Newspaper Page Text
February, 1986 Spelman Spotlight Page 5
SSGA Plans Afro-American
a Celebration on Allblim
The Spelman Student Govern
ment Association has started this
semester off with many activities
planned for our student body
and community. We began with
a reception for all new, ex
change, and transfer students.
The reception was to welcome
them into the Spelman Com
munity and made them as much
a part of Spelman College as
anyone else.
In celebration of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the
Student Government Associa
tion, in cooperation with the
Adelphi Corporation and the
Administration, the Right Bishop
Desmond Tutu was able to speak
to the students and Spelman
College Community. In an effort
to thank him, we raised over 12
thousand dollars for his cause to
help destitute wives whose
husbands are in prison due to
their unwillingness to accept the
Apartheid Government. As ex
cepted he delivered a very
inspirational speech to our
students and community on
Monday, January 20, 1986.
Later that day, Spelmanites
came out in full force to support
the first annual parade/march
for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s
Birthday.
"Celebration in Black...
Women, Love, Heritage, Family”
is the theme for Black History
Month. The Student Govern
ment is planning to celebrate our
race and culture in a variety of
ways. We encourage your par
ticipation in the following ac
tivities:
February
3- Black History Display put up
5- Black film festival begins
7- Mini-Concert at lunch in
Manley Center
9- Emphasis of Display changes
to Black Love & Family
10- Seminar on Black Love
11- Film TBA
14- Display done for Black
Motherhood
17-21— Black Heritage Festival
Week
20- Speaker TBA
26- Film TBA
28- “Celebration in Black”
Sweet Honey & the Rock-
Center Stage Theater 8:00 p.m.
All dates and times subject to
change.
"Step Forward into History” is
the proclamation of the Afro-
American Museum of Art. The
97,000 square foot edifice holds
within a reproduction of Afro-
American history — a history
replete with artistic, scientific,
and rhetoric minds — a history
left neglected and hidden even
from ourselves — our history.
The Afro-American Museum
of Art, located on Auburn
Avenue, is a cultural center
where visitors are able to walk
through an animated exhibition
of the African American ex
perience. According to Mr. Dan
Moore, founder and president,
this seven million dollar struc
ture is a memorabilia of sights,
sounds, and touch, telling the
story of Black America. For
example, one exhibition depicts
a Black slave laboring in the
cotton fields of theSouth. Unlike
any other museum, one actually
hears the plowing of the fields
and the Negro spirituals in their
voices. The museum consists of
several components: an African
Tropical Garden of plants from
the motherland; an archive of
African artifacts; a “permanent
Honey Sweetens the Celebration
Black history month concludes
in Atlanta with a special concert
from the a cappella vocal group
Sweet Honey in the Rock on
Friday Feb. 28 at 8:00pm at the
Center Stage Theatre (1374 W.
Peachtree St. NW). Reserved seat
tickets are now available for $10
advance ($12 day of the show) at
the Center Stage box office and
all SEATS outlets including
Turtle’s Records, the Omni In
ternational, and theMacon Mall.
Tickets may be charged by
calling 873-2500.
Sweet Honey in the Rock,
today a quintet of Black women
singers, began performing in
Washington D.C. in 1973. The
original group was part of the
vocal workshop of the D.C. Black
Repertory Theater Company.
Sweet Honey’s strength lay
within its sound and repertoire,
rooted in the tradition of Black
American unaccompanied
choral singing. The melodies,
harmonies and hard dissonances
weave a musical spell, scanning
the full range of vocal
possibilities. Each singer is an
electrifying soloist who, when
joined in chorus, produces an
awesome blend of instruments,
changing rhythms, switching
leads, slurring, leaping and dan
cing through octaves — making
breathtaking music.
The musicof Sweet Honey also
has a strong political side, with
lyrics recounting the struggle of
Blacks and women, condemning
practices of racism and sexism.
They hurl their voices in
resistance against slavery,
lynching, rape, nuclear energy
and weaponry, occupational
dangers, discrimination, unfair
housing and hunger. They also
sing the praises of families,
lovers, and the building of a
strong community.
The concept and leadership of
Sweet Honey in the Rock rests
primarily with Bernice Johnson
Reagon, who, as vocal director of
the D.C. Black Repertory
Theater, founded the group in
1973. A graduate of Spelman
College in Atlanta, Reagon
began her work as an activist in
1961 during the Albany, GA, civil
rights movement. The musical
and political groundwork set by
Reagon is constantly expanded
by Sweet Honey's ever-changing
personnel. Nineteen Black
women have lent their voices to
the group over the last dozen
years. The current line-up in
cludes Yasmeen Williams John
son, a resident of Atlanta for
several years.
Sweet Honey has appeared
several times in Atlanta, giving
shows at Spelman College,
Ebenezer Baptist Church, and
Emory University. Sweet Honey
has performed to sell-out crowds
at New York’s Lincoln Center,
Carnegie Hall, Town Hall the
Bottom Line, and the no-nukes
concerts at Madison Square
Garden; Orchestra Hall in
Detroit; D.C.’s Warner Theater
and Constitution Hall; as part of
Survival Sunday at the
Hollywood Bowl, and in eleven
cities in Japan. The group
facilitated the production of a
cultural festival to close the U.N.
Decade for Women Conference
in Nairobi, Kenya, and par
ticipated in events sponsored by
the New Song Movement in
Mexico City and Ecuador.
Sweet Honey has just released
two new albums, one a collec
tion of sacred songs, Feel
Something Drawing Me On, and
the second, The Other Side, both
on the Flying Fish Label. Sweet
Honey has three additional
albums on Flying Fish and one on
Redwood Records.
Sweet Honey's Atlanta concert
will conclude the group’s first
Southern Tour. The show is
sponsored by the Spelman
College Student Government
Association and Windstorm
Productions. For more informa
tion please call Steven Harris at
892-5021 orMelanieCookat524-
4757.
chronicle” of the contributions
of both the renown and obscure
Black Americans; a "changing
exhibition” commemorating
special events and personalities
of Black history; a library of films,
photos, and video tapes depic
ting the African American ex
perience; and, a “journey” or
participatory walk through the
sights, sounds, and touch of
Black history.
In a recent visit to Spelman
College's English Club, Mr.
Moore discussed the purpose
and need for such a panoramic
structure. Addressing the
problems of ignorance to our
very own precious culture, Mr.
Moore stated, "If we do not have
control of our past we will return
to it. Our image of Africa is
perpetuated by scenarios like
the Tarzan movies.” Our history
is under the control of the
predominate race — allowing us
to read what they want us to
read, hiding our history to the
degree that many of us are
ashamed of it. Moore adds, "We
are the only group of people
who have gone through an
identity problem. We were
called colored, Negro, Black,
and now Afro-American; we
have been dismembered from
our race to the point where we
don’t really know who we are.”
The Afro-American Museum
of Art is therefore, a recreation
of the history that has been
reduced to oblivion and a
rediscovery of those Black
Americans who have little men
tion in the history books. This
museum is an attempt to rein
force for ourselves and especial
ly for the generations to come,
an awareness of the many-
faceted positive images of the
Black hands that built America.
To know
the Present
We must
understand
the Past.