Mothering/nurturing is a vital force and process establishing relationships throughout the — Bernice Johnson Reagon
Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help — Bernice Johnson Reagon
I was at the smithsonian for twenty years, and I’m still at the smithsonian as a curator emeritus — Bernice Johnson Reagon
But I’m a historian. I wasn’t interested in just being a producer, I was interested in doing — Bernice Johnson Reagon
At the same time all this was happening, there was a folk song revival movement goingon — Bernice Johnson Reagon
I organized sweet honey in the rock in 1973. The music was sanity and balance. — Bernice Johnson Reagon
I started graduate school in 1971, I started working at the smithsonian in the festival in 1972. — Bernice Johnson Reagon
I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song. — Bernice Johnson Reagon
I came out of the civil rights movement, and I had a different kind of focus than most — Bernice Johnson Reagon
And I used to think that proof that I had religion was whether I knew how to sing all of the songs. — Bernice Johnson Reagon
There is nowhere you can go and only be with people who are like you. Give it up. — Bernice Johnson Reagon
The voice I have now, I got the first time I sang in a movement meeting, after I got out of jail… — Bernice Johnson Reagon
The smithsonian festival of american folklife, actually, was an effort to put something — Bernice Johnson Reagon
So one of the things that happened with integration in the south is they found that the — Bernice Johnson Reagon
The first job I had with the smithsonian was as a field researcher among african american — Bernice Johnson Reagon
Personally I discovered that you could go through the academy as a young scholar — Bernice Johnson Reagon
One of the biggest things I understood in a program like that was that it allowed more young — Bernice Johnson Reagon
Most people come out of their ph.d. Experience trying to prove themselves, trying to get ahead — Bernice Johnson Reagon
It makes sense that whatever the topic is, it’s more compelling if you can provide the — Bernice Johnson Reagon
If I had been at a university I don’t think I would have been able to have the experience — Bernice Johnson Reagon
In fact when sweet honey was ten years old it was too big for me to run, and I knew it — Bernice Johnson Reagon
I went to a church where you could not sing out loud in the service until you had been saved. — Bernice Johnson Reagon
When I started graduate school I was interested in the culture of the civil rights movement. — Bernice Johnson Reagon
Well, the first time I ran into the term religion, people were asking whether you had any. — Bernice Johnson Reagon
Today whenever women gather together it is not necessarily nurturing. It is coalition building. — Bernice Johnson Reagon
Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are. — Bernice Johnson Reagon