With summer just around the corner, White Snake Projects is celebrating the longer days and sunlight with our new season. How wonderful! How exciting!

This year, our theme of “voting as freedom”, in anticipation of the upcoming elections, is anchored by our season opener, “Is This America?,” a world premiere opera exploring the life and legacy of the great Mississippi voting rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer. Recognizing that the vote is the most powerful weapon ordinary citizens have to control their destiny, Ms. Hamer worked tirelessly, against almost insurmountable odds, to bring her people to the polling booth. Many of the obstacles to voting that Ms. Hamer faced in the ’60s are prevalent today as lawmakers seek to make the exercise of the franchise hard for many of our fellow citizens.

The composer is 85 year old Mary D. Watkins, who is a pioneer for all black woman opera composers.