IF YOU GOWhat: "Ain't I a Woman."When: 8 p.m. today.Where: Covenant College, Scenic Highway, Lookout Mountain, Ga.Admission: $25.Phone: 706-419-1453 (ticket orders), 706-419-1452 (information).Website: www.covenant.edu/academics/undergrad/music/covenantarts.
An actress and a chamber music trio will team tonight for the next program in the 2011-12 Covenant Arts series at Covenant College.
"Ain't I a Woman" weaves a theatrical narrative led by Shinnerrie Jackson with a performance of chamber music by The Core Ensemble.
In her portrayals, Jackson celebrates the life and times of four powerful black women: novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston; ex-slave and abolitionist Sojourner Truth; folk artist Clementine Hunter; and civil-rights worker Fannie Lou Hamer.
Jackson earned a Master of Fine Arts in acting from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from Oberlin Conservatory.
Musical accompaniment features the ensemble's Tahirah Whittington on cello, Hugh Hinton on piano and Michael Parola on percussion.
Founded in 1993, The Core Ensemble was the 2000 recipient of the Eugene McDermott Award for Excellence in the Arts, awarded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The show's musical score is drawn from the spirituals and blues of the Deep South, the vitality of the jazz age and contemporary concert music by such black composers as Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Max Roach and Diane Monroe.