Bernice Johnson Reagon
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Bernice Johnson Reagonis a singer, composer, scholar, and social activist, who founded the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth4 October 1942
CountryUnited States of America
running sweet years
In fact when Sweet Honey was ten years old it was too big for me to run, and I knew it, but I ran it for another thirteen years because I couldn't convince other people to really do it. And this year, I'm not running it.
american-musician passed realized trained work
As the years of work passed at the Smithsonian as a scholar, I realized that Howard had trained me well for the work I wanted to do.
american-musician everybody experience people prove scared trying
Most people come out of their Ph.D. experience trying to prove themselves, trying to get ahead, trying to get published. You're scared everybody else is going to do your research and get your topic.
amazed awe breathing constant moment state time worship
If every moment is sacred, and If you are amazed and in awe most of the time when you find yourself breathing and not crazy, then you are in a state of constant thankfulness, worship and humility.
african allowed american-musician biggest caribbean country field happened history program scholars understood
One of the biggest things I understood in a program like that was that it allowed more young African American scholars to do field research in the Caribbean and in Africa than had ever happened before in the history of the country and since.
motivational stay-strong business
Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.
moving finding-yourself lasts
If, in moving through your life, you find yourself lost, go back to the last place where you knew who you were, and what you were doing, and start from there.
crazy humility breathing
If every moment is sacred, and If you are amazed and in awe most of the time, when you find yourself breathing and not crazy, then you are in a state of constant thankfulness, worship and humility.
peace giving people
There is nowhere you can go and only be with people who are like you. Give it up.
community democracy enough
If we dwell in a community that is comfortable, then it's probably not broad enough a coalition.
enough coalitions broads
If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition.
church loud saved
I went to a church where you could not sing out loud in the service until you had been saved
school thinking rights
I think the Civil Rights Movement changed that trajectory for me. The first thing I did was leave school. I was suspended for my participation in Movement demonstrations in my hometown, December, 1961
america effort mind
The Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, actually, was an effort to put something on the mall in Washington so American tourists could walk through America, and in their minds everything on the mall would be American