Moss’ selected scripture spoke of captives whose jailors “demanded songs of joy” despite their bondage “in a foreign land.” He compared their condition to concerns felt throughout history, arguing that oppressors throughout time will demand the happiness, joy, and entertainment inherent to “rhythm” for their gain while disregarding the sadness, melancholy, and accountability that accompanies the “blues.”

“The psalmist is simply trying to tell us … they want our rhythms for profit, yet they cover their ears to our blues,” he said.

Moss added that we must be intentional about articulating the “fullness” of our ancestors and their stories, and cautioned against “being a part of institutions that just want to be rhythm institutions, but don’t want to talk about our blues.” He credited Howard University as “an R&B university, unafraid to speak about the soul of our survival,” and declared Rankin Chapel “a space of resilience and resistance.”

“We are called to be a rhythm and blues people,” he said. “There are some places that just want to talk about the rhythm and the praise but don’t want to deal with the existential dilemma that we deal with on a day-to-day basis. You’ve got to merge your rhythm and your blues together. There must be spaces where we uplift the totality of who we are.”

For more information on Rankin Chapel, visit chapel.howard.edu.