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DECATUR, Ga.—"My Mind Stayed on Freedom: The Revolutionary Voice of Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer,” a special production in words and music, is one of the creative highlights scheduled for the fourth annual Mario A.J. Bennekin Black History Month Symposium at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College.
The play, which debuts Wednesday, Feb. 21 at the college, uses drama, music and dance to celebrate American voting and women’s rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer through her own spoken words and songs. Hamer was a sharecropper forced by economic circumstances to leave school at age 12. She emerged as a formidable Freedom Fighter in the movement for African American liberation.
Performers include principal actor Eileen Menefee; classical soprano Maria Clark who also is senior lecturer of vocal studies at Spelman College and a voice instructor at Emory University; Marcia Cross, actress and educator; Dr. Monica Lee Weatherly, Georgia Author of the Year, poet and Perimeter College English professor; and Njema Amirah Ali Williams, Ballethnic Dance Company ballerina.
“Hamer is an exemplary (s)hero that has arisen from the American working class.” said Dr. Shawn Williams, the production’s director and Georgia State Perimeter College professor of English and Africana Studies. “The folk songs passed down from her mother and the Freedom songs she sang were a source of empowerment for her fellow workers” he said.
Williams added that “My Mind Stayed on Freedom” also reflects the national Black History Month theme of African Americans and the Arts.
“My Mind Stayed on Freedom” debuts Wednesday, Feb. 21 from 3-5 p.m. at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College Decatur Campus. The performance is part of the 2024 Bennekin Black History Symposium, with the theme, “The Challenges and Triumphs of the Black Working Class in America.” Georgia State’s Decatur Campus is at 3251 Panthersville Road. The performance is free and will be in building SB-1190.