A group of Spanish singers will visit Southwest Virginia this month to sing gospel music in English before and after heading to New York to visit the family home of a great American abolitionist.

Confused? Well, the trip took a while to develop.

The visit from the Barcelona Institute of Gospel is the result of a series of events that started with an oral history project by Morgan Cain Grim, a 2009 Virginia Tech graduate from Floyd.

Grim, who graduated in three years from Tech, was a freshman when she took an Appalachian Studies course that introduced her to Wake Forest, a small, historically black community in northwest Montgomery County. Raised Presbyterian, work in the class led her to visit the community for a tent revival with a friend that semester.

"We get out there and we're the only two white people at the revival," she said.

The hugging, singing and praying out loud that followed spurred her curiosity for the community and led her to focus her research on Wake Forest.

"We were just shown so much welcome and so much compassion for the first time being there that I just decided that I wanted to see what was to that community and what made this community tick," she said.

Her work in the course led to a long-term research project on religion in the community and the role of the church. It culminated in her publishing an oral history book in May 2008, "Wake Forest: Voices That Tell of a Faith Community."

Hoping to take a mental break from the work after finishing the book, Grim was studying abroad in Europe during the summer of 2008 when the stepfather of a friend she was staying with in Spain asked her what she knew about Harriet Tubman.

Grim thought it was a strange question. But, with a little help from translators, she learned about the story of the Spanish gospel group and the man who asked the question, Barcelona Institute of Gospel leader Oscar Alberdi.

Alberdi, a professor of music, was fired from his position as music director at a Catholic school in Barcelona more than 10 years ago after a conflict with the school's director. Six months later he was homeless. But a group of the students in the choir he led chose to continue practicing with him.

They practiced on the street, in the park and in the subway, and became well-known to locals. For some reason a song that Alberdi had come across during that time became stuck in his head. Soon, the choir was warming up to "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" at every practice.

Grim said the song became "stuck in his heart." Something about the old spiritual gave him hope and led him to seek out other similar songs.

The Spanish choir evolved into a gospel choir. One day a Catholic priest who had been watching the group practice offered Alberdi a position in his church as choir director.

The Barcelona Institute of Gospel and its 20 founding members achieved enough notoriety that a former member of The Supremes, who now lives in Spain, sought out Alberdi, Grim said.

She told him about Tubman, and how the slave-turned-abolitionist used the song to comfort slaves making their way north on the underground railroad.

During her month in Spain, Grim shared her research about Wake Forest with the choir and even taught them a song she heard from a church elder there.

When Alberdi asked her whether there was a way she could help the choir visit Tubman's home and Wake Forest, she started planning. The choir is paying for their flight over, but Grim was able to find funds from Tech's Appalachian Student Organization, Appalachian Studies Department, Interdisciplinary Studies Student Organization, Spanish Club and the Black Student Alliance.

The Montgomery County Coal Miners Association is also sponsoring the trip and the group's lodgings and travel expenses.

In exchange, the choir will be performing at least nine times at locations in Roanoke, Floyd and Montgomery counties.

The kickoff event will be held at Tech's Kentland Farm, where the settlers of Wake Forest were once slaves.

The community potluck and lawn concert is free, though visitors are encouraged to bring food to share. Benzena Eaves, a 67-year-old woman whose lived in Wake Forest since 1966, said the community is planning to roll out the red carpet for the choir.

They'll listen to the Barcelona choir and a group from Pulaski County and sing their own gospel songs.

The guests will feast on fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, corn pudding and homemade lemonade.

"We wanted to really welcome them," Eaves said.