Personally I discovered that you could go through the academy as a young scholar, come out, and almost immediately have an impact on the academic environment.

Welcome to prekindergarten! You will not die if you discover that there are more lines out there than just your own. In fact, you'll discover that you will have an advantage if you know more of them!

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.

Most people come out of their Ph.D. experience trying to prove themselves, trying to get ahead, trying to get published. You're scared everybody else is going to do your research and get your topic.

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.

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