Ebenezer Baptist Church on World Cafe
World Cafe
Step inside the ‘birthplace of gospel music’
Location has a big impact on how we experience music. The way a song travels throughout a space can take that music to a whole new place. The folks at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago are experts at doing just that.
“This was the place were you would want to sing,” says Stanley Stovall, the church’s music director. “I mean, you could really move an audience.”
As part of our Sense of Place series on Chicago, we’re exploring the legacy of Ebenezer, which is widely considered “the birthplace of gospel music.”
The World Cafe team sat down with Stovall, the Rev. Darryl Person and trustee Patricia Butts to learn more about the church’s history and their ongoing efforts to preserve this architectural Chicago gem.