REAGON, BERNICE

Scholar, composer, singer/songleader, activist for over half a century, Bernice Johnson Reagon has been a profound contributor to African American and America culture. Born in Southwest Georgia, her singing style and traditional repertoire is grounded in her experiences in church, school, and political activism. As a composer, she has created a narrative of her social and political activism through her songs and larger compositions.

She performed as a member of the SNCC Freedom Singers during the sixties, she founded an all women a cappella ensemble, The Harambee Singers during the Black Power Movement, she founded and led the internationally acclaimed Sweet Honey in the Rock for thirty years until retirement. Paralleling her work in music, Reagon is one of the leading authorities in African American Cultural History. She is a recipient of the Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Presidential Medal and Charles E. Frankel Prize for Contributions to the Public Understanding of Humanities.

Her strongest musical collaborator is her daughter, Toshi Reagon. Collaboratively these two master socially conscious women artists have created two operas, The Temptation of St. Anthony and Zinnias, The Life of Clementine Hunter, the music score for Africans in America on PBS and BEAH; A Black Woman Speaks for HBO and numerous studio recordings. Their latest project is an opera based on the novel Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. Whenever the opportunity presents, mother and daughter join each other on stage in live performance. Bernice Johnson Reagon’s individual printed songs such as “Ella’s Song” and “I Remember, I Believe” are available from TRO Essex Music Group who administer her music.