Sonic Architectures of
Chicago House and Go-Go Music

  • Together, we traverse the undergrounds of Chicago’s House and Washington D.C.'s Go-Go music scenes.

    We will pay homage to these chocolate cities and the communities that congregate around the respective homegrown genres through The Gospel Truth — an experimental documentary and corresponding series of public activations.

  • From The Warehouse to The Go-Go, these sacred commons conjure The Black Ecstatic that makes way for call and response, the laying of hands, and footwork. Using the Black Church as a theoretical reference point, we call upon those in our respective communities and beyond to consider these lived experiences as ancestral, tender, political, and spiritually transcendent.

  • We are invested in the potential of the experimental documentary format to breathe life into history, and usher in new audiences to collectively ponder the nuanced histories of these kindred sister cities.

Origin Story

As natives of Chocolate Cities, we are deeply called to preserve the history of Black space making and document contemporary reclamations of belonging.

Using Chocolate Cities as genealogical locuses for Black Diasporic cultural production, our studies are preoccupied with why these sonic respites were built and the people who seek refuge within them.

As descendants of the transAtlantic and church going, faith having people, we believe that praise and worship spaces were invaluable sites of survival for our ancestors. The ongoing Black radical tradition of creating secret, unsanctioned ecstatic sites continues to restore faith, preserving Black folks’ ancestral right to build new worlds. Our sonic architectures are sites of communion, fellowship, and revival.   

About Us

Jada-Amina

Anisa Olufemi

Our Vision

By rendering a world that champions these genres left bankrupt by cultural erasure and targeted displacement, The Gospel Truth brings new light to the collective memory of Black Americans across generations and zip codes. Mining public and personal archives, we will weave original footage shot on location in Chicago and D.C., interviews, and found video documentation of live music performances into a nonlinear narrative that reflects the wayward spirits of Go-Go and House music.

About The Gospel Truth

“While Black Washingtonians and Chicagoans remain under siege, within these sister-city sounds, Spirit moves.”

Our Support System

This work would not be possible if not for the support of our community, peers and collaborators. We are pleased to announce that as of January 2023, The Gospel Truth has been awarded a total of $21,000 to support the cost of research, film production, and corresponding public programs.

The Gospel Truth is funded by 3Arts Chicago’s Ignite Fund, the REFRACTIONS Creative Grant Program, and Washington Project for the Arts’ Wherewithal Research Grant, with the generous support of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

About The Gospel Truth

"Gospel is the promise of a world beyond, tendering alternative melody to the melancholy of postcolonial worlds. Using the hymn as a compass, our collective hums through the hush harbor, forging new ways of being. "

Donate.

This work centers people, not personal profit. We are committed to compensating our collaborators and project participants to the best of our ability, utilizing our external funding to ensure all Gospel Truth related productions and public programming embody excellence and intentionality.

If you feel called to, help us sustain this work by donating. These supplemental community funds will support our ability to pour an abundance of time and energy into the Gospel Truth, and honor our contributions as cultural workers.