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By Mary Lackie
Mrs. Bernice Reagon of Atlanta, one of the original Freedom
Singers, is out to reclaim the beauty of Negro music in her appearance at the
Soul Roots Festival at Morehouse College this weekend.
“The origins of Negro music can be destroyed,” she said,
“and one of the goals of the festival is to encourage the preservation of
the original forms. There is a chain linking today’s jazz, gospel music,
rhythm and blues to those earliest work songs, slave songs, country blues and
spirituals.”
The daughter of a Baptist minister, Bernice Reagon was exposed to
religious music from early childhood. “But I didn’t appreciate it
then,” she said. Did Negro churches have a “liturgical music
problem?” she was asked. “Yes, in a way we did.” Mrs. Reagon
explained that as congregations became more affluent and sophisticated,
“we kept our songs, but the original meaning was lost. Gospel music became
‘something you get away from as you move up in the world.”
To ‘move up in the world’ meant to move into a white
culture, and in the process, Mrs. Reagon said, “you no longer see yourself
as you really are. The picture you get of yourself is that one reflected by the
whites. That is why the truth about Negro music is vital—vital to
everyone.”
She said “Music has a strengthening power—and it also
creates a bond that unites people of all backgrounds and classes.”
The relevance of Negro folk music to American culture is the
central theme of the Soul Roots Festival. It is the first of its kind at a
Georgia college since the early 30’s, Mrs. Reagon said. Singers,
musicians, and choral groups from Georgia and the Georgia Sea Islands and North
Carolina will participate in the three-day program.
The festival will be held in Sale Hall on the Morehouse College
campus at 8 p.m., Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 5-7. A workshop is scheduled
for Saturday at 2 p.m. The programs will vary: Friday, jazz and blues;
Saturday, new directions—original and calypso music; Sunday, gospel songs
and spirituals. General admission for each concert is $1.50. For detailed
information, call Morehouse College JA 3-4370. |
