JUBLLIE DAY AT FISK UNIVERSITY- 140 YEARS AND STILL GOING STRONG!
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Posted By: Sean Nix on September 28, 2006 Nikki Giovanni to Deliver Address at Jubilee Day Celebration Renowned poet, essayist and commentator Nikki Giovanni will be the convocation speaker for Jubilee Day on Friday, October 6th at 10:00 A.M. in Fisk Memorial Chapel. Nikki Giovanni has written more than two dozen books, including volumes of poetry, children’s books, and several collections of essays. She has received 21 honorary doctorates and a host of awards, including Governors’ Awards in the Arts from both Tennessee and Virginia. Giovanni’s three recent volumes of poetry, Love Poems, Blues: For All the Changes and Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea, were winners of the NAACP Image Award, in 1998, 2000 and 2003. During the convocation Giovanni, a Fisk graduate of 1967, will speak on the impact of the University and Fisk’s Jubilee Singers on her writing during her years as a student. Giovanni is one of the school’s leading ambassadors and remembers Fisk for being “an international and interracial University” where she found friendship and began to attract national attention for her poems during her undergraduate years. “We’re delighted to again welcome a distinguished member of our family. We look forward to sharing time and learning from Nikki,” said Fisk President Hazel R. O’Leary. The celebration of Jubilee Day occurs annually at Fisk on October 6th. On that day, the University commemorates the original group of nine students and their music professor, George L. White who organized as The Fisk Jubilee Singers and toured internationally in hopes of raising money to save the University from closing. Through sacrifice and perseverance, proceeds from the Singers’ initial tours paid for the purchase of the 42 acre Nashville campus. For 135 years, Fisk’s Jubilee Singers have served as one of America’s foremost a cappella ensembles and as the premier carriers of the Negro spiritual. These songs were originally sung by slaves prior to the Civil War and have globally influenced many genres of music such as r & b, gospel and rock & roll. During their first tours, the Singers also contributed tour earnings to The Great Chicago Fire victims in 1871 and were invited to perform at The White House by President Ulysses Grant in 1872. In 1873, the group grew to eleven members and performed for the crowned heads of Europe. The group’s earnings paid for the construction of Jubilee Hall, the first permanent building in America erected for the education of African Americans. Following Giovanni’s oration, there will be a pilgrimage to the graves of four of the original Jubilee Singers. The procession begins at Fisk Memorial Chapel and travels to Nashville’s City Cemetery, where the graves of Mabel Lewis Imes and Ella Sheppard Moore are located, and ends in Greenwood Cemetery with visits to the Georgia Gordon Taylor and Minnie Tate Hall gravesites. Fisk University, founded in 1866, is Nashville’s oldest university. Fisk currently produces more African-American students who go on to earn Ph.D. degrees in the natural sciences than any other institution in the nation. If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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