CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Thursday, April 22, 2010, 8pm o u n d e d b y b e r n i c e j o h n s o n r e a g o n in Associated Press reported, “foot-stomping music Zellerbach Hall F1973 at the D.C. Black Repertory Theater filled the East Room” as Sweet Honey sang for Company, Sweet Honey In The Rock, the inter- sixth- and seventh-graders from around the city. nationally renowned a cappella ensemble, has been Sweet Honey In The Rock is Aisha Kahlil, a vital and innovative presence in the music culture Carol Maillard, Louise Robinson, Nitanju Sweet Honey In The Rock of Washington DC and in communities of con- Bolade Casel, Shirley Childress Saxton and Ysaye science around the world. Maria Barnwell. From Psalm 81:16 comes the promise to a people of being fed by honey out of the rock. Aisha Kahlil possesses a dynamic, innate power Honey—an ancient substance, sweet and nurtur- and range in jazz, , traditional, contemporary ing. Rock—an elemental strength, enduring the and African vocal styles and techniques. winds of time. The metaphor of sweet honey in the Ms. Kahlil’s interest in music was evident at rock captures completely these African-American an early age. She was a member of local choirs in women whose repertoire is steeped in the sacred her native Buffalo, New York, and performed as a music of the Black church, the clarion calls of the vocalist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra civil rights movement, and songs of the struggle for in several productions, including Porgy and Bess, justice everywhere. Carmen Jones and The Messiah. She also sang the Rooted in a deeply held commitment to create role of Monica in a WGBH production of Menotti’s music out of the rich textures of African-American The Medium, and performed at Carnegie Hall in legacy and traditions, Sweet Honey In The Rock Julius Eastman’s The Thruway. She worked with possesses a stunning vocal prowess that captures the Studio Arena Theatre, where she was awarded the complex sounds of blues, , tradi- a full scholarship, and at the Buffalo Black Drama tional gospel , rap, reggae, African chants, Workshop, where she toured in the production hip-hop, ancient lullabies and jazz improvisation. Willus Way Is Not a Violent Man, directed by Ed Sweet Honey’s collective voice, occasionally ac- Smith. During this time she became interested companied by hand percussion instruments, pro- in the music of such jazz artists as John Coltrane, duces a sound filled with soulful harmonies and Leon Thomas, Betty Carter and Pharoah Sanders. intricate rhythms. Ms. Kahlil majored in theater at Northeastern In the best and in the hardest of times, Sweet University in Boston. She also studied voice and Honey has come in song to communities across the music theory at the New England Conservatory and around the world, raising her of Music, and performed with Ebony Jua, a local voice in hope, love, justice, peace and resistance. jazz ensemble that toured the East Coast. While Sweet Honey invites her audiences to open their at Northeastern, Ms. Kahlil directed M(ego) and minds and hearts and think about who we are and the Green Ball of Freedom, Where we at?, a play by how we treat each other, our fellow creatures who Martie Charles, and performed and directed Sister

Pietro Exis share this planet and, of course, the planet itself. Sonji, by Sonia Sanchez. Following their 2008 Grammy-nominated re- A master teacher in voice and dance, Ms. Kahlil lease, Experience…101, Sweet Honey returned to has taught at the Institute for Contemporary (clockwise from top left) Aisha Kahlil, Carol Maillard, Shirley Childress Saxton, the studio to record Go in Grace, original music Dance, The Joy of Motion, the Boston Center for Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Louise Robinson composed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance the Arts, Leslie College, the Dance Place, and the Theater. Together, these two artistic treasures of D.C. Black Repertory Theatre, as well as teaching the African-American experience performed this and lecturing at the University of Hawaii at Manoa once-in-a-lifetime collaboration throughout the and at Maharishi International University.

United States during the 2008–2009 season. Ms. Kahlil’s artistic pursuits have taken her to This evening’s program will be announced from the stage. Equally thrilling was the invitation received , where she studied extensively at the from First Lady Michelle Obama in February Alvin Ailey School, and with Frank Hatchett, Pepsi 2009 to perform at the White House in celebra- Bethel, Fred Benjamin, and Emiko and Yasuko Cal Performances’ 2009–2010 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. tion of African-American History Month. As the Tokunaga. She also appeared in Joseph Papp’s off-

