Will Johnson
Will Johnson
successful thinking able
If I had been at a University I don't think I would have been able to have the experience I had in my Smithsonian work. I don't think I have been as successful
thinking subjects persons
I just don't think one person has that much to contribute to any subject
winning african-american way
Coming up in the African-American culture, we were taught that we belonged to the universe and society was wrong in the way it dealt with us. We had to learn to express and affirm values not from the winning position.
rights singing movement
The Civil Rights Movement also reaffirmed me as a singer. It taught me that singing was not entertainment, it was something else.
sweet rocks balance
I organized Sweet Honey In The Rock in 1973. The music was sanity and balance.
song commercial-music rights
At the same time all this was happening, there was a folk song revival movement goingon, so the commercial music industry was actually changed by the Civil Rights Movement.
song thinking proof
And I used to think that proof that I had religion was whether I knew how to sing all of the songs.
wise thinking years
What would you be like if you had white hair and had not given up your principles? It might be wise as you deal with coalition efforts to think about the possibilities of going for fifty years.
work together may
Today whenever women gather together it is not necessarily nurturing. It is coalition building. And if you feel the strain, you may be doing some good work.
impact environment academic
Personally I discovered that you could go through the academy as a young scholar, come out, and almost immediately have an impact on the academic environment.
people trying topics
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.
perspective discipline people
It makes sense that whatever the topic is, it's more compelling if you can provide the audience with a range of perspectives, and you can cross disciplines. And you don't have to control what people take out of it.
song thinking people
I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song. To this day, I don't understand how people think they can bring anybody together without a song.
process force establishing-relationships
Mothering/nurturing is a vital force and process establishing relationships throughout the universe.