Singer/Musician Lea

The 2012 Black History Month tour of “In Her Words” ended on a high note, after debuting at the MLK branch of the DC Public Library system and a performance at the United States Peace Corps Headquarters located in Washington DC.

The branch manager of the Capitol View library, Mr. Paul Mills, reported that,

As manager of the Capitol View Neighborhood Library, I write to thank you and your production company, Liberated Muse Arts, for the presentation of “In Her Words” …  On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = poor; 2 = average; 3 = satisfactory; 4 = excellent; 5 = outstanding), 94% rated the presentation a “5″ …The statements of customers clearly revealed their appreciation of the production.  In one word, they frequently described the performance as “great,” ”exceptional,” “inspirational,” “excellent,” and ”beautiful.”    Several attendees connected the  informative content with the significance of the women and their times, pointing out that your format presented a remarkable “history lesson.” 

Colie Williams (left) as Lucille Clifton dialogues with college student "Cass", played by Naomi Rose

Thank you to all of those who attended our 2012 Black History Month tour of “In Her Words”. For more information on booking this performance for your organization, visit here. Visit our gallery for pictures and videos from each show.

Quineice as Billie Holiday in "In Her Words"

Today, join us for the final February performance of “In Her Words” at Capitol View Library in Washington DC. The show will be opened by award-winning performer LEA who will sing some classic and original songs to delight the audience.

LEA

The Capitol View Library is located at 5001 Central Ave., SE, Washington, DC 20019. There is street parking and Benning Rd. Metro is the closest subway. This presentation is FREE and begins at 1pm.

The cast, including actresses Quineice, Anisha Newbill, Tracy Chiles McGhee, Nia Simmons and Colie Williams reprised their roles as Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Zora Neale Hurston, Lena Horne and Lucille Clifton respectively, while writer/director Khadijah Ali-Coleman stood in as the character “Cass”, filling in for actress Naomi Rose. Rose will reprise her role as Cass on Sat. Feb. 18 at the final show of “In Her Words” at Capitol View Library.

(In photo: Nia Simmons as Lena Horne performs “Now” with Khadijah Ali-Coleman as “Cass” and Colie Williams as Lucille Clifton in background.

View more photos HERE

Here is some of the great feedback we saw on Twitter about the show:

@ninasophia81: The music being performed here- *chills* #InHerWords #MLKLibrary

@TwO_tU: JUST GOT FINISH AT THE BLACK HISTORY MONTH PLAY AT MLK… I LOVED IT¡ #INHERWORDS

@thepbg: MOTHER ZORA JUST SHOWED UP! Im getting my whole life! #InHerWords

@thepbg: This young lady portraying Nina Simone is exquisite. #InHerWords

If you saw the show today and would like to share your feedback, we’d love to hear it. Post your comment below.

Click here to view photos from the Feb. 4 show.

If you are interested in learning more about African-American women in entertainment and literature, please consult the DC Public Library Catalog.

Saturday, February 4, 1 p.m., Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
Saturday, February 18, 1 p.m., Capitol View Library

For more information, please email LiberatedMuseProductions@gmail.com.

Saturday, February 4th 1 p.m., Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
Saturday, February 18  1 p.m., Capital View Library

RSVP On Facebook

For more information call 202-727-1261.

“I was floored,” Ali-Coleman says. “Lena Horne, talking about race, ‘the man’ and her father, a number’s runner was so counter this image we’ve always been shown of this beautiful and poised woman. Here I was listening to Lena Horne being political, being conscious. It literally made me perk up.”

Ali-Coleman, who studied African-American Studies and Mass Media in undergrad in college, hungrily went home to research more about Lena Horne and her role in the civil rights movement and was transfixed by learning that Lena Horne was not only the first Black woman to sign to a major movie studio, demanding to never be commissioned to play a maid, but was someone blacklisted during McCarthyism because of her outspoken beliefs and association with the late great Paul Robeson. In her interview with Gene DeAlessi, she said:

LENA HORNE: Paul taught me about being proud because I was Negro. I had always had this pride, this fierce, sterile, almost, kind of pride, because my grandmother had said, “You must be proud.” But she never told me all the horror of her background. One didn’t talk about it, you see. And then she died. And I was getting more and more in that middle-class trap with Negroes who might have a job, who didn’t speak about it also. I worked even at the time I was sixteen and with Sissle, with organizations, but he never told me the reasons why I had a right to some of that pride, you see.

But Paul is the first one who came to me and said, “Your grandmother was a fiery little woman who chased me off the street corners of Harlem.” And she was this, and she was that. I said, “Really? Nobody ever told me that.” He said, “Why, she was a wonderful Negro woman, because she wanted to help her people, and she felt she had a right to it. And she made this expression, noblesse oblige, mean being proud of her people.” And I said, “But nobody ever said it.”

And he sat down for hours, and he told me about Negro people and what — you know, I’ve read it in some books and never learned it in school; they don’t teach it in history books. I couldn’t know anything unless I really had moved up by then from the South and had been with Negro people who were terrified, you know, and couldn’t do anything about it. And he didn’t talk to me as a symbol of a pretty Negro chick singing in a club. He talked to me about my heritage. And that’s why I was always loved him. And I didn’t even know — he didn’t even speak to me as a leader, quote “Negro leader.”

And so, I grew to think then about all the — all the areas of it. And Josh taught me about singing about it. And I couldn’t sing, you know. And I was fighting that kind of inverse chauvinism from white people who said, “Ah, she can’t sing the blues,” you know. And so I felt embarrassed. But, by 1966, I find more and more myself calling upon the things that Paul said to me, because it’s as of now, except he is not our leader. We eat up our leaders, you know. We — history eats our leaders up. We eat them up. We drain them. And we throw them out because everything moves so fast. But I don’t think I could have felt the kind of pain I did and the kind of sense of recognition, when I saw Alabama and hoses and dogs and children, if I hadn’t had Paul in my life.

Ali-Coleman went on to research the interviews and footage of other great entertainers/writers who inspired her– Nina Simone, Zora Neale Hurston, Billie Holiday, and Lucille Clifton– and decided to do something to honor these women and to highlight, not just their art, but their voices as politically and socially conscious citizens as Black women artists. Living in politically dangerous times when lynching was commonplace, discrimination rampant and Jim Crow still the law of the land, all of these women challenged the status quo in some way, leaving their art as their triumph.

Read more about the piece here.

Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman is an educator, writer, and arts communications professional with significant work in theater arts, music, and youth development. She is also founder of Liberated Muse Arts Group, a production house for cultural arts events. Through Liberated Muse, she has produced her play “Running: AMOK” and numerous events, including The Capital Hip Hop Soul Fest, published an anthology series and produced numerous benefit concerts. She currently balances time between producing events, creating art and work as a creativity coach and educator, helping others grow artistically and holistically  as communicators into today’s high-tech and often convoluted world. Currently, she serves as an adjunct faculty member at Northern Virginia Community College in the department of Communication Studies and Theater. Learn more about her here.