Politics & Power Quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon

A resume line masquerading as a memory, this sentence quietly asserts authority in spaces that have historically treated Black culture as “material” rather than knowledge. Bernice Johnson Reagon doesn’t romanticize the work or posture as a savior; she locates her entry point at the Smithsonian, then immediately pivots away from the institution and toward communities in Southwest Louisiana and Arkansas. The power move is subtle: the prestige sits in the background while the real center of gravity is the field, the people, the living culture.

As a musician, Reagon is also signaling method. “Field researcher” isn’t just a job title here; it’s a practice of listening. In the folklore-and-festival ecosystem, there’s always a risk that songs get flattened into “heritage” for consumption. By naming African American communities explicitly, she marks the work as accountable to a specific history of extraction, miscrediting, and archival theft. The word “among” matters: it suggests proximity, participation, and respect, not parachuting in to collect.

The tag “for the festival” hints at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s tightrope: translating local, often sacred or intimate traditions into a national spectacle on the Mall. Reagon’s subtext is that she belongs in both worlds - community and institution - and she’s prepared to mediate the terms. It’s less a nostalgia flashback than a credentialed claim: I was there, I did the listening, and I know exactly what gets lost when America turns Black life into programming.