This week we highlight songwriter, composer, and performer Ysaӱe Maria Barnwell. In 1979 she became a member of the African American a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, performing with the group until 2013.

Barnwell has three songs published in Singing the Journey, the Unitarian Universalist Association supplement to the hymnal Singing the Living Tradition. One of these, “Breaths,” is a favorite at All Souls Unitarian Church and is often included in worship services.

In addition to writing many of Sweet Honey in the Rock’s songs, Barnwell conducts music workshops throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Among these is a workshop she created titled “Building a Vocal Community: Singing in the African American Tradition.” This program uses oral tradition, an African worldview, and African American history, values, cultural practices, and vocal traditions to build communities of song among both singers and non-singers.

In 1977, Barnwell founded the Jubilee Singers, a choir at All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, D.C..

Barnwell was raised in Harlem, New York City, and later in Jamaica, Queens. The daughter of a violinist, she began studying the violin with her father at just two and a half years old and continued for fifteen years.

She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in speech pathology from State University of New York at Geneseo in 1967 and 1968, followed by a PhD in speech pathology from University of Pittsburgh in 1975. In 1981, she earned a Master of Science in Public Health from Howard University.

Barnwell later served as a professor at the Howard University College of Dentistry for more than a decade. She also developed training programs in child protection at Children's National Medical Center and administered community-based health programs at Gallaudet University, all in Washington, DC.