Fannie Lou Hamer
Sharecropper, Civil Rights Activist: 1917 – 1977
“Sometimes it seem like to tell the truth today is to run the risk of being killed.
But if I fall, I’ll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom.
I’m not backing off.”

ArtRage is proud to host, I’m Sick and Tired, of Being Sick and Tired ~  a One Woman Show created & performed by Vanessa Johnson as a tribute to Fannie Lou Hamer. The show is based on testimonies and interviews of Ms. Hamer, primary documents from various U.S. archives, and the voices of other Civil Rights Activists who knew her. It includes spoken word, songs, audience participation and monologues.

Ms. Hamer was the youngest of 20 children and was 6 years old when she started working cotton fields in Mississippi. She began working with Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1962 and was a founding member and Vice President of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and was called the “spirit of the Civil Rights Movement.”

Ms. Vanessa Johnson is a Griot, a writer, a playwright, an actor, a fiber artist, a museum consultant, a community activist, a historian, and an educator. She will be accompanied during this performance by Bernie Willford.

Free to the Public