Episode Details

"Have Match, Will Burn." That's what Jane Sapp's college classmates called her. Her maiden name was Wilburn, and the passion fit.

Singer, songwriter, choir director and teacher, Jane has spent more than fifty years getting people to sing together. She learned why in the Black church of her Augusta, Georgia childhood: when people sing together, a power is created among them.

In this conversation, Jane tells three stories: how Bernice Johnson Reagon insisted she write her first song; how she quit teaching for a semester to learn from the farmers, midwives and blues players of Greene County, Alabama; and what happens to a child's face when they hear their own words sung back. "You can just see them getting taller."

Listen in, and then go sing with somebody. Links to Jane's music and everything we mention are below.

About Jane Sapp

Jane Wilburn Sapp is a performer, songwriter, recording artist and educator whose music draws on the blues, gospel and spiritual traditions of her Georgia childhood. She helped found the Black Belt Folk Roots Festival in Greene County, Alabama, led a youth creative and leadership group in Springfield, Massachusetts, and hosts the podcast Let's Make a Better World. janesapp.org

Notable Mentions

People

• Bernice Johnson Reagon (1942–2024): SNCC Freedom Singer, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, Jane's mentor
• John U. Monro: former Harvard dean who taught at Miles College and proposed the Greene County program
• Professor Garrett: the door-to-door piano teacher who taught Jane her first notes

Groups and organizations

• SNCC Freedom Singers
• Harambee Singers: Bernice Johnson Reagon's Atlanta group
• Sweet Honey in the Rock
• Miles College, Birmingham, Alabama
• The African Ensemble: Jane's student group at Miles College
• California Arts-in-Corrections
• Center for the Study of Art and Community

Places and history

• Augusta, Georgia: where Jane grew up
• Greene County, Alabama and Hadnott v. Amos (1969): the Supreme Court case behind the county's Black elected officials
• Black Belt Folk Roots Festival, Greene County

Songs

• "This May Be the Last Time" (traditional)
• "This Joy I Have" / "The World Didn't Give It to Me" (traditional spiritual)
• "Lord, I Know There's Something Better" (Jane Sapp)
• "We Are an African People" (Jane Sapp), in Let's Make a Better World, Episode 2, at 4:43
• "What Does It Mean to Be Free?" (Jane Sapp)

Listen and learn more

• Let's Make a B