This evening, I had the pleasure of seeing Sweet Honey in the Rock perform at the Williamsburg Lodge in Williamsburg, Virginia. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the all-woman acappella ensemble. The group was established in 1973 (the year I was born) by Bernice Johnson Reagon with Louise Robinson, Carol Lynn Maillard and Mie Fredericks.
Sweet Honey in the Rock has spent nearly a half century exercising voice, agency and advocacy. The group’s legacy is one of peace, love, justice, grace, harmony, honor, community and joy. With their voices, they’ve empowered and inspired generations through the civil rights movement until today. The vibrancy of the vastly diverse audience was a beautiful testament of how they have touched hearts and souls with their music.
International Women’s Day, observed on March 8 since the early 1900’s, raises awareness of the status of women worldwide, petitions leadership to dismantle oppressive and exploitative structures, signals to humanity the need for public action and cultural shifts, and solicits the support of men in the movement to foster peace, balance and harmony.
The 2013 International Women’s Day theme established by the United Nations is, A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence Against Women.
“The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” – William Ross Wallace
“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.” – J. Krishnamurti (The same for separation between man and women.)
“I do not wish them to have power over men, but over themselves.” -Mary
Wollstonecraft
“Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man.” -Margaret Mead
“The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation because in the
degradation of woman the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source.”
-Lucretia Mott
“I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes
enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does
not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.”
-Anaïs Nin
“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” -Cheris Kramarae and
Paula Treichler
“Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture
out, we will fall off the edge.” -Andrea Dworkin
“Oppresive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.” – Toni Morrison
Save Sharmila Solidarity Campaign – India (kanglaonline.com)
In what ways do you promote equity and justice for the women in your life? What cultural shifts can we make, in solidarity, to restore peace, harmony and balance to the world??
The Rise Up 