Sweet Honey In The Rock, L to R, beginning with the back row: Christie Dashiell, Carol Maillard, Barbara Smithe, Aisha Kahlil, Rochelle Rice, Nitanju Bolade Casel, Romeir Mendez, Louise Robinson. (Photo by Christopher Robinson)

Fifty and 10.

Celebrating 50 years in the music industry, the eight-member mostly-all-female group (seven of the eight identify as women), Grammy-nominated ensemble Sweet Honey In The Rock honors the joy of creativity and commitment to inclusion with their performance at the Power Up Concert 2024.

“@SHoney73 honors the joy of creativity and commitment to #inclusion with their performance at the @Takeleadwomen #PowerUp Concert 2024. ”

The concert and conference herald Take The Lead’s 10 years of effort to engage, support, train and uplift women and men with the goal of parity in leadership across all sectors.

Listen to Sweet Honey In The Rock here

“We have grown so much since we first started back in 1973. We were doing socially conscious culturally singer-songwriter material when we began,” says founding member of the group and one of the original members, Carol Maillard.

The group—that has recorded 24 albums, several specifically for children—members are Nitanju Bolade Casel, Aisha Kahlil, Louise Robinson, Barbara Hunt, Romeir Mendez, Rochelle Rice and Christie Dashiell. Maillard has been performing with the ensemble for all of its 50 years of existence.

“Because of the era we were in, of course we were totally about inclusion. We didn’t have the specifics then because we were really focused on African-American culture and community,” says Maillard, who is performing with the group August 25 at the John F. Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., at Take The Lead’s Power Up Concert. (This performance is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center.)

“The @Takeleadwomen #PowerUp concert and conference herald 10 years of effort to engage, support, train and uplift women and men with the goal of leadership #parity.”

See more about the 2023 Power Up Concert & Conference

Aligned with Take The Lead’s mission to build your career, business, health and joy so you can lead your dreams, Sweet Honey In The Rock performs at the Power Up Concert as does the group BETTY, and award-winning composer and classical music piano performer and singer, Marina Arsenijevic.

“For me to do the best I can is to bring some measure of all rightness to any situation, to any person, or to any area wherever I am,” says Maillard, who has performed with the ensemble in Ethiopia, Peru, Jamaica, Swaziland, Belize, Tasmania, and Australia. “I will say I tried to do my best, to give my best and be my best.“

Maillard may have been destined for a life in music and performance, and along with the group has performed 32 times at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Maillard attended Catholic University of America on a scholarship as a Violin Performance major. She quickly began writing music and performing with the drama department and eventually changed her major to Theater.

““For me to do the best I can is to bring some measure of all rightness to any situation, to any person, or to any area wherever I am.” — Carol Maillard. #Blackwomenlead”

Her passion for the stage brought her to the Washington D.C. Black Repertory Company and the beginnings of the vocal ensemble that was to become Sweet Honey In the Rock.

Watch Sweet Honey in The Rock perform here

Maillard says her influences to be a musician began with her father. Declaring her sources of inspiration, Maillard says first, “My father, just a sound of his voice singing to me or just talking and laughing together. He was a beautiful singer. Not professional, but he had a beautiful singing voice as did my mother.”

Other musical influencers for Maillard include the singers Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Doris Day Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, PRYSOCK, Barbra Streisand, Nancy Wilson, Laura Nyro, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Jennifer Holiday, Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, Phoebe Snow, Tammy Terrell, Mary Wells, along with Hindu chants and prayers, Maillard says.

“As the time moved on and Sweet Honey In the Rock’s audiences started to expand, it was only natural that we took new movements and existing movements into our conversations with our audience through music,” says Maillard, who was Conceptual and Creative Producer for the 2005 documentary film, “Sweet Honey In The Rock: Raise Your Voice.”

“They have all helped me to hear my own voice,” says Maillard.

The power of voice is demonstrated in the 9 Leadership Power Tools developed by Take The Lead co-founder and president, Gloria Feldt. Power Tool # 3, “Use What You’ve Got,” is about taking your talents and skill to achieve your intentions.