8 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 9 ABOUT THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Broadway production of The Haggadah, co-com- and revues to drama and experimental. She has Ms. Robinson’s career has taken her up many A native of Washington DC, Shirley Childress posed and performed in the musical Two Thousand performed on and off Broadway Eubie( , Don’t Get paths, including performances both on and off- Saxton is a skilled professional Sign language in- Seasons, and danced with Titos Sampas’s Tanawa. God Started, Comin’ Uptown, Home, It’ So Nice to Broadway and in film and studio recording. She terpreter who learned American Sign Language She also performed with Talib Kibwe, Abdullah Be Civilized, Beehive, Forever My Darling), with has also worn the producer’s hat as she, along with (ASL) from her Deaf parents. In their honor, she Ibrahim, and Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra. the Negro Ensemble Company (Home, Zooman Ms. Maillard and Smokey Ronald Stevens, pro- founded the Herbert and Thomasina Childress In Washington DC, she has worked with and the Sign, Colored Peoples Time, The Great Mac duced A Sho Nuff Variety Revue, a series of per- Scholarship Fund to assist other children of Deaf Brother Ah and the Sounds of Awareness and Daddy) and the New York Shakespeare Festival formances showcasing some of New York’s finest adults (CODA) to explore Sign interpreting as a has been a featured artist in the Smithsonian (Spunk, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Under Fire, A talent, including Adolph Caesar, Sandra Reeves work option. Institution’s Jazz in the Palm Court, where she Photograph…), and at the Actors Studio (Hunter). Phillips and legendary tap dancers Gregory Hines, Ms. Saxton’s career has included providing in- presented the music of blues pioneer Gertrude She can be seen in the feature films Beloved and Avon Long and Joe Attles. terpreting services for students in high school and “Ma” Rainey. Ms. Kahlil danced with the African Thirty Years to Life. On television, Ms. Maillard has Ms. Robinson was the founding director of the college classrooms, for employees in staff meetings, Heritage Dancers and Drummers and with appeared in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Bay Area a cappella quintet Street Sounds, taking job training and professional conferences, in legal Kankouran. She also directed and choreographed Suicide and Halleluiah! (PBS); Law and Order: their music around the country and the world for settings and in religious services. In health care, for the First World Dance Theatre and co-directed SVU and Law and Order. 14 years. Ms. Robinson returned to Sweet Honey Ms. Saxton interpreted for the Mental Health and performed for First World Productions, where Ms. Maillard is a founding member of Sweet In The Rock in 2004, and combines her experience Program for the Deaf at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, she also co-wrote, with Nitanju Bolade Casel, the Honey In The Rock. Her powerful rendition of in theater and music to offer workshops that ex- and with Project Access of Deafpride, Inc., which original production Bright Moments in Great Black “Motherless Child,” arranged for Sweet Honey, plore the creative freedom in us all. sponsored her first international assignment to Music. Her arrangement of “Strange Fruit” was is featured in the motion picture The Visit and in Nairobi, Kenya, as interpreter for a Deaf delegate featured in Freedom Never Dies, a PBS production the Dorothy Height documentary, We Are Not Nitanju Bolade Casel became a member of to a United Nations conference. of the life of Harry Moore. Vanishing. Ms. Maillard was Conceptual Producer Sweet Honey In The Rock in 1985, after four years Ms. Saxton’s extensive performing arts inter- Ms. Kahlil was voted Best Soloist by the for the 2005 documentary film Sweet Honey In of studying, performing and cultural organizing preting include an off-Broadway production ofLost Contemporary A Cappella Society for her work on The Rock: Raise Your Voice! on PBS’s American in Dakar, Senegal. As a co-founder, with Marie in the Stars, and with such artists as Bernice Johnson her composition “Fulani Chant” and for her rendi- Masters. Produced and directed by Stanley Nelson Guinier, of Artistes des Echanges Africaines, she Reagon, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage tion of “See See Rider.” Her composition “Wodaabe of Firelightmedia Films, the film chronicled Sweet worked in alliance with local artists, the National Choir, and Big Lovely, Holly Near, Nights” was featured in the film Africans in Honey’s 30th anniversary year (2003). Council of Negro Women, the National Theatre Pete Seeger and In Process. Ms. Saxton has also America, and “Fulani Chant” was included in the As a vocalist, she has record with Horace Silver, Daniel Sorano, the University of Dakar, Air interpreted for Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and filmDown in the Delta, directed by Maya Angelou. Betty Buckley, and on the SYDA Foundation’s in- Afrique, Television and Radio Orts, the Schomberg Audrey Lorde. Her work can also be heard in Climb Against the spirational recording, Sounds of Light. Center for Research and Development, and the Ms. Saxton was first to recognize the need

