JUNE 11, 1993 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 17

ENTERTAINMENT

Sweet Honey sings from the soul and body

Reviewed by Doreen Cudnik

The Black Studies Program of Cleveland State University presented the legendary a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock at Waetjen Auditorium on Saturday, May 8. The ensemble of six African American women, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Carol Maillard, Aisha Kahlil, and sign language interpreter Shirley Childress Johnson performed a wide variety of music from their nine albums, including their most recent Warner Brothers release In This Land.

The brainchild of Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sweet Honey in the Rock was formed in 1973 as an outgrowth of the Washington, D.C.-based Black Repertory Theater. In addition to having been the vocal director of the Black Repertory Theater and the founding member of Sweet Honey, Reagon continues to work as a solo performer, lecturer and scholar of African American community-based cultural life and history. She holds a curatorial position at the Smithsonian Institution and was recently nominated for an Emmy in the interview category for The Songs Are Free: Bernice Johnson Reagon with Bill Moyers. Keeping with the family tradition, Johnson's daughter, Toshi Reagon, produced Sweet Honey's most recent album and has lent her songwriting skills to the group over the years.

They came onto the stage Saturday evening in brightly colored dashikis. If you could take your eyes off these stunning women long enough and close your eyes

you could feel the music carry you off to a different land. The first number was like a prayer without words. They moved together with complete synchronicity, like the music was coming through their bodies and out of their fingertips. They make music with their whole bodies, and it makes you listen with your whole body.

Sweet Honey in the Rock does not perform your run-of-the-mill stuff. Imagine being born, climaxing, dying, falling in love for the first time. Now wrap all of those feelings up into a song. This ability is what amazes me most about Sweet Honey; their music speaks so eloquently of these experiences that we all share.

They also sing from their souls about the pain and injustice in the world. Bernice Johnson Reagon said the spectrum of issues that their music encompasses "keeps many of us awake at night and wanting to march during the waking day." I, for one, left that evening with a renewed commitment to look beyond my everyday world and try to do something about the despair and suffering that exists for so many people in my community, my country and the world.

Aisha Kahlil, speaking to the crowd between songs said, "We sing about peace and love. People ask us, 'How can you sing about such things in a land so full of injustice and inequality?' It is in just such a land that we must sing about these things."

Their program this evening ran the gamut from blues to jazz, gospel to African chant. Even hip-hop had its moment with sisters Kahlil and Casel wowing the crowd with their rap "(Women Should Be a) Priority."

It was wonderful to hear a rap song that was so woman-identified and affirming. And although standing ovations were a regular occurrence all evening, I think that everyone in Waetjen Hall was on their feet for that one!

While the group performed, I was aware of how different each individual woman's voice was, but how they combined so perfectly. The gospel sounds of Bernice Johnson Reagon, the booming bass and exotic chants coming from Ysaye Maria Barnwell, the sultry jazz and innovative blues vocal riffs offered up by Aisha Kahlil, along with the sweet melodic harmonies and rhythms

from Casel and Maillard were a hypnotic blend. And not to be minimized, Childress Johnson's sign language interpreting was a joy to watch. It seemed as if she rode the wave of their voices effortlessly and was most amazing in her interpretation of not only words, but sounds.

If you have not had the opportunity to see Sweet Honey in the Rock live, do yourself a favor and go to your library, record shop, friend's house; wherever you may get a copy of one of their recordings. Clear up some time on your schedule and just listen to the sweet sounds of Sweet Honey in the Rock.

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