken me so long to do a post. The problem is, I’ve had so many thoughts about the even swirling around in my head that I don’t [...]

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Going to Cornerstone

Hey everyone. I’m sorry that I’ve been a bit lax on the the blog posts. I’m getting ready for the Cornerstone Festival, June 27-30. I’ll be doing a three-part seminar based on my book. I’d appreciate your prayers, if you think about it. The music festival setting is different from some of the other types of events I’ve been speaking [...]

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Blackface in a White Church

Here’s another one for the “Racism Is Stranger Than Fiction” files. In fact, I briefly wondered whether this story was a prank. Unfortunately, it’s true.  
A white Baptist church in Gaston County, North Carolina, made local headlines when a group of men from the church lip-synched and pantomimed to black gospel hymns during a Mother’s Day banquet—while dressed in [...]

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Two Thought-provoking Articles

Eventually, I hope to blog about Barack Obama’s slow move towards declaring his candidacy for president. Will he really do it? I’ll try to come back to that one when I have a little more time.
For now, I’d encourage you to check out two interesting articles. One, from RelevantMagazine.com, is by Chanel Graham, a friend of mine, [...]

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