An uplifting and inspiring story of resilience during one of the most challenging times in our nation’s history seems a profoundly poetic way to welcome all of you back to live theatre after a year and a half. In contrast to the famous icons of the civil rights movement, Fannie Lou Hamer is not an instantly recognizable figure. Fannie Lou was a simple, uneducated daughter of sharecroppers who, until the age of 44, didn’t even know she had the right to vote. She endured terrible personal sacrifice and horrific abuse during a time of racial injustice that nearly took her life. Still, she never lost her faith in the country she loved, or in the God that she felt made it her mission to fight for every American’s right to vote.
It seems so fitting, then, that the story of this remarkable woman is rekindling the creative fire of this storied institution, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The pairing of Fannie Lou Hamer with William Shakespeare is not as strange as one might think. Much in the same way that Hamlet saw the essential function of theatre as “Holding a mirror up to nature” to show “the very age and body of the time his form and pressure,” Fannie Lou is on stage at the Elizabethan Theatre to show us that 60 years after she first learned she had the right to vote, voter suppression, racial reckoning, and economic disparity are still threatening to tear the fabric of our democracy. Fortified by her faith in God and her love of music, buoyed by her belief in the promise of American democracy, Fannie endured severe hardships and strove to unite folks even as others sought to divide and discriminate.
As an immigrant to this country who was raised to be fiercely patriotic, I was drawn to Fannie Lou’s unwavering love for America, even as she stood bravely against intolerance and injustice. As depicted in Cheryl West’s beautiful play, Fannie’s drive to seek unity and justice and her deeply rooted belief that we are one nation despite our differences, in fact strengthened by our diversity, is an inspiration to me. As we emerge from the darkness of the last year and a half, Fannie’s resilience, faith, and generosity are, to me, the perfect beacon of hope for America today.
—Henry Godinez