The Civil Rights Movement also reaffirmed me as a singer. It taught me that singing was not entertainment, it was something else.

Coming up in the African-American culture, we were taught that we belonged to the universe and society was wrong in the way it dealt with us. We had to learn to express and affirm values not from the winning position.

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.

I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song. To this day, I don't understand how people think they can bring anybody together without a song.

Mothering/nurturing is a vital force and process establishing relationships throughout the universe.

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

There is nowhere you can go and only be with people who are like you. Give it up.