American Masters "Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice"

AMERICAN MASTERS "Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice"

In 1975, a black woman named Joan Little escaped the cell where she'd been sexually assaulted by a white jailer. Little was on the run when Sweet Honey in the Rock founder Bernice Johnson Reagon heard the news. Inflamed by this inequity, Reagon wrote the song "Joan Little" for Sweet Honey to perform. Through the song, the politically charged, all-female a cappella singing group helped raise awareness for the plight of the North Carolina woman, who was eventually acquitted for acting in self-defense. The song was the first Sweet Honey tune to hit the airwaves and, ironically, it wasn't played by a DJ, but by a news department. Says Reagon, "It should have been the indication that we were not going to break into the top 40." Today, the sextet of African-American women continues to raise powerful voices against injustice with music born of spirituals, slavery and the Civil Rights movement. "Sweet Honey is unique. It's the color of that voice, the passion," says music historian Horace Clarence Boyer in the AMERICAN MASTERS film "Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice," airing on PBS Wednesday, June 29, 2005 (check local listings). "And then you pick up those words and you say 'my, my, this is something I need to pay attention to.'"

"Everyone comes away from a Sweet Honey concert with something different. Some people are swayed by the beauty of the music, others get charged by the way the songs make them feel like conquering the world," says Susan Lacy, creator and executive producer of AMERICAN MASTERS, which has won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Primetime Non-Fiction Series for five of the last six years. "This film has exactly the same effect. "Raise Your Voice" tells a wonderful, inspiring story of a rich musical tradition and compels you to move, to laugh, and to sit up and take notice."

"Sweet Honey in the Rock is a group of very potent, talented, outspoken women who give their all at every concert," says producer/director Stanley Nelson. "While they call on the broad traditions of African-American music, they're constantly evolving, developing new music that speaks to today's issues. It's a powerful mix." Nelson's 2003 film, "The Murder of Emmett Till," aired on PBS' AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Among its many honors, the film received the Special Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, an award from the International Documentary Association and the George Foster Peabody Award. Nelson also won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming.

The Grammy Award-winning group takes its name from a religious parable about a land that was so rich, when you cracked the rocks, honey flowed. "Raise Your Voice" explores the group's roots and celebrates its music through numerous selections performed over the years, including "I Remember/I Believe," "Women Gather," "Denko," "Fulani Chant" and "Wanting Memories."

The songs in Sweet Honey's repertoire speak to a broad range of subjects, to war and peace, to the experiences of ancestors and to the efforts of world leaders. There are tributes to Civil Rights leaders Harry Moore and Ella Baker, odes to home and community, and even songs tackling addiction and taxation without representation.

Reagon - the daughter of a Baptist preacher and an original member of the SNCC Freedom Singers - understood that song was the best way to reach across social divides and to unite protestors. From that foundation, she created a unique musical ensemble that integrates spirituals, hymns and gospel, blues, jazz, rap, hip-hop and traditional West African songs, sometimes accompanied with hand-held percussion instruments. At each concert, Shirley Childress Saxton joins the group on stage as an American Sign Language interpreter.

Of their style, Sweet Honey member Ysaye Barnwell says, "There's no barrier between the group and the audience.... It's just like we're sitting on a front porch. It's a musical conversation."

Concert-goers interviewed in the film speak to the way Sweet Honey educates audiences about their own history and heroes. "Raise Your Voice" effectively captures the tremendous energy unleashed on stage and the emotional interplay between Sweet Honey and its hand-clapping, arm-waving audiences, which group member Carol Maillard calls a "circle of communication." Through behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage, the film also offers an understanding of the hard work that goes into maintaining and updating a long-popular sound.

During filming, Reagon announced she was leaving the group she'd led since 1973 to pursue other interests. "Raise Your Voice" explores the dramatic fallout and follows the remaining members as they decide what course to follow. "It definitely feels like a brand-new beginning, like a rite of passage," says group member Aisha Kahlil.

Sweet Honey in the Rock continues to tour up to 10 months a year and will release its 18th recording, a soundtrack companion of "Raise Your Voice" from Earthbeat! Records.

Says Reagon, who's still close to the group, "We're Sweet Honey in the Rock, a black women's force in the universe. And our voice is music."

© Copyright PBS 2008 | Privacy Policy