Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer at Copaken Stage At Kansas City Repertory Theatre

Gospel voices rise at the Copaken Stage, carrying the story of a Mississippi sharecropper who refused to stay silent. Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer, Cheryl L. West's play with gospel music, traces Fannie Lou Hamer's transformation from the cotton fields into one of the most formidable forces of the civil-rights movement. Director Morgana Wilborn brings this Kansas City Repertory Theatre production to life through music that channels conviction as powerfully as any speech.

Hamer's journey is one of raw defiance against entrenched power. Growing up in a sharecropping family that knew poverty and exploitation firsthand, she didn't wait for permission to fight for voting rights. She co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and stood before the 1964 Democratic National Convention, demanding a seat at the table the establishment wanted to deny her. This wasn't polite protest—it was a woman staking her claim to citizenship with nothing but her voice and her refusal to back down.

The gospel music woven through West's play lets faith and determination carry the weight that history books flatten into footnotes. Hamer sang freedom songs on the front lines, and here those melodies become the engine of her story—spiritual strength made audible.

Secure your tickets to experience how one woman's courage echoed far beyond Mississippi and still reverberates today.