FANNIE
The Music and Life Of Fannie Lou Hamer
Happy Thursday Golden Divas and Divos!
I have a theater treat for you. If you’re not familiar with the name Fannie Lou Hamer, think of Stacy Abrams in today’s world of politics. Goodman Theatre brings to the stage FANNIE: The music and life of Fannie Lou Hamer starring Chicago’s legend E. Faye Butler.
Let me tell you, this is ‘MUST-SEE!’
Here are your heads up, you don’t want to miss out on this one-woman show. E. Faye Butler is phenomenal.
It is 70 minutes in your face, pure truth!!
See it for yourself!!
Get your tickets now!!
If you need some persuasion, check out our review (Let’s Play) below!
FANNIE: The Music and Life Of Fannie Lou Hamer
She was born into poverty. One of 20 children of Lou Ella and James Townsend who lived in the Mississippi Delta, considered most deprived regions in the U.S. A life filled with words of hatred and racism. She picked cotton at age six, left school at twelve, married at 27, and worked on a plantation. Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the Blues and home to Academy Awards winner Morgan Freeman, stated, “The Delta has always been magic.” However, only a few would call poverty a magic place to live. In contrast, others see the magic of naive innocence slowly fading away to a life filled with permanent delusional insanity.
Her life seemed darkened, limited, and her chances of living equal to whites seemed futile. Still, throughout all of these obstacles, she became a powerful voice of the civil and voting rights movements; this is the story of Fannie Lou Hamer.
- Fannie is 70 minutes of Truth Serum
Goodman Theater brings to the stage Fannie, The Music, and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. Played by one of Chicago’s great, E. Faye Butler, Fannie tells the life and journey of Fannie Lou Hammer from being fired from the plantation to receiving the promised land of parity.
Initially scheduled for the 2020/2021 season, Covid derailed its opening; however, Goodman brought the play to parks across Chicagoland. From Abbott Park to Homan Square Park, audiences received a free treat of theater to ease the pain of living indoors. From this small gesture, the popularity of Fannie grew and went to the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. Director Henry Godinez, who provides a video journey, called Fannie “The Small Play that could,” pulling symbolically from the 1930 Platt and Munk Children story of The Little Engine That Could.
The role of this civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, it’s for everyone. Her life was tragic, traumatic, and triumphant, and few can pull out the emotions needed to generate an avid portrait of her life for a few minutes. However, having the right person helps differentiate between a somewhat okay, good performance versus excellent performance, and Goodman hits a home run with E. Faye Bulter. She had the audience laughing, clapping, and crying for 70 minutes, with most wanting to see more. Reviving the life events of Hamer, Butler historically transformed us back into the ’60s and transfixed the audience with each word spoken. As we witnessed each striking blow from the policeman’s baton, which almost beat Hamer unto death, Bulter vividly reached the audience’s soul.
E. Faye Bulter was a powerful force as Fannie Lou Hamer. Walking us back to the days of Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old African American lynched after being accused of offending a white woman. Singing songs like Mississippi John Hurt’s, I Shall Not Be More, as a picture of Rosa Parks sitting in the white section of the bus. We then see another historical tragedy of America not shared in history books of Medgar Evers, shot in the back. At the same time, his wife and children witnessed this tragic event as he returned home from an NAACP meeting and the bombing of Blacks Churches, where a fallen piece of churches everywhere could feel.
Throughout all of her struggles, including death threats and being barred in her attempted candidacy for the Mississippi House of Representatives, Fannie Lou Hamer successfully organized the Freedom Summer project. A project brought Blacks and Whites together to help with African American voter registration in the segregated South. In addition, she helped and found the National Women’s Political Caucus and began a “pig bank” to provide free pigs for Black farmers to breed, raise, and slaughter. Hamer died of breast cancer at age 59.
This play is powerful and painful but pivotal for today. Unfortunately, we still encounter these injustices and tragedies as we see the division of race and government. Most would prefer to dismiss the past, few choose to acknowledge it, but we all need to learn from it to survive. That’s the message of Fannie, and it’s one of those plays that Goodman needs to bring back annually, like A Christmas Carol.
With many states today trying to remove and hinder voting rights, we need the diversity of more Fannie Lou Hamer to step up and fight for equality. The story, the Little Engine that Could, which taught children the value of optimism, needs to be reread by adults who have forgotten what it means to fight united, not divided.
Let’s Play Highly Recommends Goodman Theatre’s, Fannie, The Music, and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer.
Goodman Theatre
Fannie (The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer)
By Cheryl L. West
Directed by Henry Godinez
October 15- November 21, 2021
Again Golden Divas and Divos this is a MUST-SEE!