The Old Landmark Baptist Choir was winding up its program Sunday afternoon, but not before Shelly Lindsey’s soaring soprano nearly elevated the stage at City Park’s band shell.
I’m guessing she doesn’t walk on water, but by the time Lindsey walked off into the embrace of her audience, I half expected divine intervention to clear up the algae bloom plaguing Ferril Lake, which served as the Denver Black Arts Festival’s backdrop.
Lindsey owns some serious pipes, so you would expect the crowd at the F. Cosmo Harris Gospel Stage to be bigger.
But as ever, black gospel competes with secular music, which boomed from the nearby hip-hop and R&B tents. It has been that way for at least a half-century, since soul titans Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin jumped the gospel ship.
Still, Lindsey fights the good fight.
“Gospel music to me is really about an experience with God,” she told me on a day so hot that every third person at the festival seemed to have a parasol. “From me to my community is all about taking a message to them about hope and restoration.”
Gospel has served that function in the black community ever since the music emerged from its roots in 19th-century spirituals.
Standing in the shade, Alan Cook considered the sweep of history — gospel music and his people’s — all intertwined.
“It stems back to slavery days, when oppression was so great they needed an escape,” said Cook, who recently returned to Denver after stints in Chicago and Atlanta. “The music enjoyed great favor, but people fell off from it in favor of profits over spirituality.”
And yes, listeners at the gospel stage skewed older. There were a few kids under the smattering of umbrellas, but most tagged along with their parents or grandparents. Not a ball cap was in sight, but there were plenty of fine straw Panamas and fancy Sunday hats straight from church.
An exception to the age demographic: Khalid Barnes, a 23-year-old from Montbello. He has spent the past four years as choreographer and performer with the Men & Women of Vision Ministry.
Sunday, he was on stage with his cousin, Ayiesha Mont, and Shamira Graham.
“I think gospel is just an inspiration,” Barnes said. “It can lift your spirits, and we’re trying to win souls and save lives.
“Gospel music has made an extreme difference in my life.”
Still, Barnes can feel which way the wind is blowing as well as anyone.
He has a “holy hip-hop” show called “Blueprints” in production. He hopes to unveil it at Denver’s Restoration Christian Fellowship in December. Standing beside his mom, Annette, who was resplendent in a crimson dress with a matching head wrap, Barnes gave me the rundown on the show.
“It’s geared to young people, to help them get off the streets and realize what the streets are doing to them,” he said.
Look at the headlines, and you have to say “amen” to Barnes’ work, even if you don’t know which way is up in a hymnal.
For Barnes and folks like him, gospel is the tie that binds.
“It’s a spiritual avenue to come together and share as a family,” said Ernestine Meadows, who was running the gospel stage. “It’s about the uplift of a people.”
William Porter writes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at wporter@denverpost.com or 303-954-1977.
