BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON |
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BIOGRAPHY |
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Bernice Johnson Reagon - scholar, composer, singer, activist – has been the 2002-04 Cosby Chair Professor of Fine Arts at Spelman College in Atlanta GA. She is also Professor Emeritus of History at American University and Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington DC. Reagon is also the recipient of the 2003 Heinz Award for the Arts and Humanities given by the Heinz Family Foundation. As a musician, Reagon for over 30 years has led and performed with Sweet Honey In The Rock, internationally renowned a cappella ensemble she founded in 1973. She has produced most of the group's recordings including the Grammy nominated Still The Same Me (Rounder Records release for younger audiences, 2001). Her work as a scholar and composer is reflected in publications and productions on African American culture and history, including: a collection of essays entitled If You Don’t Go, Don’t Hinder Me: The African American Sacred |
Song Tradition (University of Nebraska Press, 2001); We'll Understand It Better By And By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers (Smithsonian Press, 1992); and We Who Believe In Freedom: Sweet Honey In The Rock: Still on the Journey, (Anchor Books, 1993). Reagon has served as music consultant, composer and performer for several radio, film and video projects, including the pathbreaking Peabody Award-winning 1994 radio series Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions (Produced by National Public Radio and the Smithsonian Institution); composer, compiler and performer in the creation of the sound scores for WGBH’s Peabody Award winning Africans in America film series for PBS (1998); and Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore, (The Documentary Institute at the University of Florida and WUFT-TV, 2001). Reagon is featured in The Singing Warrior (Veterans of Hope Video Series, Iliff School of Theology). |
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