Great Women in Gospel, Black Ensemble Theater. This is an “awake and sing” for gospel enthusiasts, believers and nonbelievers alike: the Black Ensemble cast gives a two-hour tour, written and directed by Jackie Taylor and shaped into extraordinary music by Jimmy Tillman. Celebrating the songs and stories of gospel’s women preachers, composers, singers, publishers, and organizers, the piece is more an invocation of the ancestors than a detailed history. The spirit of love, its endurance and triumph, energizes the tribute’s feminist pride in women’s accomplishments and courage in the face of sexism, a strength told more powerfully in the songs than in the rhymed stories that provide the historical framework for the revue.
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Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/ Roger Lewin–Jennifer Girard Studio.
