CAL PERFORMANCES PRESENTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS Sunday, May 6, 2012, 7pm “I have always believed that art is the conscience each other, our fellow creatures who share this Zellerbach Hall of the human soul, and that artists have the planet, and the planet itself. responsibility not only to show life as it is but Sweet Honey’s 20th CD release, to show life as it should be. … Sweet Honey In Experience…101, was a 2008 Grammy Award The Rock has withstood the onslaught. She has nominee. The excitement continued as Sweet Sweet Honey In The Rock been unprovoked by the 30 pieces of silver. Her Honey was asked to compose new material songs lead us to the well of truth that nourishes in celebration of Alvin Ailey Dance Theater’s the will and courage to stand strong. She is the 50th anniversary. Together, these two artistic keeper of the flame.” treasures of the African American experience Harry Belafonte performed this once-in-a-lifetime collaboration throughout the United States. The music for the collaboration was released on a CD entitled Go ounded by bernice johnson reagon in Grace. Fin 1973 (with Mie, Carol Maillard and On February 18, 2009, Sweet Honey gave a Louise Robinson) at the D.C. Black Repertory concert at the White House at the invitation of Theater Company, Sweet Honey In The Rock, President and Mrs. Barack Obama. the internationally renowned a cappella ensem- The following year saw the release of a CD and ble, has been a vital and innovative presence in video in response to Arizona Law SB-1070, and the music culture of Washington, D.C., and in the creation of a tribute concert, “Remembering communities of conscience around the world. Nina, Odetta and Miriam Makeba.” From Psalm 81:16 comes the promise to a The 2011–2012 season finds Sweet Honey people of being fed by honey out of the rock. celebrating her 38th birthday, and what a Honey—an ancient substance, sweet and nur- year it will be! D.C. residents were treated turing. Rock—an elemental strength, enduring to a performance of the tribute concert on the winds of time. The metaphor of sweet honey October 22, 2011, and in April 2012 a new work, in the rock captures completely these African Affirmations, premiered in performance with the American women, whose repertoire is steeped in National Symphony. Dwight Carter the sacred music of the Black church, the clarion Sweet Honey In The Rock are Ysaye Maria calls of the civil rights movement and songs of Barnwell, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Aisha Kahlil, Ysaye Maria Barnwell the struggle for justice everywhere. Carol Maillard, Louise Robinson and Shirley Nitanju Bolade Casel Rooted in a deeply held commitment to Childress Saxton (Sign Language Interpreter). create music out of the rich textures of African Aisha Kahlil American legacy and traditions, Sweet Honey Ysaye Maria Barnwell Carol Maillard In The Rock possesses a stunning vocal prow- was born in New York Louise Robinson ess that captures the complex sounds of blues, City and has lived in spirituals, traditional gospel hymns, rap, reg- Washington, D.C., for Shirley Childress Saxton gae, African chants, hip-hop, ancient lullabies over 40 years. Her life and jazz improvisation. Sweet Honey’s collec- experiences have taken tive voice, occasionally accompanied by hand her down three major percussion instruments, produces a sound filled paths. She began in mu- with soulful harmonies and intricate rhythms. sic at the age of 2½, Tonight’s program will be announced from the stage. In the best and in the hardest of times, Sweet studying violin for 15 Honey In The Rock has come in song to com- years with her father and majoring in music in munities across the United States and around high school. She sang in a choir while in junior the world, raising her voice in hope, love, jus- high school and then in college. In 1976, she tice, peace and resistance. Sweet Honey invites founded the Jubilee Singers at All Souls Cal Performances’ 2011–2012 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. her audiences to open their minds and hearts Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. It was, and think about who we are and how we treat there in 1979, that Bernice Johnson Reagon 12 CAL PERFORMANCES CAL PERFORMANCES 13 ABOUT THE ARTISTS ABOUT THE ARTISTS witnessed her as a singer and a Sign Language Council of Negro Women, the National Theater Willus Way Is Not a Violent Man, directed by Since her arrival in Washington, D.C., she interpreter and invited her to audition for Sweet Daniel Sorano, the University of Dakar, Air Ed Smith. During this time she became inter- has worked with Brother Ah and the Sounds Honey In The Rock. Afrique, Television and Radio Orts, the ested in the music of such jazz artists as John of Awareness, and has been a featured art- Dr. Barnwell is also a