From Wade in the Water
to Love Supreme
A History of African American Sacred Music
offered by NPR and the Smithsonian
Original artwork created for the series by Al Smith.
An Introduction
"In 1994, when Wade in the Water first aired on NPR member stations, the world was different. Many of the voices featured in the series were alive, and were generous with their support. Today, some of those voices have been stilled. But this series, documenting African American sacred music traditions spanning more than 200 years, remains vital because of them.
Wade was an experiment in recording music and musical events, amassing scholarship and conducting interviews in order to make all of those elements accessible to a wider audience. As a first-time partnership between NPR and the Smithsonian Institution, it featured a wide range of styles and subcultures and documented the cultural impact of music on real lives and diverse communities.
Over a five-year production period, Wade was guided by the steady hand, artistic integrity and groundbreaking scholarship of Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon — historian, musician, MacArthur "genius" and the series' creator and narrator. And Wade's production team members brought our personal and professional best to the series, trekking throughout the country to gather relevant material."
- NPR, June 20, 2019
Wade was an experiment in recording music and musical events, amassing scholarship and conducting interviews in order to make all of those elements accessible to a wider audience. As a first-time partnership between NPR and the Smithsonian Institution, it featured a wide range of styles and subcultures and documented the cultural impact of music on real lives and diverse communities.
Over a five-year production period, Wade was guided by the steady hand, artistic integrity and groundbreaking scholarship of Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon — historian, musician, MacArthur "genius" and the series' creator and narrator. And Wade's production team members brought our personal and professional best to the series, trekking throughout the country to gather relevant material."
- A fundamental understanding of the depth and breadth of African American sacred music, history and culture
- A recognition of and platform for people long silent and stories untold
- An appreciation for racial and cultural differences to combat hatred and intolerance
- NPR, June 20, 2019
Your country? How came it yours? Before the Pilgrims landed we were here. Here we brought our three gifts and mingled them with yours: a gift of story and of song–soft, stirring melody in an ill-harmonized and unmelodious land; the gift of sweat and brawn to beat back the wilderness, conquer the soil, and lay the foundations of this vast economic empire two hundred years before your weak hands could have done it; the third a gift of the Spirit….Are not these gifts worth the giving? Is not this work and striving? Would America have been America without her Negro people?”
-- WEB Du Bois, The Soul of Black Folks, Chapter Four the Sorrow Songs
-- WEB Du Bois, The Soul of Black Folks, Chapter Four the Sorrow Songs