CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Sweet Honey In The Rock

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 2:00 PM

Sweet Honey In The Rock

Sweet Honey In The Rock
Sweet Honey In The Rock® was founded by Bernice Johnson Reagon at the DC Black Repertory Theater Company in 1973. The internationally renowned a cappella group has since been a vital and innovative presence in the culture of Washington, DC, and in communities of conscience around the world. Its repertoire is steeped in the sacred music of the black church, the clarion calls of the civil rights movement, and songs of the struggle for justice everywhere.

Rooted in a deeply held commitment to create music out of the rich textures of the African American legacy and traditions, Sweet Honey In The Rock possesses a stunning vocal prowess that embraces the complex sounds of blues, spirituals, traditional gospel hymns, rap, reggae, African chants, hip hop, ancient lullabies, and jazz improvisation. Its collective voice, occasionally accompanied by hand percussion instruments, produces a sound filled with soulful harmonies and intricate rhythms.

In the best and in the hardest of times, Sweet Honey In The Rock has sung for communities across the US and around the world, raising its voice in support of hope, love, justice, peace, and resistance. The group invites its audiences to open their minds and hearts, and to think about who we are and how we treat each other, our fellow creatures, and our planet.

After Sweet Honey’s latest release Experience …101 was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award, the group was asked to compose new material in celebration of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 50th anniversary. These two artistic treasures of the African American experience are currently performing together throughout the US.

Sweet Honey In The Rock comprises members Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Aisha Kahlil, Carol Maillard, Louise Robinson, and Shirley Childress Saxton.


Ysaye M. Barnwell was born in New York City and has lived in Washington, DC, for over 40 years. She studied the violin for 15 years with her father beginning at age two, and later majored in music in high school; she also sang in a choir during junior high school and college. In 1976, she founded the Jubilee Singers at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, DC. Three years later, Bernice Johnson Reagon witnessed her as a singer and a sign language interpreter, and subsequently invited her to audition for Sweet Honey In The Rock.

Ms. Barnwell is a speech pathologist with undergraduate and graduate degrees from SUNY Geneseo, and a PhD from the University of Pittsburg. A professor at the College of Dentistry for over a decade, she completed post-doctoral work in 1981 and also earned a Master of Science in public health.

Over the past two decades, Ms. Barnwell has earned a significant reputation as a commissioned composer and arranger, author, master teacher, and choral clinician in African American cultural performance. She has written two children’s books No Mirrors In My Nana’s House and We Are One, both published by Harcourt, Inc.; a boxed set of African American stories and songs for young people titled Um Hmm; and an instructional boxed set Singing in the African American Tradition.

Ms. Barnwell also created the Community Sing, conducting it monthly in Washington, DC, and the workshop Building a Vocal Community®: Singing In the African American Tradition. She has conducted the latter on three continents, utilizing an African world view along with African American history, values, cultural, and vocal traditions to work with and build community among singers and non-singers alike. Her pedagogy is highly respected among musicians, educators, health workers, activists, organizers, and in corporate and non-profit sectors. Ms. Barnwell is also an aspiring actress whose recent accomplishments include the narration of the NPR documentary W.C. Handy’s Blues.


Nitanju Bolade Casel became a member of Sweet Honey In The Rock in 1985, four years after studying, performing, and cultural organizing in Dakar, Senegal. A cofounder (along with Marie Guinier) of Artistes Des Echanges Africaines, she worked in alliance with local artists, the National Council of Negro Women, the National Theatre Daniel Sorano, the University of Dakar, Air Afrique, Television and Radio Orts, the Schomberg Center for Research and Development, and the late Dr. Ewart Guinier of Harvard University. Ms. Casel is also the former assistant director of the Art of Black Dance & Music, and director of Young Afrique Dance Company, both in Massachusetts.

Ms. Casel currently works with her sister Aisha Kahlil as co-director of First World Productions, and heads her own publishing company Clear Ice Music. Her compositions can be heard in the 2006 Australian Broadcasting Company’s 2006 educational series Sing!; Mystic Seaport’s multi-media history presentation Black Hands, Blue Seas: The African American Maritime Experience; and Tribeca Production company’s The Box. Ms. Casel was a finalist in both the 2006 and 2007 International Songwriter’s Competition, and a Grammy nominee for Sweet Honey’s Experience…101, which she produced.

