Don't miss the inaugural Joseph Niles Legacy Lecture on TODAY, May 21 at the Grande Salle, Tom Adams Financial Centre; 7:30 p.m. The lecture will be given by Professor Curwen Best of the UWI, Cave Hill. It's absolutely FREE to attend.


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BARBADOS GOSPELFEST TO HOST FIRST JOSEPH NILES LEGACY LECTURE

New annual event on the Gospelfest calendar honours the contribution of the Gospel music icon
Barbados Gospelfest will host the inaugural Joseph Niles Legacy Lecture as it launches a new annual event to honor the contribution of the Barbadian Gospel music icon to local, regional and international Gospel music in ministry spanning more than 40 years.

The lecture will take place on May 21 at the Grande Salle, Tom Adams Financial Centre beginning at 7:30 p.m.

“Since 1970, the name Joseph Niles has become synonymous with Barbados and Caribbean Gospel music.

He was the first Caribbean Gospel music minister to become a household name on the local regional and international stages, known for his golden lyrics in an anointed mix of spouge and calypso Gospel music.

We could not conceive of celebrating 20 years of Barbados Gospelfest without paying tribute to this Gospel music icon whose ministry has impacted and continues to impact thousands of people at home and abroad,” says Adrian Agard, Executive Producer of Barbados Gospelfest.

The inaugural lecture will be delivered by Curwen Best, Professor of Popular Culture, Literary and Cultural Studies and Head of the Department of Language, Linguistics and Literature in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.

Recognized  globally as a leading scholar on Caribbean popular culture Professor Best pioneered the teaching of popular culture at Cave Hill and has supervised numerous students doing research on aspects of Barbadian and Caribbean gospel and religious culture.

He is currently a member of the Board of the Barbados Bible College (the Bible school of the New Testament Church of God) and has published widely in academic journals and edited collections.
“The emphasis of my talk will be to locate gospel culture within the broader arena of Barbadian popular culture,” says Professor Best.

“I suggest why there has been relative silence in asserting the vital contribution of gospel culture to national culture development, and I show how gospel culture has been at the forefront of shaping vital aspects of our national consciousness.

Throughout our recent history Christian culture has placed faith in some key media and technologies. I highlight a few of these, one of which is traditional (gospel) radio.

But has this faith been misplaced, and how should the religious community and the gospel music fraternity in particular respond at this most critical of moments, in this era of new robust technologies?”

Professor Best’s presentation derives some inspiration from his newest book, just published, called: The Popular Music and Entertainment Culture of Barbados: Pathways to Digital Culture.

Excerpt from the book:

The amount of so-called “break-away” churches seemed to increased in the post-2000 period.

These splinter groups and associations caught the attention and imagination of more and more people in society, especially among the younger demographic.

This phenomenon was partly driven by the cultural shifts within Barbadian society.

There was the perception that with their changing lifestyles, values, and beliefs, Barbadians needed new approaches to worship, service and encountering God.

Part of this new approach entailed the repackaging of song services, worship, sermons, and more traditional belief systems. These new approaches incorporated more intense, if self-conscious, modes of worship.

While one would think that this process of transformation within the body spiritual would produce renewed forms of Barbadian-styled gospel expression, the reality is that in the post-2000 era this did not materialize.

If the culture of splintered denominations produced churches that were severally renamed, with ministers who brought (at least) a fresh attitude to the practice of leadership, their artistic and musical creations did not deliver the expected creative synergies that would fashion a significant moment or movement in the evolution and development of Barbadian gospel culture.

Barbadian gospel after 2000 followed the pathway of music in other spheres. Gospel music development was modest at best.

The leading gospel outfits were hardly setting the trends and pace for local congregations and gospel supporters to follow.

They were now performing Caribbean musical styles with greater confidence, but they weren’t really aware of why they could perform the local and regional styles as they did. This privilege was not of their own doing; there were others who had paved the way for post-2000 trends.

Groups and performers of the first decade of the twenty-first century seemed to perform looking in one direction--outward--for their inspiration and impetus.

The quantity of recorded gospel music was still modest at best, this in spite of the fact that it was easier and potentially less costly to record in the digital age and to achieve acceptable broadcast quality with relatively inexpensive recording gear.

But there were immense challenges to getting local gospel into the national space through conventional media. Local gospel radio had not returned the sound of local gospel to its society. This continues to be a major failing. But the future promises other pathways.

© 2012 Curwen Best

Barbados Gospelfest is the Caribbean’s premier Christian music and arts festival, comprising a range of events that suit tastes from the traditional hymns to the modern beats incorporating the unique rhythms of the Caribbean.

The festival also features events that give center stage to the performing arts, explores Gospel jazz and comedy, and provides a unique platform for the showcasing and development of emerging Gospel artistes in Barbados and the region. It will run from May 19 to 27, 2012.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/gospelfestbarbados/posts/389288331114300


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