By William H. Kelly III
(JACKSON, Miss.) — The Margaret Walker Center (MWC) and Department of Music at Jackson State University (JSU) announce the inaugural HBCU Opera and Musical Theater Summer Festival. The festival will debut a new folk opera entitled ‘Jubilee,’ inspired by the 1966 novel written by esteemed scholar Dr. Margaret Walker.
A series of grants will support the festival at JSU from June 7-14, 2026, and a concert production of the opera at Yale University on May 28, 2026. Funding will provide stipends for students and artists, cover travel costs, rehearsals and more.
“We are so excited to continue to expand the academic, artistic and activist legacy of our founder, Margaret Walker Alexander. Jubilee is a seminal work of fiction that launched an entire genre of neo-slave narratives. Now, with a new opera, ever more audiences will be introduced to this timeless piece,” said Director of the Margaret Walker Center Robert Luckett, Ph.D.
In 2025, the MWC was awarded a $25,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and another $125,000 after being recognized as a Yale Alliance for Scholarship, Collaboration, Engagement, Networking and Development (ASCEND) Initiative partner through Yale University. The ASCEND partnership is coordinated by Yale’s Albert Lee, D.M.A., associate professor of music and a celebrated tenor.
Additionally, JSU’s Director of Opera and Musical Theater, Phyllis Lewis-Hale, D.M.A., landed another $20,000 grant from the NEA to fund the project, and a $100,000 grant to support cultural and civic engagement was secured from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), thanks to Almesha L. Campbell, Ph.D., vice president for research and economic development.
Award-winning composer and pianist Randy Klein, as well as librettist and playwright Joan Ross Sorkin, have developed the folk opera in conjunction with the MWC, which aims to capture the vernacular of the time period the opera is set. Klein and Sorkin are tasked with transforming the “Jubilee” novel, from the rich narrative to the complex dialect of its characters, into a powerful musical. Internationally acclaimed award-winning conductor and composer Julius P. Williams will lead the symphonic interpretation of the music.
Through the lens of Walker’s great-grandmother Vyry’s journey from slavery to freedom, the opera will bridge the struggle for equality and civil rights across the 19th and 20th centuries. It will also incorporate poems from Walker’s “This is My Century,” dated in the 1960s, infusing song with narration.
“As a civil rights advocate, we think Margaret Walker would applaud this partnership,” said Sorkin. “She advocated bringing people together, and this project is a thrilling exemplar of that.”
According to Hale, the week-long festival is modeled after and a continuation of the inaugural S.O.S (Summer Opera/South) Boot Camp held in February 2025. It will feature students from JSU, Fisk University, Xavier University of Louisiana, Alcorn State University and Tougaloo College, providing them an opportunity to learn from industry professionals, get firsthand interpretive coaching and work with Klein and Sorkin leading up to the debut of ‘Jubilee.’ The boot camp was led by Hale.
“The collaboration with Dr. Luckett and Opera/South is building upon students at Yale and HBCUs learning about Margaret Walker, the Margaret Walker Center and understanding the importance of this historical icon that is Margaret Walker,” said Hale. “The students became very excited about that. They’re excited about getting a chance to see what students at Yale will feel learning about Margaret Walker, reading Jubilee and really getting into the depth of the story.”
Hale and colleagues hope to host the festival annually at various institutions across the nation, while further expanding the ‘Jubilee’ concert into a full-scale production.
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