FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Doug Stone
September 15, 2003 Barbara K. Laskin
(651) 696-6203

Sweet Honey in the Rock Founder to Speak at Macalester

St. Paul, Minn. - Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder, performer and artistic director of the Emmy-nominated, women's a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, will speak at Macalester College, Thursday, September 25, 2003, 7:30 pm, in the Alexander G. Hill Ballroom, Kagin Commons, 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, Minn. Reagon's lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled "I Remember, I Believe: Sacred Song Journey" and is sponsored by the Lilly Project for Work, Ethics and Vocation at Macalester.

Reagon, distinguished professor of African-American history and culture at American University, has published many articles and books including We'll Understand It Better By and By: Pioneering African-American Gospel Composers; Black People and Their Culture: Selected Writings from the African Diaspora; We Who Believe in Freedom: Sweet Honey in The Rock, Still on the Journey; and You Don't Go, Don't Hinder Me: The African American Sacred Song Tradition (2001).
She is also curator emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution and has won the Charles E. Frankel prize; Presidential Medal; George F. Peabody Award for the radio series, Wade in the Water; and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Macalester College, founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,795 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, diversity, and service to society.