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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1985)
from life and love to lynchings and rapes, from Fannie Lou Hamer and Sojourner Truth to a celebration o f all black wom en and all peoples. Sweet Honey in the Rock: The Message and the Music Ntazake Shange writes about colored girts considering suicide when the rainbow is enuf; Alice Walker writes that the nature o f this flower is to bloom ; Zora Neale Hurston declares how much she loves herself when she's laughing... and then again when she’s looking mean and impressive; and Sweet Honey in the Rock com e on singing, casting their own spells and everybody knows that they are, Sweet Honey is, in essence, all at once, that rainbow, that flower, that laughing, m ean and impressive woman and much, m uch more. It’s all in the music. O r it’s all in what they d o with the music. Or it’s all in the lyrics. In the com bination o f it all. In their everything. Five black wom en singing unaccompanied by any instrumentation. Patting their fe e t Clap ping their hands. Occasionally shaking and tapping the percussive African shaker. Their voices weave and dodge, dip and swell around each other. Voices that can create patterns and configurations so com plex no com puter could ever decipher, or voices that can drift down into a beauty so quiet and powerful in its simplicity, that even the m ost hardened heart cannot help but be overwhelm ed. Their perform ances are always ones of passion and intensity, that chill and arouse, com fort and, m ost o f all, reveal love. Magic. Am azing the way they change rhythms, shift leads, moan and holler, com e together as on e or separate into a myriad o f voices. You cannot listen, you cannot be there, hearing these sounds — Bernice’s heavy contralto, Evelyn’s sweet alto, Yasm een’s shouts and wails, Asaye’s deep, utterly deep, bass, and Aisha's electric resonance — and walk away untouched. You cannot hear the words without being touched. The m essages. All the old familiar spirituals and protest songs. Other songs with m ost o f the lyrics written by the m em bers themselves, telling, testifying on a range o f subjects from El Salvador to South Africa ¡tfc. If you had lived with Harriet Tubman would you wade in the water If you had lived with Fannie Lou Hamer would you shine her light O r words reminding us that The hands o f oppression are the hands o f hunger The waters o f Chile fill the banks o f Cape Fear O r lovingly, using the words o f poet June Jordan: But what I need is quite specific terrifying rough and terrific I need an absolutely one to one a seven day kiss Lyrics, music, all o f it forces response and will not leave you untouched. I recently spoke with Dr. Bernice Reagon, founder o f Sweet Honey, and for many years cultural historian for the Smithsonian Insti tute in Washington, D.C. It was twelve years ago that Sweet Honey em erged, out o f a vocal workshop o f the Washington, D.C. Black Repertory Theatre Company. Bernice was the vocal director. O ver the years several things have changed about the group: “ nineteen black women have lent their voices so that there could be a “ Sweet Honey in the Rock." The repertoire has changed — expanded and extended by the additions o f different women. But remaining the same throughout, has been the presence o f Bernice Reagon, the shared com m itm ent to the style o f Sweet Honey, and to being socially conscious, polti- cally aware black wom en artists. W hen asked whether Sweet Honey had accom plished all they had set out to do, Bernice explained that “ initially, with Sweet Honey, there were no goals, at least in the usual sense o f the word. At its inception, Sw eet Honey was intended only as an avenue o f expresison for black wom en who simply RECORDS tiTe. C A S S E TTE S V c. & £■ re. / i t - MUSIC FOR THE N e w a g e ... .. .At Artichoke Music. Come sample our wordly selection of records and tapes. All Windham Hill titles — still only $8.00. (iV ' V ARTICHOKE MUSIC 111 N. W. 2 t « t Ave • P o r t l a n d . O R . 9 / 2 0 9 • 2 4 8 0 J S 6 Open: 10:30 6:00 Mon. Sat. 44 msm W ords asking: by Corirme Mackey BOOKS •- k s ' iTe. tire. Sweet Honey in the Rock. wanted to sing, needed to sing.” What she envisioned was a group o f black women, rooted in traditional black American music, “that could vocally explore a range o f con tem porary issues, both political and personal." The response to Sweet Honey — singing unaccompanied in an era where electric music was/is the rule — has been profound. Sweet Honey’s lyrics are often difficult for som e to digest — Not because o f their com plexity but because too many are reluctant to hear about, and thus acknowledge, the exist en ce o f racism, o f discrimination, oppres sion, rape, nuclear energy, homophobia, sex ism, hunger. The decision to explore and delve into topics that may be uncomfortable to som e, speaks well o f Sweet Honey’s com m itm ent to resist with their voices and words, always, those “ isms” o f the world that con stantly deal death blows. The world may be the way it is, but we can change it That we can rebuild and re-create is the major chord that runs throughout their music. After com m enting on Sweet Honey’s ap peal to groups as diverse as Lesbians and Gays, Black church members, peace activ ists, Central America and anti-apartheid ac tivists and feminists, I asked Bernice for her thoughts on coalition building. “ Coalition is som ething we struggle with, and o f course it’s im portant And our com mitm ent to building our particular issue/ com m unity is important The struggle is in balancing those. It requires a great deal o f intensity and work, but we haue to work at changing things that are oppressive and exploitive.” Finally 1 asked Bernice how the excitement she and Sweet Honey generate becom es m ore dazlzing with each year. I wondered where “ it” keeps com ing from, that force inside them that keeps the audience re-acting, m oving, responding. Bernice, a smile in her voice, replied that no matter what. Sweet Honey believes strongly in remaining positive, believes strongly too in the values o f what they sing. And when they sing, while they sing, they get trem endous strength, peace, and serenity from each other. “ People ask m e all the time,” said Bernice, “ how do I do what I do." She paused and then several times, with wonder, repeated herself. “ I always think, how could I not do what I do.” It is a question we hope she nor any other m em ber o f Sweet Honey ever has need to answer. M em bers o f Sweet Honey are: Bernice Reagon, Evelyn Harris, Yasmeen Williams, Ysaye Barnwell, Aisha Kahlil, and Shirley Johnson, interpreter for the hearing impaired. Don’t miss it! Just Out. September, 1986