ATLANTA, GA — Award-winning singer, actress, and playwright, Mzuri Moyo Aimbaye kicks off the 2022 tour of her one-woman stage play about voting rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, with a live performance Feb 17, 2022 at University of Maryland Eastern Shores in Princess Ann, Maryland. ‘The Fannie Lou Hamer Story: Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired” celebrates the unsung hero whose brave struggle for human dignity and freedom became a catalyst for the passage of the Voter’s Rights Act of 1965, and also promotes voting in the 2022 midterm elections as part of their Voice of the Empowered (V.O.T.E.) 2022 edutainment tour.
“I am excited to kick off our 2022 tour during Black History month because Fannie Lou Hamer made huge sacrifices to defend American democracy. That’s the reason we must fight to keep our history included in school curriculums,” said Aimbaye. “She was a warrior in the fight for voting and civil rights. Given the surge in voting restrictions across the country as well as the attempts to limit access to Black History, it’s critically important to learn about the sacrifice and success of Fannie Lou Hamer, the daughter of a sharecropper.”
The audience is in for a treat as Aimbaye couples her exceptional storytelling abilities with her mellifluous voice and commanding stage presence to take the audience on an incredible journey as Fannie Lou Hamer returns from heaven on a mission to invoke a sense of purpose and responsibility. Through intimate conversation and twelve emotionally moving songs Aimbaye gives a witty and personal account of Fannie Lou Hamer growing up as the youngest of 20 siblings in the 1920s on a Mississippi sharecropping plantation and the struggles she encountered fighting for the right to vote.
“Black History is American History and we have a duty to make sure our children and grandchildren know our struggle,” adds Djehuty Se Hotep, producer of “The Fannie Lou Hamer Story.” He adds, “Mzuri created this play after being moved by footage of Hamer’s truthful account of voter registration suppression and brutal jail-house beatings. Mzuri knew that she needed to find a way to give an oral rendition of Hamer’s testimony that would create the same emotion, authority, and call to action to vote that Hamer did.”
For times and tickets go to https://www.thefannielouhamerstory.com/
Awarded “Best Actress,” “Best Producer,” and “Best Play” at the 2015 Atlanta Black Theater Festival, “The Fannie Lou Hamer Story” is part of a national voter empowerment initiative coupling the musical extravaganza with panel discussions and town hall meetings for an innovative “edutainment experience” aimed at registering, educating and mobilizing voters. The play is Directed by Byron C. Saunders and produced by Healing Through the Sound of Music, a social impact music and theatre production company. Virtual and in-person tour dates are still available.
For more information visit https://www.thefannielouhamerstory.com/, email mstee@thefannielouhamerstory.com, or call (347) 395-0259.
