The voice I have now, I got the first time I sang in a movement meeting, after I got out of jail... and I'd never heard it before in my life.

When I started graduate school I was interested in the culture of the Civil Rights Movement.

It makes sense that whatever the topic is, it's more compelling if you can provide the audience with a range of perspectives, and you can cross disciplines. And you don't have to control what people take out of it.

So one of the things that happened with integration in the South is they found that the black teachers were much more educated than the white teachers.

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.

I started graduate school in 1971, I started working at the Smithsonian in the festival in 1972. I went full-time at the Smithsonian in 1974. And I got my doctorate in 1975.

If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition.