Songtalk Octavo Score project

In 1985 Compositions I was published. The scores in this collection are now being revised and will be available as octavo scores. Dr Catherine Roma is Transcription Editor of the project, with Kabanya Vinson as current Songtalk Score Editor. For titles now available, contact Kathy Ostien at Songways.

We’ll Understand It Better By and By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers Published 1992 by Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press

A curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and a noted gospel singer herself, Reagon presents a superb collection of essays—by academics who are also gospel performers or record producers—that focus on major figures in black gospel music: Charles A. Tindley, Lucie Campbell Williams, Thomas A. Dorsey, William H. Brewster Sr., Roberta Martin and Kenneth Morris. (from Publishers Weekly, Reed Business Information, Inc.)

If You Don’t Go, Don’t Hinder Me: The African American Sacred Song Tradition Published 2001 by University of Nebraska Press

“If you don’t go, don&#8217t hinder me. I am leaving this place. I would like company. If I have to travel alone, don’t get in my way” How do you survive leaving everything you know to try to reconstruct your life and future in a new way? What do you carry with you on your journey to the new place? Migration looms large as a theme in twentieth–century African American life. Bernice Johnson Reagon uses this theme as a centering structure for four essays that examine different genres of African American sacred music as they manifested themselves throughout the twentieth century and within her own life.

We Who Believe in Freedom: Sweet Honey In The Rock: Still On The Journey Published 1993 by Doubleday Publishing

We Who Believe in Freedom moves with energy and good pacing through the lives and rhythms of the women who make up the group. It includes essays by each member of the group and their support team, historical essays, and appreciations by both Alice Walker and Angela Davis. Part of the celebration of Sweet Honey’s 20th Anniversary year.

Compositions One: The Original Compositions of Bernice Johnson Reagon Published 1986 by Songtalk Publishing

This unique book includes 35 original arrangements and compositions by Bernice Johnson Reagon. Many songs are written about or dedicated to pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement. Each song is preceded by an explanation of its meaning or significance.

The scores in this collection are now being revised and will be available as octavo scores. The transcription editor is Kabanya Vinson. For titles now available, contact Kathy Ostien at Songways.

Compositions Two publication date: Winter 2007 by Songtalk Publishing

The second collection of full choral arrangements by Bernice Johnson Reagon. More than 30 works transcribed by score transcription editor, Dr Catherine Roma.

Coalition Politics: Turning the Century in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology Published 1983 by Kitchen Table Women of Color Press; Rutgers University Press, 2000

While addressing the West Coast Women’s Music Festival in 1981, longtime activist and musician Bernice Johnson Reagon spoke cogently and movingly about the challenges of coalition work. Among other points, she drew an important distinction between the safe, home-like space that those challenging the status quo may need to bolster themselves and to help define their work, and the challenging, stretching, and often uncomfortable space of coalition-building.

Her remarks were presented in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (ed. Barbara Smith, Kitchen Table Press, 1983; Rutgers University Press, 2000) as “Coalition Politics: Turning the Century,” and are just as relevant for advocates in this century as they were for those in the last. (from © Advocacy Institute 2005)