Tiffany Jackson. Photo courtesy of From the Hood to the Ivy League
On Thursday, January 26, at 7:30 p.m., Bardo Arts Center will host a performance of the one-woman show From the Hood to the Ivy League, an autobiographical account of Western Carolina University’s assistant professor of music Dr. Tiffany Renée Jackson. “I am the creator, writer and performer,” says Jackson. “The process began with three words: gift, passion and purpose. My gift is the innate ability to sing. My passion is health and fitness through bodybuilding, and my purpose is service to others. Essentially, my story is about a Black girl born to a sharecropper’s daughter, whose gift to sing elevated her towards a greater purpose.”
Jackson’s singing career has taken her across the world to perform with symphonies and orchestras in Norway, Slovenia, Germany and beyond. She has been a featured soloist with numerous Symphony Orchestras including National Philharmonic Orchestra, Gotham City Philharmonic Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra, and performed in premier festivals such as Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen. In 2011, she appeared on “America’s Got Talent” as the “Necessary Diva”, the opera singing bodybuilder. From the Hood to the Ivy League had its staged debut in January of 2019 at the Paul Mellon Arts Center in Wallingford, CT, followed by a virtual performance at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, CT, in July of 2020.
Jackson admits that an autobiographical one-woman show has unique challenges, including a significant emotional burden and the pressure to transmit one’s story well. Furthermore, this iteration of the show has been marked by loss and grief. “My director, the late Rod Gailes OBC, passed away suddenly on October 13, two days after a scheduled rehearsal,” says Jackson. “It devastated me, but the team and I decided that continuing in Rod’s honor is best. Rod left behind pages of personal notes that I’ve combed through for pearls of wisdom. Rod’s most poignant words were, ‘Tiff, you are enough. Your story is enough. I am simply amplifying what is already enough.’ In light of Rod’s passing, his former protégé, Zhailon Levingston, writer, actor and Broadway producer, has joined the team. We are dedicating the show to Rod’s memory.”
The WCU Bardo Arts Center is located at 199 Centennial Drive, Cullowhee. Box office hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information about programming, call 828.227.2787 or visit BardoArtsCenter.wcu.edu.
