Call and Response

Oneness and inclusion

The 35 founding choir members presented the first VOIS concert on Jan. 20, 1985, in Cannon Chapel. The civil rights leader Rev. C.T. Vivian preached for the interfaith service honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

After that, VOIS began performing monthly at Cannon Chapel, where one offering was earmarked to purchase their choir robes. From the beginning, their singing and unity was a ministry to one another and everyone in the pews. 

“On these Sundays, a feeling of oneness and inclusion was in the worship experience,” says Julie Spencer Washington 88C, an alto. She was also amazed by fellow students’ vocal talents.

“They were not music or voice majors, but they blew us away with their vocal skills and anointing,” she recalls. “Just inviting and providing others with the opportunity can bless a community and a world through song.” 

By offering community and lifting their spirits, the choir improved their mental health, says Bogan, a soprano who switched to a psychology major and became a clinical psychologist and administrator at Florida A&M, a historically Black university. 

“In this day and time, there are so many mental health issues that we talk about with students that we didn’t back then,” she says. “As a clinical psychologist, I try to infuse cultural and spiritual strength into clients as part of holistic health. Emory was maybe 6% African American when I was there, and the gospel choir gave us a beautiful, inspirational way to connect with others that was so restorative.” 

No singing without leading

As a shy teenager in high school in the San Francisco Bay Area, Allums didn’t expect his calling to direct choirs. That was his father’s job, who was the minister of music at St. John Baptist Church in Richmond, California.

Then one Sunday when Allums was in ninth grade, at the church’s opening celebration for its newly built sanctuary, the lead singer who was supposed to sing the opening choir selection in the church’s 200-member mass choir did not show up.

Allums’ dad, knowing he was familiar with the song, asked him to step up. After some prodding from one of his peers, he led his first song in front of an audience, “Oh Magnify the Lord with Me” by Sandra Crouch. That was a sort of birthing for Allums’ future. From there, his journey continued.

One of the practices of gospel music involves teaching from an oral tradition, which was influenced by earlier hymn-lining techniques. Voices of Inner Strength followed that oral method of learning mostly by rote, teaching each part without sheet music, although sometimes scores were used to accurately sing songs from the tradition of Negro Spirituals.

Hymn-lining dates back four centuries as a way to teach singing to people who were not taught to read, and it was used by enslaved people to teach hymns and scripture. Later, note-singing was added whereby a leader would first sing notes based on the symbols in the hymnbooks. The audience would sing back what was taught in response, later adding lyrics to perform the songs with precision and layer in harmonies as they were led. This method was passed down in technique and in spirit over generations, leading to the soulful sound of gospel.   

“The sound and spirit found in gospel music is known for its ability to inspire, uplift and create such energy that the listening community responds with clapping, swaying and dancing as a display that they heard you and are in agreement,” Allums says. “It is such a deep tradition for us, hearing and then responding with our parts, through which call and response would be our amens — so be it.”

Sounding good, gaining renown

Anjulet Tucker 00C 09PhD, director of presidential initiatives at Emory, was only a freshman when she organized a Voices spring break trip to Allums’ hometown in California. Tucker, the 18-year-old daughter of a Pentecostal minister, and fellow choir member Amy Snipes 00C helped arrange travel for almost 100 Emory students.

Part of VOIS’ ministry was dismantling stereotypes and assumptions through its outreach. “In Atlanta, you have Morehouse, Spelman and the combined Atlanta University Center choir who are ready for prime time,” Tucker says. “For Emory to hold its own as a choir in a city where gospel choirs are strong made me feel a sense of pride. We weren’t just Black students from Emory; we sounded good.”

The VOIS tradition of spring break tours and service trips led them to perform in Texas, Maryland, New York, Florida and Louisiana, as well as abroad in Bermuda and St. Thomas. To raise travel money, choir members even sang for tips from the steps of Cannon Chapel.

“What were we doing panhandling on campus?” Tucker recalls, laughing. “That shows how committed we were to making these tours happen.”

Weekly rehearsals were, and will be again as the campus rebounds from the pandemic, on Friday nights from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in White Hall 101. The choir sings monthy in Emory’s Beloved Community worship service, and has offered a concert each semester.

“You were missed if you didn’t come to rehearsal,” Tucker says. “It was very powerful to see that many Black students in one space. VOIS felt like home and you wanted to take that feeling everywhere on campus. We found our belonging place and home in VOIS and Maury was so critical to that.”

The choir has been a place where all have been welcomed, regardless of religious tradition and other social identities.

“VOIS supported students’ academic success,” notes Tucker, who has been coordinating efforts for the choir’s recent reunions. “At rehearsals, you could find a study partner or get encouragement to persevere through difficult classes.”

 

Continuing the call — and the response

The first-ever VOIS reunion on Feb. 19, 2021, drew 70 attendees who gave verbal roses of gratitude to Allums that left him overwhelmed with emotion. “I thought I had died and gone to heaven,” he says. “They were literally showering me with love. The level of appreciation left me speechless.”

Emory Religious Life wants to continue connecting the VOIS alumni community in the years ahead, says Rev. Greg McGonigle, dean of religious life, because this community of faith and song has deeply impacted so many alumni, and it continues to bless students and the whole Emory community today.

“Two of our amazing VOIS students are currently creating an interfaith pre-orientation program called WISE to welcome students back to campus after the pandemic,” McGonigle says. “This exemplifies the spirit of faith and service that has characterized the choir and Maury’s inspiring leadership for decades.”

At the second VOIS reunion on June 18 at 6 p.m. online, the choir will recall its history and look to the future as well. Bogan has pledged a lead gift for a fund to sustain the choir in perpetuity, and choir alumni and others can join the effort by contacting religiouslife@emory.edu.  

Registrations for the June 18 reunion have surpassed 90 people, which is a testament to the impact the choir has had throughout the years.

As the choir has been led by Allums, his desire has been to continue to answer the call, and then call, sing and line the songs inspired by God to which the choir responds with its amens.

 The call begun so long ago by the choir’s pioneers has lasted over all these years, and to this day remains in the response of a community dedicated to living deeply and deep belonging.

Photos courtesy of VOIS; photos by Vic Romero where noted.