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

A sharecropper's daughter who refused to stay quiet stands at the center of Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer, and her fight to claim what Mississippi tried to deny her pulses through gospel music and defiant resolve. Cheryl L. West's play traces Fannie Lou Hamer's transformation from the cotton fields to the floor of the 1964 Democratic National Convention, where she challenged the party establishment and forced a reckoning with deeply entrenched power.

Gospel music fuels the production at Kansas City Repertory Theatre's Copaken Stage, carrying conviction beyond historical bullet points. Hamer's faith shaped her resistance, and the songs in this production channel that same unyielding spirit—rooted in a belief that justice was worth the risk of beatings, jailings and worse. The music doesn't simply illustrate her story; it drives the emotional current beneath her determination to secure voting rights and co-found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

Under Morgana Wilborn's direction, Hamer's courage takes center stage without softening the dangers she faced or the odds stacked against her. This isn't sanitized history. It's a portrait of someone who saw what needed changing and refused to wait for permission, risking everything to be heard when silence was safer.

Get tickets for Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer at the Copaken Stage and witness how one woman reshaped the conversation.