Sing and Never Tire

Here’s a sneak peek for you of the performance. Listen to Tramaine Watson on the bass line in Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel!

I’ve shared a number of music clips. Here’s a glimpse at some drama: Ben Zitelli as George Leonard White, explaining to the group the origins and purpose of their new name.

In this video, the cast sings “Steal Away.” We are less than one week away from opening night!

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