speech pathologist Schomberg Center for Research and Coltrane, Leon Thomas, Betty Carter, Yma ist in the Smithsonian Institution’s Jazz in the with the bachelor’s, master’s (SUNY Geneseo, Development, and the late Dr. Ewart Guinier of Sumac and Pharoah Sanders. Palm Court, in which she presented a special 1963–1968) and Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh, Harvard University. Ms. Casel is also the former By the time she entered college as a theater performance of the music of Gertrude “Ma” 1975) degrees, and was a professor in the College assistant director of the Art of Black Dance & student at Northeastern University in Boston, it Rainey, the Queen Mother of the classic blues. of Dentistry for over a decade. In 1981, she com- Music, and director of Young Afrique Dance was clear that Ms. Kahlil had an intuitive in- Ms. Kahlil danced with the African Heritage pleted post-doctoral work and earned a Master Company, both in Massachusetts. clination for vocal jazz. Although her formal Dancers and Drummers and Kankouran. She of Science in Public Health. Ms. Casel now works with her sister, Aisha training had been in European classical mu- also served as artistic director for the Youth Over the past two decades, Dr. Barnwell Kahlil, as co-director of First World Productions, sic, she began experimenting with innovative, Ensemble of Dancers and Drummers at the has earned a significant reputation as a commis- and heads her own publishing company, Clear improvisational vocal techniques. She studied Levine School of Music, directed and choreo- sioned composer and arranger, author, master Ice Music. Her compositions can be heard in the voice and music theory at the New England graphed for the First World Dance Theatre, teacher and choral clinician in African American 2006 Australian Broadcasting Company’s 2006 Conservatory, and performed with Ebony Jua, a and co-directed and performed for First World cultural performance. She has two children’s educational series Sing!, Mystic Seaport’s multi- jazz ensemble that toured the East Coast. While Productions, where she also co-wrote, with books—No Mirrors in My Nana’s House and We media history presentation Black Hands, Blue at Northeastern, Ms. Kahlil directed M(ego) and Nitanju Bolade Casel, the original production Are One—both published by Harcourt, Inc.; a Seas: The African American Maritime Experience, the Green Ball of Freedom, Where we at?, a play Bright Moments in Great Black Music. Her ar- boxed set of African American stories and songs and Tribeca Production Company’s The Box. by Martie Charles, and performed and directed rangement of “Strange Fruit” was featured in for young people, Um Hmm; and an instruc- Ms. Casel was a finalist in both the 2006 and Sister Sonji by Sonia Sanchez. Freedom Never Dies, a PBS production of the life tional boxed set, Singing in the African American 2007 International Songwriter’s Competition, Following her studies, Ms. Kahlil spent of Harry Moore. Tradition. She created the Community Sing, and a Grammy nominee for Sweet Honey’s three years in the Bay Area, where she worked Ms. Kahlil was voted Best Soloist by the which she conducts monthly in Washington, Experience…101, which she produced. as a vocalist and dancer with the Raymond Contemporary A Cappella Society, for her D.C., and the workshop Building a Vocal Ms. Casel lives on the East Coast with Sawyer Theatre and Halifu Productions, while composition “Fulani Chant” and her rendition Community®: Singing in the African American her husband, Oso Tayari, and their teenage performing and recording with the avant-garde of “See See Rider.” Her original composition Tradition, which she has conducted on three son, Obadele. jazz trio Infinite Sound. She then returned to “Wodaabe Nights” was featured in the film continents, utilizing an African world view, and Boston, where she worked with Stan Strickland Africans in America, and “Fulani Chant” was African American history, values, cultural and Aisha Kahlil possesses a and Sundance and the Art of Black Dance included in the film Down in the Delta, directed vocal traditions to work with and build com- dynamic, innate power and Music. by Maya Angelou. Her work can also be heard munity among singers and nonsingers alike. and range in jazz, blues, A master teacher in voice and dance, in Climb Against the Odds, a film produced by Her pedagogy is highly respected among musi- traditional, contempo- Ms. Kahlil has taught at the Institute for the Breast Cancer Fund. Ms. Kahlil’s film cred- cians, educators, health workers, activists, orga- rary and African vocal Contemporary Dance, the Joy of Motion, the its include Beloved, starring Oprah Winfrey, nizers, and in corporate and nonprofit sectors. styles and techniques. Boston Center for the Arts, Leslie College, the and with Sweet Honey and James Horner she Dr.