World renowned performer, World War II spy, and activist are few of the titles used to describe Josephine Baker. One of the most successful African American performers in French history, Baker’s career illustrates the ways entertainers can use their platforms to change the world.
Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar, Maya Angelou is a world-famous author. She is best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.
Often called the “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey was known for her deep-throated voice and mesmerizing stage presence that drew packed audiences and sold hit records in the early twentieth century. Also a songwriter, her lyrics and melodies reflected her experiences as an independent, openly bisexual African-American woman.
Jazz pianist and singer Hazel Scott was not only the first African-American woman to host her own television show, but she also bravely stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Hollywood studio machine. The gifted and popular performer dazzled audiences in the U.S. and abroad with her jazzy renditions of classical works.
Marie Kraja was an Albanian opera singer, who is particularly known for her performances of Albanian folk songs.
Agni Baltsa is a prominent mezzo-soprano opera singer.
Alberta Hunter was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the 1910s to the late 1950s, who returned to singing in her 80s after 20 years working as a nurse.
Valerie Muriel Rodway was a composer of Guyanese cultural and patriotic songs, inspired by the events surrounding Guyana’s independence in 1966.
Diorbhail Nic a’ Bhriuthainn was a Scottish Gaelic poet and songwriter who lived on the Isle of Luing in Scotland.
Lucia Lucas is a baritone opera singer who made history in March 2018, when it was announced that she would be the first female (transgender) baritone to perform a principal role in an American opera production. The premiere performance on May 3 2019 saw Lucas singing the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Tulsa Opera in Oklahoma; it is the subject of the 2020 feature documentary The Sound of Identity.
Lucas is also the first transgender baritone to appear with the English National Opera in London on 5 October 2019, singing Public Opinion in Orpheus in the Underworld. She has performed all over the world, including in Dublin, London, Brussels, Berlin, Torino, Essen, Daegu and Korea. She has performed roles including Hagen in the world premiere of Surrogate/Götterdämmerung, Monterone in Rigoletto, Tchelio in Love of Three Oranges, Komtur in Don Giovanni, and the Ffour Villains in Les contes d‘Hoffmann all with Oper Wuppertal; Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Lyric Opera of Dublin, and Escamillo in Carmen with Staatstheater Karlsruhe. As a five-year festival artist with Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Lucas also performed roles including Thoas in Iphigénie en Aulide, Ford in Falstaff, Marcello in La bohème, Varlaam in Boris Godunov, Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Dr. Teller in Doctor Atomic, Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte, and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro.