Most people come out of their Ph.D. experience trying to prove themselves, trying to get ahead, trying to get published. You're scared everybody else….

The Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, actually, was an effort to put something on the mall in Washington so American tourists could walk thr….

If we dwell in a community that is comfortable, then it's probably not broad enough a coalition..

I started graduate school in 1971, I started working at the Smithsonian in the festival in 1972. I went full-time at the Smithsonian in 1974. And I g….

Personally I discovered that you could go through the academy as a young scholar, come out, and almost immediately have an impact on the academic env….

It makes sense that whatever the topic is, it's more compelling if you can provide the audience with a range of perspectives, and you can cross disci….

I organized Sweet Honey In The Rock in 1973. The music was sanity and balance..

And I used to think that proof that I had religion was whether I knew how to sing all of the songs..

The Civil Rights Movement also reaffirmed me as a singer. It taught me that singing was not entertainment, it was something else..

If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition..

I think the Civil Rights Movement changed that trajectory for me. The first thing I did was leave school. I was suspended for my participation in Mov….

In fact when Sweet Honey was ten years old it was too big for me to run, and I knew it, but I ran it for another thirteen years because I couldn't co….

Today whenever women gather together it is not necessarily nurturing. It is coalition building. And if you feel the strain, you may be doing some goo….

There is nowhere you can go and only be with people who are like you. Give it up..

At the same time all this was happening, there was a folk song revival movement goingon, so the commercial music industry was actually changed by the….

Welcome to prekindergarten! You will not die if you discover that there are more lines out there than just your own. In fact, you'll discover that yo….

I went to a church where you could not sing out loud in the service until you had been saved.

So one of the things that happened with integration in the South is they found that the black teachers were much more educated than the white teacher….

Mothering/nurturing is a vital force and process establishing relationships throughout the universe..

The first job I had with the Smithsonian was as a field researcher among African American communities in Southwest Louisiana and Arkansas for the fes….

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are..