#bernice johnson reagon

[garadinervi]

Bernice [Johnson] Reagon, Give Your Hands to Struggle. The Evolution of a Freedom Fighter, (Vinyl/LP), P-1028, Paredon Records, 1975 (then Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1997) [Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.]

Cover Design: Ronald Clyne Cover Photograph: Guardian

[folk-enjoyer]

Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest, ep. 5, 1965 "O' Mary Don't You Weep" Pete Seeger, Jean Ritchie, Bernice Reagon

[protoslacker]

As I searched for the nature of my work as a scholar and artist. I have responded to voices that have whispered and protested, saying: “we are not a part of the database of ordered knowledge—our stories are not here, the nuance with which we move is not acknowledged as a part of the heart of this culture we help create and extend. And we were there and we are here, we do fundamentally shape and influence the cultural lifeblood of this land of our birth. I began to understand as a scholar, that I would not so much be revising interpretations of the history of American culture as much as increasing the database of what is accessible about the cultural and historical journey of African Americans and thus helping to realign the evolving narrative of this country and our times.

Bernice Johnson Reagon. Upon Receiving The Heinz Award March, 2003.

Reuters. Bernice Johnson Reagon, singer and US civil rights activist, dead at 81

[harmony-and-peace]

„Życiowe wyzwania nie powinny Cię paraliżować. Powinny pomóc Ci odkryć kim naprawdę jesteś”

- Bernice Johnson Reagon

[zemagltd]

Everyday Poetry - "If, in moving through your life, you find yourself lost, go back to the last place where you knew who you were, and what you were doing, and start from there." Bernice Johnson Reagon

[dufrau]

Damn. Rest in peace Bernice Johnson Reagon. 💔

[rosszulorzott]

Reading Journal

After reading Why Civil Resistance Works, The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan (2011), I'm now on to the update from 2021, Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know by Erica Chenoweth. This link is from the author's page and you will find many more resources there.

"Written by leading experts in their fields and with over 100 subjects to explore Oxford University Press's acclaimed What Everyone Needs to Know® series offers authoritative discussions of complex contemporary issues from gender to sustainability to robots in a lively question-and-answer format."

I'm now halfway through this book and I thought to share some quotes and commentary.

I have evolved from being a detached skeptic of civil resistance to becoming an invested participant in nonviolent movements. I now study the history and practice of resistance with much greater urgency, for the sake of my own democracy and in solidarity with human rights defenders around the world.

Although many cases don’t make headline news, the past decade—2010 to 2020—has seen more revolutionary nonviolent uprisings around the world than in any other period in recorded history. In fact, there have been more such campaigns in the first two decades of the twenty-first century than there were during the entire twentieth century. ... Even though nonviolent resistance is now ubiquitous as a leading strategy for creating change worldwide, the data also suggest that governments are defeating revolutionary nonviolent movements more often than in prior decades ... since 2016, far-right and neo-Nazi groups in Germany have been relying on the work of nonviolent resistance scholar Gene Sharp to better understand how to build and wield people power to pursue their racist and exclusionary aims. ... Just because people are protesting in the streets does not mean they are engaging in civil resistance. Spontaneous, improvised street actions that are not coordinated across various civic groups as part of a broader strategy rarely have staying power or capacity for long-term transformation. ... Few if any civil resistance campaigns have succeeded using protest alone. ... The first known feminist rebellion in North America was a sixteenth-century civil resistance campaign by Iroquois tribal women to end unregulated warfare within the Iroquois nation. Men exclusively controlled declarations of war, along with other political powers. Iroquois women coordinated a sex and childbearing strike, refused to harvest and prepare crops, and refused to produce moccasins necessary for war-making. Ultimately Iroquois women won the power to veto war declarations. ... Since World War II, very few civil resistance movements that excluded women at the front lines succeeded. ... No movements have failed after getting 10% of the nation’s population to be actively involved in their peak event. Most succeed after mobilizing 3.5%. ... successful movements do not necessarily need to turn mortal enemies into active supporters. Civil resistance is not about converting the opponent or melting the hearts of brutal dictators. It is about pulling their supports away in key moments—and taking away their options. ... Digital technology makes it easy to skip the critical steps of building relationships, developing ongoing coalitions, planning strategies, building alternative institutions, and preparing a population for a long struggle. With the convenience of social media, many movements may fall into the trap of organizing only in the short term, moving from one event to another, while failing to absorb their base of supporters into long-term movement adherents. Every movement faces the temptation to put tactics before strategy. Social media dramatically increase that temptation. ... Civil rights organizer Bernice Johnson Reagon once said that if you’re comfortable with everyone in your coalition, you’re not in a coalition. Maintaining a winning coalition is much more difficult than selecting a clear and concrete objective; it often requires skilled mediators and a movement-wide willingness to resolve conflict through some accepted process. ... we know from historical studies that people tend to be more willing to put themselves in harm’s way than to actively hurt others. ... even more important than tactical discipline may be narrative discipline

I have grouped some of these quotes by topic, because the book is written in a very detailed and recursive style, repeating key findings in different contexts and in varying depths. No matter what question the reader wants to explore first, they will find the answer substantiated by research and other background info. This also makes the book hard to read, more like a study course - but one we desperately need to take. Maybe when translating it we could create a shorter version from the essentials (localized for each region's own political environment) and referenced back to the full text. This way we could have a format better suited for general education and organization needs.

[garadinervi]

Diana Davies (photograph), Freedom singer Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon (center) performs at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's fifth-anniversary concert at New York's Town Hall in 1965 [NPR – National Public Radio, Washington, DC. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Legacy Project (SLP). © Diana Davies / Smithsonian Center For Folklife And Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC]

[folk-enjoyer]

my plan is to post aesthetic pictures of Bob dylan for fellow queers to reblog to lure them into following my blog, where they will have to learn the history of folk music as a a traditional tool for protest and labor and the many leftist origins of folk and the ways this is often overlooked and erased especially when it comes to black artists

oh hey, unrelated, check out this cool song by paul robeson in 1924 :)

or this rendition of Strange Fruit by Josh White (1964)

or this song by Odetta in 1957

or this song by lead belly in 1936

or this Gospel song by the Freedom Singers in 1961

or this song 1961

or this song by Nina Simone in 1965

[knightsistersblog]

A murder investigation brings Yord and Osha together again

|| 132 BBY|| "Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are." - Bernice Johnson Reagon

Rated M for mature themes later on

[banji-effect]

i saw you liked her when looking for photos of her on here, and i wanted to let you know dr. bernice johnson reagon passed away yesterday. may she rest in power with the ancestors.

Thank you for letting me know... Rest in power to a truly great woman 💙

[leprivatebanker]

Bernice Johnson Reagon, singer and US civil rights activist, dead at 81

[muz4now]

Bernice Johnson Reagon, a founder of The Freedom Singers and Sweet Honey in the Rock, has died http://dlvr.it/T9krmt