INFEMNITY™ Arts and Culture News

In 1871, Verdi’s groundbreaking opera Aida had its world premiere in Cairo. October 6th of that same year, a group of formerly enslaved African Americans set out on their first fundraising tour to save the Free Fisk Colored School in Nashville, which had been established by the American Missionary Association in the aftermath of the Civil War. Within three years, this group primarily made up of teenagers would find themselves singing in the royal courts of Europe, eventually singing before Queen Victoria who reportedly stated, “These young people sing so beautifully they must be from the Music City of the United States.” This group of singers became internationally known as the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The Fisk Jubilee Singers Queen Victoria commissioned a larger-than-life-sized painting of the group that hangs in Jubilee Hall today. Built from the proceeds from those first concert tours, Jubilee Hall was the first permanent structure built in the United States specifically for the purpo...

Our dear friend chanteuse Kimberly Nichole just recently informed us in one of her Facebook Live chats that the month of October is Black History Month in the U.K. Granted, the U.K. has a large Nigerian population, and slavery there was abolished thirty years before it was abolished here. Kimberly, who is living in London, pointed out that the Brits gave to blacks one of the longest months (with 31 days), and one with pleasant autumn weather. Kimberly Nichole Watching all of the shenanigans  going on in American politics, I'm just waiting for a savior to drop down from the sky and save African Americans. Trump and the Republicans are pushing through this right-wing conservative Supreme Court judge. How are they able to do this? Well, because of the gerrymandering perpetrated by the Republicans, they have manipulated congressional districts so that Democrats (i.e., blacks) will never be in the majority.  How is this legal? How are they able to get away with this? Well, how were...

Congratulations to pianist, composer, songstress, diva, Valerie Simpson (of the dynamic duo "Ashford and Simpson") who has been selected to receive the Fisk Jubilee Singers Alumni Heritage Award in a special event to take place October 6th in the Fisk University Memorial Chapel. Valerie Simpson, along with her late husband Nick Ashford, composed and performed some of America's most recognizable tunes, including "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)," "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "Solid As a Rock," "I'm Every Woman," among others. She will present a full concert as part of this fundraising event. Tickets can be purchased at the "FJSA Present The 2018 Heritage Award" Facebook group.

As you probably know, I am currently going through boxes and papers preparing for the publication of my first book of memoirs. Today I thought I would share with you this New York Times review of the Fisk Jubilee Singers' 1980 Carnegie Hall concert with my father as director and my mother as piano accompanist.