The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘From the hood to the Ivy League’
Tiffany Jackson’s onewoman show comes to city Oct. 6
NEW HAVEN — With Dr. Tiffany Renee Jackson’s onewoman show, “From the Hood to the Ivy League,” the name says it all.
A classically trained opera soprano, Jackson grew up in the shadow of Union Station in the Church Street South housing project, now an empty lot overgrown with weeds that literally resembles The Jungle, as it used to be known back then, though not for its foliage.
Jackson has been on a lifelong journey of enlightenment, and now she’s paying her success forward with the premiere of her autobiographical show at 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6, at The Episcopal Church of St. Paul & St. James, 57 Olive St. She’ll be accompanied by the St. Paul & St. James Band. Tickets are $45 at www.necessarydiva.net.
Last month, Jackson gave a preview of the show, the first major production for her foundation, GiftPassionPurpose Project Inc., at a fundraiser in Woodbridge at the home of hosts Judge Guido and Anne Tyler Calabresi, the latter one of the founders of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas and LEAP.
It’s the right time for the project, Jackson says, “because it’s always been in my DNA to give back,” and because of two events in 2018 that
stirred introspection and “sparked an urgency and determination like never before”: finishing her doctorate at the same time that her father died in a Florida house fire.
GiftPassionPurpose Project is the conduit through which Jackson is raising money for her mission to provide music scholarships and opportunities for underserved children of greater New Haven and for a production company focused on entertaining and education.
The Arts Council of Greater New Haven has given Jackson a fiscal sponsorship that allows her to apply for grants and offer a taxdeductible option to donors to the project while her 501(c)(3) nonprofit status awaits approval. Donations to the show or GiftPassionPurpose may be made to the Arts Council of Greater New Haven to the attention of Tiffany Jackson.
“Ultimately, I believe my story is inspiring, and it is time for me to claim and tell it in a comprehensive and artistic manner,” Jackson says of the show, which includes storytelling, video, dramatic movement and “inspiring music from jazz to classical to gospel, highlighting poignant moments in my life.”
That life includes visiting South Africa in 2003 with a group led by Oprah Winfrey, where she met Nelson Mandela; singing in venues all over Europe; appearing as featured soloist with U.S. symphonies; and displaying her jazzy side at such places as Blue Note NYC and Dizzy’s Coca Cola Club at Jazz Lincoln Center with Kim Nalley. She has recorded projects fusing free jazz and classical with local luminaries such as Emmy Awardwinning composer, pianist and educator Rex Cadwallader, drummer Arti Dixon and bassist Mike Asetta.
Jackson’s vocal training started at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, the Neighborhood Music School and Educational Center for the Arts. She received her bachelor of music degree from the University of Michigan, master of music and artist diploma from Yale University School of Music, a professional studies degree from the Manhattan School of Music and her doctorate in musical arts from UConn.
One audience member at the Woodbridge preview was Jane Marshall, her high school English composition teacher, who wrote to her afterward: “I knew you were decidedly gifted 20 years ago, but today’s performance basically blew me away. You could be on any stage anywhere in the world and provide your audience with a sublime, really transcendent experience.”
The show, which Jackson hopes will ultimately become a full theater production, will be performed again Jan. 17 at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, where she is an adjunct instructor of voice.
“The war on drugs turned out to be war on people, and a lot of people suffered for that,” she says of the regentrification of Church Street South. “I’m telling their stories. I’m sharing the stories of people who lived in Church Street South whose stories will never be told. That’s the story of a lot of black people or people of color who don’t have the memories of their childhood because the places don’t exist anymore or because they lived in poverty and didn’t want to have that memory.”
For more information, visit: www.necessarydiva.net. To support the show, go to Facebook/ necessary diva, gift passion purposeproject.com or email necessarydiva@gmail.com.