On art and religion:
DR. RACHEL HARDING: The impulse to art, the impulse to creativity is very similar to the impulse to spirituality and to imagining and creating a more humane society. I think at root, the more exalted artists in our global societies as well as folk artists are looking for ways to express the deepest parts of their own humanity, and the deepest connections that they're able to manifest, whether in song or in visual art or in dance, with something higher -- a kind of collective meaning of who it is they are and how it is they're connected to something beyond themselves. And religion, I think, at its base is that as well, an attempt to try to find something outside of our own individual identity that connects us to something larger, that stretches out beyond where we are and that is a part of what we come from... I think of artists in the African-American tradition such as John Biggers, Jacob Lawrence, and Elizabeth Catlett who represent the constant focus on the deep humanity, the deep dignity of their people who have struggled and been through so much trauma and hardship. But at the same time [they use that] as a foundation to stretch out and stretch up and connect with the humanity that all people share. Religion at its best does that too; it comes out of a particular and a specific experience, but it moves us toward a connection with others -- the spirit.

On telling the story of the freedom movement:
DR. VINCENT HARDING: One of the things we are most concerned about is that a younger generation comes into as vital and creative contact with this story as possible. It is absolutely necessary to find as many ways as possible that will tie into the experience of younger people, tie into the contemporary experience, whether it be television, video, murals, songs in a new genre. We've got to find ways; just as that generation took the songs from the past and brought them into new relevance for that struggle, so now we have to go back there, take those, bring them into this time. Every people, every generation, every society has to keep watering the seeds before them in order that the new plants can be of value to those who are living in the present time. Every mode and means of creativity that we can find to tell this story is absolutely necessary, because the story must not only be a story; it must be a reason for living for another generation.

It is powerfully motivational to realize how many people were not alive 35 years ago, 40 years ago, when my wife and I began to be involved in this movement ourselves. There's a tremendous motivation to say, "We're going to have to find some way to tell this story." We feel that because of what we have seen and known and because of a companion like our daughter, we have a great ability to respond. Responsibility means that to us, for one thing. It also means a great privilege. We have lived through one of the great periods of human history and certainly one of the great periods of our country's development. And therefore there's a beautiful possibility that we have for sharing what we have known.

DR. RACHEL HARDING: What excites me most is as I look around the country, I'm aware of lots of people, particularly in the arts, who are finding different ways of interpreting and passing on the meaning of this story. I'm thinking for example of Cleo Parker Robinson, a local choreographer and dancer here [in Denver], and Ronald Kay Brown, who's this wonderful African-American choreographer doing tremendous things to link up history and movement and spirituality in the dances that he creates, and a whole generation of word artists, poets, and performance artists who are building on the tradition of the black arts movement, the Chicano arts movement, the women's coffeehouse poet movements from the '60s and the '70s, who are carrying on this tradition of passing on the story.

I am thrilled when I travel to different parts of the country and see the kind of energy and impetus that the movement that my parents and people of their generation were a part of has continued to ignite in folks my age and even younger. It's very exciting, and you see it across the arts -- in dance, in writing, in visual arts, in the music. This has something to do with the fact that human beings are always looking for ways to express our deepest humanity and our deepest connection to others. The movement for African-American rights and the expansion of democracy, as my dad likes to call it, was quintessentially that kind of thing, so there are a lot of people all around the country and other parts of the world who draw inspiration from it.

On poetry:
DR. RACHEL HARDING: For me, poetry has been a way to make those spiritual and ancestral connections that become sources of sustenance in my life. Poets I admire and consider my mentors, such as Sonia Sanchez, Lucille Clifton, and Nathaniel Mackie, would describe the meaning of the work in similar terms. It's a way to connect to something that gives you deep roots. And with the roots, then, you're able to stretch out and move in directions that perhaps you wouldn't have had the strength or the inspiration to do otherwise.