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!

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.

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.

If every moment is sacred and if you are amazed and in awe most of the time when you find yourself breathing and not crazy, then you are in a state of constant thankfulness, worship and humility.

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.

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

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