“The power of voice is demonstrated in the 9 Leadership #PowerTools developed by @Takeleadwomen co-founder and president, @GloriaFeldt. #powerTO”

“What you need is almost always there, if you can only see it and have the courage to use it,” Feldt writes. “Remember, power unused is power useless.”

So if it is musical talent, creativity and performance excellence, use it all to further your goals and create change.

Maillard uses her talents and passion for music and performance in feature films. She has been in the films, “Beloved” and “Thirty Years to Life.” On television, she has appeared in “Hallelujah!”, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide” for PBS; plus TV shows, “Law and Order,” and “Law and Order SVU.”

A main driver for Maillard and the whole group is fairness and inclusion, particularly with the differently abled population.

The members of Sweet Honey In The Rock have included a sign language interpreter for more than four decades, who is on stage with the group during performances, signing the songs.

“A main driver for Maillard and all of @SHoney73 is #fairness and #inclusion, particularly with the differently abled population. ”

“Our first sign language interpreter came about in 1979 after Sweet Honey spent time in the Bay Area women’s events. They were totally inclusive. Childcare, good clean, healthy food, and accessibility for all differently abled people,” Maillard says.

That commitment to accommodation and access began when the group’s co-founder, “Bernice Johnson Reagon, met Dr. Ysaye Maria Barnwell who was signing and singing at a church service,” says Maillard, who is also an accomplished actress who has performed in film, television, cabaret and on stage.

“Dr. Barnwell was our first ASL interpreter,” Maillard explains. “She had the rhythm of the culture in her signing technique, plus the movement, the energy and the vibe for our music,“ Maillard says.

Initially invited to sing and sign with the group, “Barnell decided that singing was what she wanted to do and introduced the group to Sherly Childress Johnson. She signed with Sweet Honey In the Rock as a member of the ensemble from 1980 until her passing in 2016,” says Maillard, who as an actor has worked on and off-Broadway in major productions as well as with performances with the Negro Ensemble Company, the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Actors Studio, plus many regional theatre productions.

“The members of @SHoney73 have included a sign language interpreter for more than four decades. #inclusion #accessibility”

Johnson “was referred to as the mother of sign,” Maillard says. “She truly revolutionized the field.” The group is now working with ASL performer and signer, Barbara Morris Hunt.

The ensemble lists its mission as this: “The ensemble educates, entertains and empowers its audience and community through the dynamic vehicles of a cappella singing and American Sign Language interpretation for the Deaf and hard of hearing. Sweet Honey’s audience and community comes from diverse backgrounds and cultures throughout the United States and around the world, and includes people of all ages, economic/education/social backgrounds, political persuasions, religious affiliations, sexual preferences and differing abilities.”

Performing with Sweet Honey across the country, and on Women’s Equality Day August 25 for Take The Lead’s Power Up Concert 24, Maillard lives in New York City. Her son, Jordan Maillard Ware, is an accomplished violinist/composer/producer living in Los Angeles.

“For me being a part of humanity is such a wonder and a magical adventure. I’m not being trite when I say this. Being alive in this realm in this physical realm is really mind blowing on a daily basis,” Maillard says.

““For me being a part of humanity is such a wonder and a magical adventure.” — Carol Maillard. ”

This specific intentioning is also a key component of Take The Lead’s training and coaching, and well developed by Feldt.

“There is so much going on in the world at all times,” Maillard says. “There is some mess going on. Good mess crazy mess, but there is always something going on.”

Her observation is also informing of one of Feldt’s Power Tools for Leadership. “Carpe the chaos,” is one of Feldt’s clarion calls.

“I honor myself as a spirit, living in human form on this earth to honor my ancestors and to honor my spiritual path to honor the gifts I’ve been given so that I might give them freely openly powerfully and always with love.”

Register here for the Power Up Concert & Conference in-person and virtually.

Leadership Takeaway of the Week:

“I will say I tried to do my best to give my best and be my best. “

Carol Maillard, founding member of Sweet Honey In The Rock, award-winning performer on stage and screen

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About the Author

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com