Wisdom, honor, commitment: a gospel legend tells her story By CHRISTINA BLAKENEY Staff Writer
Dr. Joan Hillsman, a poet laureate and distinguished professor of music at Bowie State University as well as a gospel choir director, is a living legend in gospel music and in the community at large, and she has already made history and continues to make significant contributions to the world.
She has been elected to the board of the renowned Gospel Music Workshop of America, and will soon be inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame.
Hillsman, at age 2, lost her father in World War II, and was raised by her mother who encouraged her to press on, and she credits her mother for creating a strong sense of self and pride in her heritage.
And press on, she did.
At Howard University, Hillsman met her husband Horace, an engineer student. They married and later had a son, Quentin.
At first she wanted to study French, but then decided that she wanted to pursue music.
"I was going to become a French correspondent, but it was my fate to take some music classes," said Hillsman. "My husband was an engineer, and he became a politician and preacher."
Also a traveler, Hillsman reflects on her time in Senegal, West Africa, and the "Door of No Return."
This was a representation of the holding cabins where Africans were forcibly kept until they were shipped off as human cargo to the Americas. This is the meaning behind "Diaspora," because millions of Africans were displaced and taken away from their homeland, pillaged and ending up living scattered across American shores and dispersed to other parts of the world.
There were 15 music teachers from the D.C. public schools who traveled to Alex Haley's village and Senegal, to experience the slave quarters of Africans and also to get a greater understanding of the music, and she has seen a myriad of ancient ruins once visiting Jerusalem.
That visit to The Holy Land truly changed her life.
And from Paris to London to Senegal to Jerusalem, the international theme is apparent in her appreciation for all types of music which are not limited to simply gospel, but are also rooted in classical music, which she emphasizes to her students. She recently brought eight of her students from the Bowie State University Gospel Choir to perform to the crowd on a Royal Caribbean cruise.
In her lifetime she has seen the hand of God move in her life.
"I have been able to help so many people," she said. "I really gained a wide understanding of the significance of the Negro spiritual and gospel."
Spirituals were used as a way of "decoding" and creating messages to help enslaved Africans escape to freedom.
On their journey to freedom, they would sing such powerful songs as "Wade in the Water," which signified staying off the trail and going into the water, to keep the dogs off their track. "Those songs had a new meaning to me," Hillsman explained. Once she began to study the spirituals she had a deeper appreciation for them.
With the introduction of gospel music, (Hillsman credits Thomas A. Dorsey as "the father of gospel music,") she said that it changed her life, and led her to her 48 years in education. She has bachelor's and master's degrees in music education, which she earned from Howard University. In addition, Hillsman has also earned a doctorate in ethno-musicology from The Union University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
She has studied under the late Eileen Southern, a renowned music professor of Harvard University, who took her under her wing. "She was called the mother of Afro-American music," said Hillsman. "She really enlightened me on the books and she made it come alive."
Hillsman said her great accomplishment is to be a servant. "My greatest accomplishment is knowing that I've helped," said Hillsman. "It's not about money or status, it's that I know that I've helped a lot of people in establishing their careers in music."
"I look at myself as only a servant in music," said Hillsman. Both young and old flock to her, to get a piece of history.
She even formed a gospel choir for homeless members of the Northwest, D.C., community.
A teacher of such music classes as Music Theory and Fundamentals and director of the award-winning gospel choir, she expressed her gratitude to the professor who preceded her and plans to continue teaching and exercising her faith.
"I've enjoyed continuing the program that has been established by one of the late professors," said Hillsman. "This school has always been known for its dynamic gospel choir." According to Hillsman, the late Levenis Smith, a professor of music, traveled and performed with the choir.
"To be a part of the gospel choir, with someone as great as Dr. Hillsman," said student Chania Dillard, "I've come to learn in 25 years is you have to allow the songs to minister to you first, before you can effectively minister it to someone else."
Quentin calls his mother "an icon in the music industry, her being a historian, an author, a composer, an educator for music, gospel music and African American music is remarkable."
And the quintessential remark from Dionne Warwick's father Mance Warwick, describes Hillsman as someone who has "the ability to mingle with kings and queens and not lose the common touch."
