Gospel Arts Day ’88 & ’89

For several years, Gospel Arts Day Nashville celebrated the city’s heritage of African-American gospel music with concerts, honorary recognitions, publications, a photo exhibit and documentary video. Sponsored by Nashville Gospel Ministries and directed by researcher, Doug Seroff, the Gospel Arts Day events were part of a national network of such local programs. The 1988 program called attention to the community quartet tradition and honored the renowned Nashville group, The Fairfield Four. In 1989, Mrs. James A. Myers, long-time director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, was honoree and the program focused on the Fisk University legacy featuring a reunion of singers who had trained under her. Seroff’s essays in the program booklet are among the most authoritative sources on the history of African-American religious music in Nashville.