The World House Choir as the group appeared in 2015. (News archive photo)
Local choirs join voices to honor Bernice Johnson Reagon
- Published: April 23, 2026
In the decades since World House Choir Director Catherine Roma first heard the voices of Sweet Honey in the Rock, she has carried aspects of their sound — and their purpose — into every choir she’s led.
“It was transporting,” Roma said of hearing the group in the 1970s. “They sang music about events that were affecting their lives right now.”
That sense of immediacy — music as reflection, response, call to action — will take center stage later this month, as the World House Choir joins forces with MUSE women’s choir for “Give Your Hands to Struggle,” a pair of concerts honoring the life and legacy of the late Sweet Honey in the Rock founder Bernice Johnson Reagon, who died in 2024.
The program is set for Saturday, April 25, in Springfield’s John Legend Theater, and May 2, in Cincinnati.
“When I think of the work of Dr. Reagon … and when I think of the time period we’re living in right now, I think of her music as being so relevant,” Roma said. “She was prophetic.”
Reagon — a scholar, historian and activist, as well as a singer and songwriter — built a body of work rooted in Black experience and the long arc of the Civil Rights Movement. Her songs, Roma said, directly confronted the political and social issues of their moment.
That approach, she added, helped shape her own trajectory as a choral director. Roma first worked with Reagon in the late 1970s, when Roma was conducting the Philadelphia women’s chorus she founded, ANNA Crusis. Over four weeks, Reagon taught the women several of her songs; Roma later transcribed some of Reagon’s work, which until then had been passed along via collaborative, oral teaching. In the ‘80s, after Roma had founded MUSE in Cincinnati, Reagon again came to teach some of her songs, this time to a new group of women.
In 2004, MUSE commissioned Reagon to write a piece for the opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. That commission spawned the “Liberty or Death Suite,” which draws on the words and legacy of Harriet Tubman, weaving together spoken text and layered vocal lines.
“It’s not an easy piece,” Roma said. “It’s got a lot going on in it — drum rhythms, and you can feel the force and the power of it.”
For this performance, as the centerpiece of the upcoming concerts, the suite will receive only its second full staging, with singers from both MUSE and World House Choir — about 150 voices — combining to create what Roma described as a “huge sound,” meant to evoke the communal singing that sustained Civil Rights organizers in churches and gatherings across the South.
“That singing was so important in that whole movement,” she said. “Somebody would start a song … and everybody would just join in.”
Audience members will be invited to do the same; in keeping with Reagon’s practice, the program includes moments of participatory singing.
“She’d say, ‘This is for you — you have to join us in this,’” Roma said. “Don’t remain silent.”
The concert’s repertoire spans decades of Reagon’s work, including “Ella’s Song,” “Seven Principles,” “We’ll Understand it Better By and By,” and World House Choir favorite “Greed,” which confronts the nation’s foundations on the “sin of greed” that moves like “a virus.” The program also includes “I Remember, I Believe,” whose lyrics invoke ancestral memory, strength and a bone-deep faith in the pursuit of justice: “My God calls to me in the morning dew/The power of the universe knows my name/Gave me a song to sing and sent me on my way/I raise my voice for justice, I believe.”
“[Reagon’s] ability to say what’s going on right now — and say how it affects people — that’s what makes it so powerful,” Roma said. “She’s singing about struggle, but at the same time, there’s something grounding her — that deep faith.”
The concerts will also include pre-performance talks by scholars Dr. Tammy Kernodle and Dr. Portia Maultsby, offering broader context on Reagon’s contributions as both an artist and a cultural historian.
The collaboration between World House Choir and MUSE is a continuation and a culmination of Roma’s lifetime of work. It seemed only fitting, Roma said, to join both choirs in honor of Reagon, whom she considered a mentor, and whose influence is still felt in both choirs’ emphasis on music that kindles unity and social justice.
Likewise, it felt appropriate to title the pair of concerts after Reagon’s reminder that unity and social justice are achieved by hard work and vigilance: “We’ll be really moving/Building up our union/If we give our all to struggle.”
“When she says, ‘Give your hands to struggle,’” Roma said, “that’s really what we need to be doing right now.”
The World House Choir and MUSE will perform “Give Your Hands to Struggle” Saturday, April 25, at 4 p.m., in John Legend Theater, with a preconcert talk at 3 p.m.; tickets are $10, and may be purchased online at http://www.bit.ly/GiveYourHandsLegend
The Cincinnati performance will be held at House of Joy, located at 3220 Central Parkway, on Saturday, May 2, at 4 p.m., with a preconcert talk at 3 p.m.; tickets are $35, and may be purchased online at http://www.musechoir.org
The Yellow Springs News encourages respectful discussion of this article.
You must login to post a comment.
Don't have a login? Register for a free YSNews.com account.
No comments yet for this article.