I was at the Smithsonian for twenty years, and I’m still at the Smithsonian as a curator emeritus, and I still plan to figure out what that means for me at this point in my life
BERNICE JOHNSON REAGONWhen I started graduate school I was interested in the culture of the Civil Rights Movement.
More Bernice Johnson Reagon Quotes
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The Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, actually, was an effort to put something on the mall in Washington so American tourists could walk through America, and in their minds everything on the mall would be American
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If I had been at a University I don’t think I would have been able to have the experience I had in my Smithsonian work. I don’t think I have been as successful
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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 convince other people to really do it. And this year, I’m not running it.
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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 got my doctorate in 1975.
BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON -
When I started graduate school I was interested in the culture of the Civil Rights Movement.
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The Civil Rights Movement also reaffirmed me as a singer. It taught me that singing was not entertainment, it was something else.
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And I used to think that proof that I had religion was whether I knew how to sing all of the songs.
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If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable, you know it’s not a broad enough coalition.
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The first job I had with the Smithsonian was as a field researcher among African American communities in Southwest Louisiana and Arkansas for the festival.
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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 you will have an advantage if you know more of them!
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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 Movement demonstrations in my hometown, December, 1961
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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 environment.
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Mothering/nurturing is a vital force and process establishing relationships throughout the universe.
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I came out of the Civil Rights Movement, and I had a different kind of focus than most people who have just the academic background as their primary training experience
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I went to a church where you could not sing out loud in the service until you had been saved.
BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON