Sweet Honey in the Rock

Sweet Honey in the Rock
Sweet Honey in the Rock live at the Ravinia Festival
Background information
Origin	Washington, D.C.
Genres	Gospel, blues, spoken word
Years active	1973 (1973)–present
Labels	Flying Fish, Rounder Records, Sony Records, Redwood, Music for Little People, Earth Beat!, Rykodisc, Appleseed, Freedomsong Productions (Australia only), SHE ROCKS!
Associated acts	Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Website	Official site
Members	Ysaye Maria Barnwell Nitanju Bolade Casel Aisha Kahlil Louise Robinson Carol Lynn Maillard Shirley Childress Saxton
Past members	See list below

Sweet Honey in the Rock is an all-woman, African-American a cappella ensemble. They are an American Grammy Award–winning (and many times nominated) troupe who express their history as African-American women through song, dance, and sign language. Originally a four-person ensemble, the group have expanded to five-part harmonies, with a sixth member acting as a sign-language interpreter. Although the members have changed over three decades, the group continues to sing and perform worldwide.

Sweet Honey in the Rock was founded in 1973 by Bernice Johnson Reagon, who was teaching a vocal workshop with the Washington, D.C. Black Repertory Company. Reagon retired from the group in 2004. The name of the group was derived from a song, based on Psalm 81:16, which tells of a land so rich that when rocks were cracked open, honey flowed from them. Johnson has said that this first song in which four women blended their voices was so powerful, that there was no question what the name of the group should be. The ensemble's most powerful messages are proclaimed through an enormous catalog of songs addressing the world's woes. They are currently occupied with immigration injustices, congressional greed and lack of compassion for citizens, the environmental imbalance, racial issues and women's issues.

Sweet Honey in the Rock has received several Grammy Award nominations, including one for their children's album, Still the Same Me which received the Silver Award from the National Association of Parenting Publications. They won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album for their version of Lead Belly's "Grey Goose" from the compilation album Folkways: A Vision Shared.

Their vocals appeared in a number of animated counting cartoons on the long-running PBS series Sesame Street, and the group was the subject of the 2005 documentary Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice.