Celebrating Margaret Walker’s Enduring Legacy
Join us at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 24, for an exciting evening celebrating the publication of Margaret Walker’s groundbreaking novel tracing her great-grandmother’s journey from enslavement to freedom. Jubilee, the forerunner for such works as Beloved by Toni Morrison and Roots by Alex Haley, has never once been out of print.
The program will take place in the F.D. Hall Music Center at Jackson State University. Student performances of selections from Jubilee: A Folk Opera will accompany a panel of fantastic authors and scholars: Maryemma Graham, Seretha Williams, and Randal Jelks. A reception will follow.
This is an official Mississippi Book Festival event.
About Jubilee: A Folk Opera
Jackson State University and Yale University have entered into a collaborative agreement to develop the folk opera Jubilee as part of the Yale Alliance for Scholarship, Collaboration, Engagement, Networking and Development (ASCEND) Initiative. The story of Margaret Walker’s real-life grandmother and great-grandmother as they lived from slavery to freedom, Jubilee launched the genre of neo-slave narratives when it was published in 1966. With the support of the ASCEND Initiative ($125,000), two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts ($45,000), and a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ($100,000), faculty and students in music at Yale and Jackson State rehearsed and performed concert productions in New Haven and Jackson during the summer of 2026, as part of the 60th anniversary of Jubilee.
The ultimate goal for Jubilee: A Folk Opera is to expand it into a full-scale, finished production to be performed nationwide.
For more information, visit our webpage about the opera. To make a donation to the OPERA/SOUTH Revitalization Initiative and invest in the bold, inclusive future of opera, visit the GiveSmart donation portal or scan the QR code below.