Odds, a film produced by the Breast Cancer Fund. In 2003, her poem H2O Flow was featured late Dr. Ewart Guinier of Harvard University. for more African-American interpreters, and she Ms. Kahlil’s film credits include Beloved, starring as the opening selection of Marjorie Reyerson’s Ms. Casel is also the former assistant director of the founded the organization BRIDGES to focus at- Oprah Winfrey. With Sweet Honey and James photo/poetry book, Water Music. In 1998, she Art of Black Dance & Music and director of Young tention on Black Deaf consumers and interpreters. Horner, she wrote and recorded original music for penned the “Herstory” for Sweet Honey’s first Afrique Dance Company, both in Massachusetts. Ms. Saxton was also a founding member of the or- the film Freedom Song, starring Danny Glover. songbook, Continuum. Ms. Casel now works with her sister, Aisha ganization Black Deaf Advocates. The Registry of Ms. Maillard lives in Manhattan and is the Kahlil, as co-director of First World Productions, Interpreters for the Deaf published a tribute to her, Carol Maillard was born and raised in mother of Jordan Maillard Ware, currently attend- and heads her own publishing company, Clear entitled “Shirley Childress Johnson, the Mother Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although she origi- ing Morehouse College in Atlanta. SGMKJ! Ice Music. Her compositions can be heard in the of Songs Sung in ASL.” She has been recognized nally attended Catholic University of America Australian Broadcasting Company’s 2006 educa- for her interpreting service to the community with on scholarship as a violin performance major, she Louise Robinson, a native New Yorker, studied tional series, Sing!, Mystic Seaport’s multimedia awards from Deaf advocacy organizations the soon began writing music and performing with the double bass for six years and attended the High history presentation Black Hands, Blue Seas: The Silent Mission Circle at Shiloh Baptist Church, Drama Department and eventually changed her School of Music and Art. African American Maritime Experience and Tribeca Deafpride, Inc., Women Unlimited and National major to theater. A graduate of Howard University with a Production company’s The Box. Ms. Casel was a R.I.D. Interpreters of Color. This passion for the stage brought her to the BFA, Ms. Robinson’s professional career began finalist in both the 2006 and 2007 International Ms. Saxton holds a bachelor’s degree in Deaf D.C. Black Repertory Company and the begin- at Washington DC’s Arena Stage. She accepted Songwriter’s Competitions, and a Grammy nomi- education from the University of Massachusetts, nings of the vocal ensemble that was to become ’s invitation to become a member of nee for Sweet Honey’s Experience…101, which Amherst. She has authored several articles on her Sweet Honey In The Rock. Ms. Maillard is an the new D.C. Black Repertory Company Acting she produced. experiences as a CODA and her work as a Sign lan- accomplished actress and has performed in film, Ensemble. It was out of this theater company that Ms. Casel lives on the east coast with her hus- guage interpreter. Her family, sons Reginald and television and on stage. Her theater credits encom- Ms. Robinson, along with Carol Maillard. Bernice band, Oso Tayari and their teenage son, Obadele. Deon and sisters Maxine and Khaula, all Sign. pass a wide range of styles from musical comedy Johnson Reagon and Mie, formed Sweet Honey.

10 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 11 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Ysaye Maria Barnwell was born in New York City choral clinician in African-American cultural per- and has lived in Washington DC for over 40 years. formance. She has authored two children’s books, Her life experiences have taken her down three No Mirrors in My Nana’s House and We Are One, major paths. She began in music at age 2½, study- both published by Harcourt, Inc.; a boxed set of ing violin for 15 years with her father and majoring African-American stories and songs for young in music in high school. She sang in a choir while people, Um Hmm; and an instructional boxed set, in junior high school and in college. In 1976, she Singing in the African American Tradition. She cre- founded the Jubilee Singers at All Souls Unitarian ated the Community Sing, which she conducts Church in Washington DC. It was there, in 1979, monthly in Washington DC, and the workshop that witnessed her as a Building a Vocal Community: Singing in the African singer and a Sign Language interpreter and invited American Tradition, which she has conducted on her to audition for Sweet Honey In The Rock. three continents, utilizing an African worldview Dr. Barnwell is also a speech pathologist with and African-American history, values, and cultural bachelor’s, master’s (SUNY Geneseo, 1963–1968) and vocal traditions to work with and build com- and doctoral (University of Pittsburg, 1975) munity among singers and nonsingers alike. Her degrees, and was a professor in the College of pedagogy is highly respected among musicians, ed- Dentistry for more than a decade. In 1981, she ucators, health workers, activists, organizers and in completed post-doctoral work and earned a Master the corporate and non-profit sectors. Dr. Barnwell of Science in Public Health. is also an aspiring actress whose most recent en- Over the past two decades, Dr. Barnwell has deavors include the narration for the NPR docu- earned a significant reputation as a commissioned mentary, W. C. Handy’s Blues. composer and arranger, author, master teacher and

12 CAL PERFORMANCES