composer, musician, songtalker, scholar, performer, historian, teacher, producer, director, author, public speaker, activist

For over four decades Bernice Johnson Reagon has been a major cultural voice

for freedom and justice. An African American woman’s voice, a child of Southwest Georgia, a voice raised in song, born in the struggle against racism in America during the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s, she is a composer, songleader, scholar and producer.

Scholar and Teacher

Perhaps no individual today better illustrates the transformative power and instruction of traditional African American music and cultural history than Bernice Johnson Reagon, who has excelled equally in the realms of scholarship, composition, teaching and performance.

Dr. Reagon was the featured speaker at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle, Washington for a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. The Seattle Times published a great review: “Freedom singer delivers civil-rights lessons in Seattle”.

Appreciation:

Dr. Reagon was part of the SNCC 50th Anniversary Conference at Shaw University, Raleigh, NC.
For the most part, I didn’t embarrass myself by crying at this reunion – but I regularly lost it when Bernice Reagon and the Freedom Singers were singing. The music was extraordinary. It was in those moments that the powerful memories – and sometimes sense of loss – would rise up and the tears come. Chuck Neblett, Rutha Harris, Len Chandler, Matthew Jones, Marshall Jones, Willie Peacock, Hollis, Betty Mae Fikes from Selma, Jamila from Montgomery and Birmingham, Guy and Candie singing the song that Guy wrote …and an absolutely beautiful tribute to Cordell Reagon as part of the Saturday night concert. (This footage included some shots of Joy Reagon who was active in Nashville SNCC with her husband, Freddy Leonard when I was there. “Eyes on the Prize” includes a wonderful interview with Freddy.) Bernice closed the conference on Sunday morning and there could not have been a better way. I’ve never met anyone more eloquent or powerful than Bernice Johnson Reagon.
—Read the full blog post by Sue Thrasher

Bernice Johnson Reagon on Freedom Fighting
Bernice Johnson Reagon raised us in song. She helped assuage our pain and stress, like a balm of Gilead. As guest speaker of Berklee's 15th annual Liberal Arts Symposium, Sweet Honey in the Rock founder Reagon inspired a packed house at David Friend Recital Hall with partly sung memoirs and advice from her life as a freedom singer.…
Reagon began her keynote by singing a soft spiritual, and told us, “I was born among singing. I don’t know of breathing or eating, without singing. I don’t mean from the radio (a wonderful invention) or from the iPod (another wonderful invention). I mean [singing] like walking and talking, like the air you breathe, so you didn’t define it in any particular way, because it was woven inside the you you came to know, the house you grew up in, the yard you played in, the school you went to, the church you went to. It was singing by the people around you.” …
Read the full article by Fred Brouchard, associate professor in the Liberal Arts Department, Berklee College of Music

Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon performed at the White House
A Freedom Singer Shares The Music Of The Movement — National Public Radio, February 11, 2010

Upcoming Appearances

January 2012
Mon: 16

Martin Luther King, Jr Holiday Observance
Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI

Wed: 18

Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

Sun: 29 @ 7:00 p.m.

Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely Birthday Celebration
The Sacred Music Show with Special Guest Bernice Johnson Reagon
Buy tickets from Joe’s Pub
Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, New York City
Information: 212-967-7555

February 2012
Thu: 2

Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL

Mon: 6

Horace Mann School, Bronx, NY

Thu: 16

University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

Mon: 20

University of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

July 2012
Wed-Sun: 4-8 AND
Tue-Sat: 10-14

7th WORLD CHOIR GAMES (member of international jury),
Cincinnati, OH

September 2012
Fri: 21

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

For more information contact Jodi Solomon at the Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau.