Over My Head: The Power of Ancestral Music to Future the Black Church - Hardcover

by Lisa M. Allen (Author)

Over My Head: The Power of Ancestral Music to Future the Black Church explores how sacred music genres of the Black church (Spirituals, hymns, and gospel music) have functioned historically as spiritual technologies, empowering African-descended peoples to navigate their lives through and beyond perilous circumstances while helping maintain connections, however tenuous, to ancestral spirituality. Employing an Afrofuturist lens, the author examines the origin and evolution of these genres and posits how their creation and performance employ core elements of imagination, improvisation, and adaptability--ancestral spiritual technologies that can help African and African-descended Christian communities "vision" themselves into generative, hope-filled futures.

Author Biography

Lisa Allen, is an Emmy-award winning pastor, professor, and public theologian. She is professor of worship, music, and spirituality at Methodist Theological School in Ohio. She has over forty years of experience as an educator, liturgist, and church musician. She is the author of The OneWord Worship Model: A New Paradigm for Church Worship Planning (2023) and A Womanist Theology of Worship: Liturgy, Justice, and Communal Righteousness (2021).