Filed under: Uncategorized
In this video, the cast sings “Steal Away.” We are less than one week away from opening night!
Filed under: Uncategorized
I am so excited about Sing and Never Tire, the upcoming play about Ella Sheppard Moore and the Fisk Jubilee Singers! I remember when I first heard the Jubilee Singers as a student at Fisk University. Their voices were amazing, but it was the history behind those voices that truly touched my soul.
The Fisk Jubilee Singers introduced ‘slave songs’ to the world in 1871. They broke racial barriers in the U.S. and abroad, and they entertained Queens and Kings of Europe. At the same time, they raised money to support and save Fisk University. Since then, the Fisk Jubilee Singers have continued to preserve this unique American musical tradition. They have been featured in Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory, a PBS award-winning television documentary series. They have performed at the Apollo Theater in New York and traveled to Ghana at the invitation of the U.S. Embassy. In 2008, the Fisk Jubilee Singers were selected as a recipient of the National Medal of Arts; and, just this year, they were featured on a national broadcast of the CBS evening news and shared a Grammy Award nomination with musical artist Jonny Lang in the Best Gospel Performance category.
As the Fisk Jubilee Singers continue to sing and travel around the world, we can now see their story come alive on stage thanks to the KUUMBA Players, who will be donating a portion of their proceeds from this production to Fisk University. The KUUMBA Players is a community theater group in Washington, DC dedicated to producing theater that addresses issues of social conscience, like the story of our very own Fisk Jubilee Singers.
This is a production you don’t want to miss!
Michelle R. Overstreet
Fisk University
Class of 1995
Washington Fisk Alumni Association
Filed under: History
Ella Sheppard Moore is the heroine of Sing and Never Tire. She is based upon a historical figure of the same name.
“Ella Sheppard, soprano, pianist and reformer, was the matriarch of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a social reformer, confidante of Frederick Douglass, and one of the most distinguished African American women of her generation,” reads a bio of Ella from BlackPast.org.
On the American Experience site the authors note that she was ”Admired for her musical talent, her quiet, confident style of leadership, and her commitment to the singers’ evangelical mission.”
To read a complete bio of Ella Sheppard Moore click here or here.
To see an interview with Alona Sistrunk, who will be playing Ella Sheppard in Sing and Never Tire, click here.
In one of the first moments of Sing and Never Tire, a young Ella Sheppard attempts to soothe her mother by singing their favorite song. In this short clip, Ruby Kules treats us to a brief preview of her upcoming performance as Little Ella Sheppard.
