It's not enough that Sweet Honey In The Rock®, a women's vocal ensemble with pure tonal quality, produces intricate rhythms and harmonies to die for. The music has to reach way down and deliver a message of conscience to the open hearts and minds of the audience. On Thursday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. they will sing to you at UConn's Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts.
The group's name comes from Psalm 81:16 with its promise of the honey of deliverance pouring from the enduring rock. The metaphor captures the repertoire of these African American women whose songs draw from the black church, the civil rights movement and the universal struggle for justice. Their music combines the styles of blues, African chant, jazz improvisation, spirituals, gospel, ancient lullabies, rap, reggae and Hip Hop.
Sweet Honey was founded in 1973 by Bernice Johnson Reagon at the D.C. Black Repertory Theater Company. Its six performers are Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Nitanju Bolade Casel,
Aisha Kahlil,
Carol Maillard,
Louise Robinson and Shirley Childress Saxton. (Saxton will convey the message and emotion behind the songs, as she has for three decades, using American Sign Language.)
Beside touring in its 38th season, Sweet Honey In The Rock® is at work on its 24th CD, a tribute to the history and evolution of their a cappella music, called Sweet Vocappella. This spring the ensemble will perform at Jazz at Lincoln Center in a special tribute: Sweet Honey in The Rock®: Remembering Nina, Odetta, and Miriam. The group is also developing a symphonic orchestra piece, Affirmations, with composer William Banfield, expected to premiere in 2012.
Last summer, Sweet Honey recorded Are We a Nation?, a song that challenges discriminatory responses to immigration issues. A video of the piece, written by Sweet Honey and Grammy Award winner
Barry Eastmond and featuring rap artist Yonas, was released online last summer.
Singer and social activist
Harry Belafonte says it's incumbent upon the artist to show life, not just as it is, but as it should be. Of Sweet Honey, he says, "She has been unprovoked by the 30 pieces of silver. ... She is the keeper of the flame."
Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is located at 2132 Hillside Road on the UConn campus in Storrs. Regular tickets are $25, $27 and $30, with some discounts available. For tickets and information, call the Box Office at 860.486.4226, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., or order online at
jorgensen.uconn.edu. Convenient free parking is available across the street in the North Garage.
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