This Little Light of Mine: Story of Fannie Lou Hamer

Friday Webinars at Wharton Arts continues with the Santa Fe Opera Project's Story of Fannie Lou Hamer on Friday, October 30 at 7:00 p.m. EST. Learn about the American voting rights activist through an original one-act opera and panel discussion with Diana Solomon-Glover, librettist; Chandler Carter, composer; Beth Greenberg, Director; Jeri Lynne Johnson, Conductor; and Andrea Fineberg, Director of Community Engagement, Santa Fe Opera. Experience an advance viewing of the 30-minute opera during the webinar. Tune in on WhartonArts.tv.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women's constitutional right to vote. The passage marked the largest expansion of democracy in the history of our country. As we near the end of election season, you will not want to miss this webinar's exploration of the civil and voting rights movement.

This Little Light of Mine, a one-act opera, dramatizes the story of Fannie Lou Hamer, a former sharecropper who rose to national prominence at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. In the opera, adopted daughter Dorothy Jean Hamer tells how Fannie Lou and her husband ‘Pap’ took in foster children as their own; how the injustices of the Jim Crow laws emboldened her to demand the right to vote for African-Americans; and how she shook the political world during “Freedom Summer” by helping to found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Describing to the Convention Credentials Committee her harrowing story of harassment, arrest and beating by the police, Fannie Lou Hamer pointedly asked: “Is this America?”

This Little Light of Mine is in development as part of the Opera for All Voices program, fostered by the Santa Fe Opera and its consortium partners. The commission and production of This Little Light of Mine is made possible by a deeply appreciated grant from Principal Community Engagement sponsor the Melville Hankins Family Foundation.

Friday Webinars at Wharton Arts is a series dedicated to making authentic connections between art and life through the sharing of stories, expertise, and creations by guest artists of varied disciplines. The free series is curated and hosted by Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Helen H. Cha-Pyo. Find out more at WhartonArts.org.