Ms. Casel lives on the East Coast with her husband Oso Tayari and their teenage son, Obadele.


Vocalist, dancer, actor, composer, and teacher Aisha Kahlil possesses a dynamic power and range in jazz, blues, traditional, contemporary, and African vocal styles and techniques.

A native of Buffalo, New York, Ms. Kahlil studied theater at Northeastern University and later experimented with innovative, improvisational vocal techniques. Ms. Kahlil subsequently moved to the San Francisco Bay area, working as a dancer and instructor with The Raymond Sawyer Theatre and Halifu Productions, and performing and recording with the avant-garde jazz trio Infinite Sound.

Moving to New York City, Ms. Kahlil began studying at the Alvin Ailey School, and with Frank Hatchett, Pepsi Bethel, Fred Benjamin, and Emiko and Yasuko Tokunaga. She appeared in the Joseph Papp off-Broadway production of The Haggaddah; co-composed and performed in the musical, Two Thousand Seasons; and performed with jazz musicians Talib Kibwe, Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), and Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra.

Since coming to Washington, DC, Ms. Kahlil has worked with the D.C. Black Repertory Theatre and The Sounds of Awareness, and has been featured in the Smithsonian Institution’s “Jazz in the Palm Court,” in which she presented a special performance of the music of Gertrude “Ma” Rainey.

As a member of Sweet Honey In Rhe Rock, Ms. Kahlil was voted Best Soloist by the Contemporary A Cappella Society for her composition Fulani Chant and her rendition of See Se on the recording In This Land. She recently toured with her band in Hawaii, performing songs from her upcoming solo recording project. Its release marks her debut as a producer and features her own compositions and arrangements.


Carol Maillard was born and raised in Philadelphia and attended The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where she studied violin and theater. Her passion for the stage later brought her to the D.C. Black Repertory Company.

Ms. Maillard is an accomplished actress and has performed in film, television, and on stage. Her theater credits encompass styles ranging from musical comedy and revues to drama and experimental. She has performed on and off Broadway with the Negro Ensemble Company, the New York Shakespeare Festival, and at the Actors Studio. She can be seen in the feature films Beloved and Thirty Years to Life. On television, Ms. Maillard has appeared on PBS’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide and Halleluiah! on PBS, and on NBC’s Law and Order and Law and Order.

Ms. Maillard was the conceptual and creative producer for the documentary film Sweet Honey In The Rock: Raise Your Voice! on the PBS series American Masters. Produced and directed by Stanley Nelson, the film chronicled Sweet Honey’s 30th anniversary year and was accompanied by a soundtrack she produced.

Ms. Maillard lives in Manhattan and is the mother of Jordan Maillard Ware, who is currently attending Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.


Louise Robinson, a native New Yorker, studied concert bass for six years and attended the High School of Music & Art.

A graduate of Howard University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, she began her professional career at Washington, DC's Arena Stage. Ms. Robinson later accepted an invitation by Robert Hooks to join the new D.C. Black Repertory Company Acting Ensemble. Through this company, she (along with Carol Maillard, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and Mie) formed Sweet Honey In The Rock.

Ms. Robinson’s multifarious career has included performances both on and off Broadway, and in film and studio recording. With Maillard and Smokey Ronald Stevens, she produced A Sho Nuff Variety Revue, a series of performances showcasing some of New York’s finest talent, including Adolph Casear, Sandra Reeves Phillips, and legendary tap dancers Gregory Hines, Avon Long, and Joe Attles.

Founding director of the Bay Area a cappella quintet Street Sounds, Ms. Robinson toured the US and abroad for 14 years. She returned to Sweet Honey in 2004 and currently teaches workshops in music and theater.


Shirley Childress Saxton is a skilled professional sign language interpreter, having learned American Sign Language from her deaf parents. In their honor, she founded the Herbert and Thomasina Childress Scholarship Fund to assist children with deaf adults and who seek careers in sign language interpreting. As an interpreter, Ms. Saxton has worked in education, employment, religion, and the performing arts.

Ms. Saxton holds a Bachelor’s degree in Deaf Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and has studied Adult Education at the University of the District of Columbia. An avid reader, she loves photography and has written several articles about her work as an interpreter and her experiences with deaf parents.