For follow-up reading, I recommend the Introduction and Chapters 1-3 of my book ​Flaming?: The Peculiar Theo-Politics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance (2020) from Oxford University Press.

About Alisha L. Jones

Dr Jones is currently University Lecturer in Music in Contemporary Societies at University of Cambridge and Assistant Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology and faculty director of the Global Pop Music Initiative at Indiana University Bloomington. Named an Innovator by the University of Chicago and Harvard Divinity School, Dr Jones is an ordained preacher as well as an operatic lyric soprano, and has performed around the world. Dr Jones is a board member of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), a member of the strategic planning task force for the American Musicological Society (AMS), and a co-chair of the Music and Religion Section of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). As a performer-scholar, she consults museums, conservatories, seminaries, and arts organizations on curriculum, live and virtual event programming, and content development. Dr Jones’ book Flaming? The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance (Oxford University Press, 2020) breaks ground by analyzing the role of gospel music-making in constructing and renegotiating gender identity among black men. Her research interests extend to global pop music, musics of the African diaspora, music and food, the music industry and the marketplace, and anti-oppressive ways of listening to black women.