The Bap-Tizum Black Gospel Archive built by Detroit artist, composer and essayist, Ben Hall, is one of the largest collections of Black and African American sermons, hymns and songs. 

In 2019, a fire burned Hall’s home, destroying items, yet as if a miracle, a few gospel records survived. 

Choir: The Theology of Preservation through sermons and songs from the Bap-Tizum Black Gospel Archive is an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

Hall plays records from the collection every Wednesday through Dec. 16 from noon to 2 p.m. The sessions take place inside the Mike Kelley Homestead at MOCAD. 

Hall is a 2014 Kresge Artist Fellow, co-director of Catalytic Sound Collective, an experimental music streaming platform. He’s also currently working on the book by the name of A Black Liberation Music Guide. 

He joined The Metro to talk more about the exhibition and music as a portal to the past.

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