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Outside
the Lines:
Toshi
Reagon (page
2)
by Linda
Villarosa,
July 27, 2006
A
monthly column exploring entertainment on the East Coast
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1 / 2 - Home
Now
42, Reagon grew up in the business. Her mother, Bernice
Johnson Reagon, is the founder of the world-renowned a capella group
Sweet Honey in the Rock. Retired from Sweet Honey two years ago
after 30 years, Johnson Reagon now often performs with her daughter.
At
the concert in Brooklyn, the elder Reagon was both regal and relaxed,
sitting next to Toshi, a floor-length scarf draped around her shoulders
like a rainbow. Singing “I Be Your Water”, which Johnson Reagon
wrote, the two raise their left hands above their heads in unison.
They look like two old souls enjoying each other's company, knees
touching, on a screened porch.
“My
mom and I have worked together for 20 years,” says Reagon. “We're
major collaborators, but it's more than that. We understand each
other. When she says something or I say something we always see
the positive in each other.”
Reagon
grew up in Washington, D.C., but moved to New York in the early
90s to find her way.
After a semester at Fordham University, she dropped out to open
for Lenny Kravitz on his first world tour.
“Lenny
is very intuitive,” recalls Reagon, who released her first album,
Justice, in 1990. “He never saw me perform. He just said
‘you want to open for me?' The first time he heard me play was to
open his show. That never happens anymore.”
Next,
Reagon will perform at Michigan on August 11. Her first
time “on the land” was in 1980, when at 16, she tagged along with
her mother and Sweet Honey. “I've enjoyed seeing the evolution of
this community of women,” says Reagon. “It's always good to be in
a lesbian setting. I like the whirlwind of energy and politics and
the intense relationships that form between people. It's rugged
but with a sweetness.”
In
honor of their 10th year, Reagon and her band will perform several
fall concerts in spots around the country. Then she'll go into the
studio to work on her ninth and tenth albums, a live recording and
a compilation of sacred music. “Sacred music is any music I find
sacred,” says Reagon. “It's music that touches my spirit and my
soul. It could be traditional African-American spirituals, contemporary
gospel, Bob Marley, my mother's music or songs I've written.”
Reagon
will write the music for her eleventh album, which she also hopes
to release next year. She says her songwriting process is the same
as it was when she wrote her first song, a love song, at 12 years
old. “First, I tell myself that I don't have to do anything,”
she says. “Then I open up a window inside myself and see what comes.”
Get
more info at ToshiReagon.com
Thank
you to everyone who wrote in response to my last column on black
lesbian books. I really appreciate the warm welcome to afterellen.
Several of you mentioned the website sistahsontheshelf.com,
which is dedicated to black lesbian literature. If you haven't visited
this wonderful, thoughtful, thorough site, check it out.
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