Brooklyn Museum to Welcome Sonia Sanchez and Bernice Johnson Reagon for CIVIL RIGHTS IN CONVERSATION AND SONG, 3/13

On Thursday, March 13 at 7 p.m., the Brooklyn Museum presents In Conversation and Song featuring poet Sonia Sanchez and musician Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon as they talk about their experience as activists and share words and music from the Civil Rights Movement. The special evening is presented in celebration of the opening week of the exhibition Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, on view March 7 through July 6, 2014.

Tickets are $20, include Museum general admission, and can be purchased at www.museumtix.com. Free for Museum Members.

Sonia Sanchez is the author of more than 20 books including Homecoming (1969), We a BadddDDD People (1970), A Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women (1974), Homegirls & Handgrenades (1984), Wounded in the House of a Friend (1995), and Morning Haiku (2010). Sanchez has lectured at over 500 universities and colleges in the United States and in December 2011, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter selected Sanchez as Philadelphia's first Poet Laureate. The recipient of numerous awards, among them the National Endowment for the Arts Award, a 1985 American Book Award for Homegirls & Handgrenades, and the Pew Fellowship in the Arts for her outstanding literary achievement, Sanchez currently holds the Laura Carnell Chair in English at Temple University.

For more than a half-century Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon has been a major cultural voice for freedom and justice, singing, teaching-speaking out against racism and organized inequities of all kinds. In 1973 while a graduate student of history at Howard University and vocal director of the DC Black Repertory Theater, she formed the internationally renowned African American women's acappela ensemble Sweet Honey In The Rock. She led the group until retirement in early 2004. Dr. Reagon is Professor Emeritus of History at American University, Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and served as the 2002-2004 Cosby Chair of Fine Arts at Spelman College (her alma mater) in Atlanta, GA. She has served as music consultant, composer, and performer for several film and video projects, including the award-winning Eyes on the Prize, the Emmy-winning We Shall Overcome, and the feature film Beloved.

Admission: Contribution $12; students with valid I.D. and seniors $8. Free to members and children under 12 accompanied by an adult. Group tours or visits must be arranged in advance by calling extension 234.
Directions: Subway: Seventh Avenue express (2 or 3) to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum stop; Lexington Avenue express (4 or 5) to Nevins Street, cross platform and transfer to the 2 or 3. Bus: B41, B69, B48. On-site parking available.

Museum Hours: Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; first Saturday of each month, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day.