--- title: Aunjanue Ellis: Songs for Your Soul description: If you happen to be in Mississippi and see a tattered sign at a supermarket or laundromat announcing a gospel-quartet concert, forsake all else and... canonical: https://time.com/4389085/aunjanue-ellis-songs-for-your-soul/ author: Aunjanue Ellis article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-30T12:34:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:57:21.651Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Aunjanue Ellis: Songs for Your Soul og:description: If you happen to be in Mississippi and see a tattered sign at a supermarket or laundromat announcing a gospel-quartet concert, forsake all else and... og:url: https://time.com/4389085/aunjanue-ellis-songs-for-your-soul/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5fa0847686a83f9/69889b062dce01222c9e9c19/ellis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2504 og:image:height: 1409 og:image:alt: Actress Aunjanue Ellis attends the 5th annual Critics' Choice Television Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on May 31, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Aunjanue Ellis: Songs for Your Soul twitter:description: If you happen to be in Mississippi and see a tattered sign at a supermarket or laundromat announcing a gospel-quartet concert, forsake all else and... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5fa0847686a83f9/69889b062dce01222c9e9c19/ellis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Aunjanue Ellis: Songs for Your Soul > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=4093853d-ea8b-49c3-8f18-8d1012953439&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) by [Aunjanue Ellis](https://time.com/author/aunjanue-ellis/) ## Aunjanue Ellis Jun 30, 2016 12:34 PM UTC  Actress Aunjanue Ellis attends the 5th annual Critics' Choice Television Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on May 31, 2015. Actress Aunjanue Ellis attends the 5th annual Critics' Choice Television Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on May 31, 2015. Jason LaVeris—FilmMagic by [Aunjanue Ellis](https://time.com/author/aunjanue-ellis/) ## Aunjanue Ellis Jun 30, 2016 12:34 PM UTC If you happen to be in Mississippi and see a tattered sign at a supermarket or laundromat announcing a gospel-quartet concert, forsake all else and go! These groups, made up of singers ranging from age 4 to near certain death and playing little more than a drum, a heel of a shoe and a guitar, must be experienced live. Their upset of pews and the devil must be witnessed. This music is not new–you have heard it in the Black Keys, Beyoncé and Prince. But these concerts, or “singings” as we call them in Mississippi, are seedless, not-ready-for-Ryan-Seacrest straight shots to the soul. When you get a good one, it is a corporeal experience. Some piece of you will hurt. But that won’t be the story you will tell. Perhaps I am a heathen exhorting you to go for the merits of the music and not for the purpose of saving your soul, but if by chance you get a little trickle-down religion too, just count it as a glorious extra. _Ellis stars in Quantico and can be seen in upcoming film The Birth of a Nation_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4389085/aunjanue-ellis-songs-for-your-soul/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4389085/aunjanue-ellis-songs-for-your-soul/"},"headline":"Aunjanue Ellis: Songs for Your Soul","datePublished":"2016-06-30T12:34:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:57:21.651Z","description":"If you happen to be in Mississippi and see a tattered sign at a supermarket or laundromat announcing a gospel-quartet concert, forsake all else and...","url":"https://time.com/4389085/aunjanue-ellis-songs-for-your-soul/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5fa0847686a83f9/69889b062dce01222c9e9c19/ellis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aunjanue Ellis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aunjanue-ellis/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd5fa0847686a83f9/69889b062dce01222c9e9c19/ellis.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Actress Aunjanue Ellis attends the 5th annual Critics' Choice Television Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on May 31, 2015.","caption":"Actress Aunjanue Ellis attends the 5th annual Critics' Choice Television Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on May 31, 2015.","creditText":"Jason LaVeris—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4389085/aunjanue-ellis-songs-for-your-soul/","name":"Aunjanue Ellis: Songs for Your Soul"}}]}] ```