On the occasion of Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday

Photo credit: Lydia Mann

Pete Seeger performing at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, August 2008. PHOTO: Lydia Mann

I grew up in a rich Black cultural community in Southwest Georgia. One of my early loves as a young girl loving to sing was quartet singing. Local groups were made of singers who had other jobs during the week. One night a week, they met for rehearsals and on Saturday and Sunday, they sang by invitation at “singings” throughout the region.
These groups usually never quit their jobs or their singing. The two supported each other. The singing never brought enough money to support the singing, but it supported them to move through whatever they faced in the rest of their lives.

I met Pete Seeger during the Civil Rights Movement, I was a songleader from Albany, GA. Pete became a model for me of a working singer. In the same way I understood, teachers, carpenters, housecleaners; a professional working singer going out to do his job in the world. It seemed to me that with that approach, one could go for many decades at that pace. What seemed different was the absence of a machine pushing for a big break or stardom or the top ten. His work seemed to say, if you get up every day trying to find a way to do your work, after a while just through the consistency and the quality and care you bring to your singing, songmaking, organizing, and love for being before an audience, what can happen will happen. People touched by the wonder you weave will start to look out for opportunities to be in those magical spaces you create. And at some point, you become more able to support yourself and your family through your work as a working singer. It becomes clear to everyone who and what you are—the accumulation and consistency makes it so. It was a wonderful model for me to have before me as I began to form my journey…

— Bernice Johnson Reagon