Four museums, three performances, 200 miles -- the choir's stamina and energy are awesome! (And much greater than mine.) Today we shared the intensity of the Slavery Museum, the walking-in-great-footsteps across the Edmund Pettus bridge, the power of Rosa Parks and the movement she grew in and mothered at the same time. And the choir kept singing, and the audiences kept getting into their songs.

In Montgomery, as in Birmingham, the audience cannot stay just an audience. When the choir sings "We need you to survive" -- we believe it. You are singing to us. And we need you, too. The whole-souled singing of the choir, their flashing smiles, Phillip's hand to his heart, Josephine's intense energy dancing through her hands ... and then hands lift up out of the audience, fingers point to heaven, prayers get physical, and the spirit breaks free.

Yasmeen, of Sweet Honey in the Rock, writes of growing up singing "with a gospel growl and struttin' at the same time" so that the congregation was "standing and shoutin' every time." She goes on to say:

Singing is always giving and taking and giving and taking. The lyrics supply the focus. They determine how the song is sung each time it's sung and those same lyrics may have a different meaning from one day to the next. Each of us [in Sweet Honey in the Rock] knows our perspective on the topic and that perspective will reveal itself to the audience in five different ways... The listener has at least one of us she or he can relate to, which is powerful for me, and yes, we do talk to the audience while we sing, and yes, the requirement ... is that the audience responds during the singing, not only afterward. I told you--give-and-take.

From Birmingham to Selma to Montgomery, the songs and the singers keep giving and taking.