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A film by Stanley Nelson. With singular creativity and emotional depth, this Grammy Award-winning ensemble of six African-American women has been performing for the past 30 years - raising their powerful voices against injustice. Faithful to a rich cultural history, spanning slavery, the foundations of the black church and the civil rights movement, they impart the essence of the African musical legacy in America. Their founder, the remarkable Bernice Johnson Reagon, sang as a child in her father's rural Baptist church, studied Italian aria and German lieder in college, and was an original member of the SNCC Freedom Singers in the 1960s. Creating a unique musical form, steeped in storytelling, full of humor and dramatically expressed in American Sign Language, Sweet Honey in the Rock performs a cappella, celebrating and integrating spirituals, hymns and gospel, blues, jazz, even rap, and traditional West African songs, sometimes accompanied by hand-held percussion instruments. Ultimately, this film is a story about heritage, values, commitment and passion - and music of indomitable optimism, full of hope and healing.
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