SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK

Here in this time of nationalistic hatreds there is a voice… loving.
Here in this time of wanton destruction there is a voice… building.
Here in this time of chilled silence there is a voice… shouting.
Here in this time with so many comrades fallen there is a voice… standing...

– Ivy Young
 

During the fall of 1973, Howard University Arts and Humanities Institute directed by Stephen Henderson, invited Bernice Johnson Reagon to open and close its centennial observance of the birth of blues composer W.C. Handy. Reagon opened the conference leading the participants in the spiritual, “Can’t Hide Sinner.”However, for the closing session, she requested that it feature a new group she had formed. On November 17, 1973, Sweet Honey In The Rock performed its first concert in the School of Social Work Auditorium on Howard University’s campus.

Today, thirty years later, Sweet Honey In The Rock is a Grammy® Award-winning, African American female a cappella ensemble with deep musical roots in the sacred music of the African American church - spirituals, hymns, traditional gospel. In a repertoire that declares all life is sacred, this group celebrates and stances through genres stretching our notions of the sacred with concerts and recordings that include the sounds of jazz, art song, blues, hip hop, rhythm & blues, and improvisation. The Washington Post describes the uniqueness of this Washington D.C. ensemble: “The sound of Sweet Honey In The Rock is a wide-open sound, one that invites you in. Female a cappella groups are a rare thing, and no group of either gender has pushed the boundaries of unaccompanied choral music to the level Sweet Honey has, or made stylistic iconoclasm seem more natural.” The group’s dedication to accessibility is expressed in the brilliant and deeply moving translations created by Sign Language interpreter, Shirley Childress Saxton, who has worked with the group since 1980.

Sweet Honey In The Rock has been a path, a way, a discipline, and a process, as its founder and mainstay Bernice Johnson Reagon wrote in the book We Who Believe in Freedom - Sweet Honey In The Rock… Still On The Journey (Anchor Books, 1993). Indeed, Sweet Honey has been a glorious, evolving process of growth and change throughout its existence. But one thing has remained constant since Reagon first formed the group in 1973 - a quartet then, a sextet now: Sweet Honey's commitment to the black musical forms of its heritage, ancestral and modern, as a unifying, communal force against oppression of all types - racial oppression being just the starting point. Stating it simply, "Sweet Honey In The Rock," Reagon wrote, "is a woman born of a struggling union of Black Woman singers."

The 30th anniversary tour (January 2003-January, 2004) features a number of outstanding opportunities to experience Sweet Honey In The Rock -- more than thirty concerts in the United States and a week-long tour of the United Kingdom during July 2003. This year will also mark a milestone for Sweet Honey, that of transition and planning; it being the final year of touring and performing with founder, Bernice Johnson Reagon as a member of the ensemble.

January saw the release of the group’s newest CD, The Women Gather (EarthBeat! Records), produced by Toshi Reagon (producer, singer/composer, and daughter of Bernice Johnson Reagon). Toshi Reagon, solo performing artist and leader of her band, Big Lovely, is the daughter of Sweet Honey founder/member Bernice Johnson Reagon. Toshi has witnessed, been influenced by, and on occasion, supported the work of this ensemble. In the past, she has assisted Bernice Johnson Reagon as co-producer and assistant producer, but for The Women Gather, it is Bernice who was the assistant.

Of this project Bernice Johnson Reagon says of the work of her daughter and constant collaborator:

As someone who has through the years produced most of Sweet Honey’s recordings, I deeply appreciate the stretch Toshi brings to this CD. Toshi was nine years old when Sweet Honey started and she has a 30-year window perspective that is truly unique. Much of it took place as Toshi formulated who she would be as a musician. Even though Sweet Honey has made a deep imprint in her work, Toshi evolved her own instrumental-based sound, staying true to creating a generational sound that maintained strong traces of her foundation. When she took on The Women Gather project, she sent us about five songs she had written. We selected the three on this CD. Fly and 22 Hours In A Day that were written especially for Sweet Honey, and I could feel our flavor, but there is no one in Sweet Honey who would have written those songs. For me, it is truly a blessing to be moving forward in my life and work and finding so much in the younger generation that is so strong and resonant.

In another 30th year project that embraces the cross-generational theme, Sweet Honey In The Rock and Toshi Reagon and Big Lovely are featured in an original, live performance work called “Eveningsong.” The work, produced and directed by Bernice Johnson Reagon, premiered in January, 2003 at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor under the auspices of the Musical Society. The work created by Sweet Honey and Toshi Reagon also credits the creative contribution of Art Steele, Sweet Honey In The Rock’s technical director for the last 25 years. Art brought his skills to bear on the technological challenges of balancing the strengths and vulnerabilities of aesthetics within the a cappella choral and rock band collaboration. The work will be performed in ten cities before the end of the 30th anniversary tour in January 2004. Check the tour page on our web site for all the “Eveningsong” performance venues.

Sweet Honey’s 30th anniversary year will be the subject of a new film produced and directed by independent filmmaker Stanley Nelson, recent recipient of a Macarthur Fellowship Award ‘genius grant’. Stanley is the producer/director of the recently- premiered documentary film, Emmett Till. The Sweet Honey film project will follow the group through the year and will be aired in 2004.

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is a project of Earthjustice