Miss Fannie Belle Lebby’s Women of Tears and Laughter: An Evening with Alberta Hunter and Jackie “Moms” Mabley

On Saturday, March 28 at 7:30 PM in Abbott Auditorium, at Southern Illinois University, the Women’s Studies Department presented a special event as part of Women’s History Month 2009. Fanny’s cousin Lavelle Wilkins-Chin drove us over to the Edwardsville Campus in the pouring rain. The two of us laughed, clapped and sang along to yet…

“Harlem Duet” sings: St. Louis Black Rep Company stages Djanet Sears’ award-winning play: power dynamics of interracial love spanning three eras

Ruth-Miriam Garnett and I have great “bumping into each other” luck. I first met Ruth at the St. Louis Poetry Center gala last fall. Subsequently, we’ve magically bumped into each other 1) on the metro platform at the Central West End; 2) at Wole Soyinka’s talk at the Black Rep with her friend Lavelle Wilkins-Chin;…