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Female Firsts: Hyers Sisters · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I Never told you production by I hurried you. And
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: today it is time for another edition of Female First,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: which means we are once again thrilled to be joined
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: by the Adventuress, the amazing Eves.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Welcome, Ears, Hello, and thank you.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, we always love having you. We love catching
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: up with you and hearing about your adventures once a month.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: So how have you been, Eves.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: I've been good. I have been chilling.
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: I've been going to a lot of arts events, which
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: is super nice. You know, it's such an interesting place
• 0:47
  Speaker 4: to be in when you're like trying to integrate into
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: a new space. But the thing that's interesting about being
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: arts and cultural spaces is that they're always small kind
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: of no matter where you go. So even though I'm
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: so new to this place, I'll be like, oh, I've
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: seen you before. Oh I've seen you before. And then
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: I start to realize, like, man, maybe I am such
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: a like I'm such an archetype, Like I'm such a stereotype.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: Like the kind of person I am is the kind
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: of person you would expect me to be. It's like, Okay,
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: I have my niches, I guess I guess it is
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: what it is. But yeah, it's been nice.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: It's a small world for sure, the art world. You
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: can really run into people.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: It is small.
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: It is small, and I'm just trying to navigate how
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: much I like that like, how much of it do
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: I like?
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: And how much of it do I not like?
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: Because you know, there's this ideal around leaving and going
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: somewhere else and implanting your plate yourself in a new
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: place where.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: It's like you get to totally reinvent yourself.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: And you know, you realize because you are still who
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: you are, that you know that reinvention might not be
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: as much of a one eighty as you know you
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: think it could be.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: So it's it's really interesting.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true, just to see what sticks when you're
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: when you're in a new place. M hm, you're like, well,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I guess this is who I am. Yeah, you know
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: what I think about a lot. And I know it's
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: cold where you are, so you probably don't have an answer.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I've always wanted to check back in with you about
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: your surfing.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: That was actually just on my mind.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: Okay, So I don't know if I mentioned it on
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: the show before or if I talked to y'all outside
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: of it about it. But I got some piercings and
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: that's why I put a pause on the surfing because
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: they are you're not supposed to submerge them. I baby,
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: my piercing is like, I cannot because my skin gets
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: so sensitive.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: So I was so.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: Sad that I had to put my surfing lessons on pause.
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: But I was literally, it's so funny you asked because
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: I was dating about it today.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: I was like, Oh, I'm so ready to get back
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: to surfing.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: And I was actually just messaging my piercer like earlier
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: this week about like some issues I was having with.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Healing, and I'm like, you know what, He's like, this
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: is fine, this is fine.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: I'm like, he gave me two and a half months,
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: so it's been longer than that for me. So I
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: feel like I'm ready to get back out there. I
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: have some other things going on that I have to, Like,
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: it'll be it'll still probably be another month before I
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: get back into it, but I think I think it's September.
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna I'm gonna start back up. The weather's still
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: good regardless, people are still out surfing. I've been to
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: the surfer's corner here there's everybody still out on their boards.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: So I think September, October, November. I'm not gonna put
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: a hard date on it yet because I have some
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: travel coming up, but yeah, it's gonna you'll get an
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: update about it soon.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Let's let's just say that I'm very excited. I think
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: about this all the time. I'm like, wonder if Eve's
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: just been able to surf again?
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Can I tell you when?
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: This is gonna sound so superficial, But one thing I've
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: been thinking about with surfing is those like I'm so
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: ready to put on the wet suit again because they're
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: so cute. I'm like, I really want a yellow wetsuit.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: I need a yellow wetsuit.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: This is this is how I do when I get
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: into a new thing. I get all the gear and
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: accoutremont and sometimes I don't finish doing the thing, and
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: so I'm like, I gotta I gotta go get a
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: yellow wetsuit I got. I don't want to rent a
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: wet suit again. Next time, I gotta get my own.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: I want it to be yellow. Why are they all
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: so boring? I don't know if there's a reason for that.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: But that's the one thing I'm thinking about.
• 4:25
  Speaker 5: You know what, though, when you actually like excited about something,
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: when you get all this stuff and I calculate this,
• 4:31
  Speaker 5: it's like, if I do this this many times, it's
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: paid for itself. Like that's how I work through most
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: of my hobbies.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: Yes, but then you end up needing a whole other
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: room for all the things you've now accumulated that you
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: may not use super frequently but maybe from time to time.
• 4:47
  Speaker 6: Right, but it will remind you like you were doing it,
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: You did this, you did it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, Yeah, I think it can be motivational too.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: If it's something that excites you that I get to
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: fit on this yellow whatsuit, that you're even more excited
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: to keep doing the thing, that's true. Yeah, yeah, I
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: kind of know the answer to this. But what are
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: y'all's experiences with dancing?
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: Okay, I was waiting on Samantha.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: I will say, let's see my experiences with dancing. I
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: love dancing just as a form of expression, as a
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: way of like moving through emotion, as a way of
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: expressing joy. I just I love dancing in a recreational
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: and just.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: It's an activity that.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: I love to do with myself that cheers me up
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: and that I know I can take with me anywhere,
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: And so I really loved dancing in that way. I
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: was taking dancing lessons for a little bit here, but
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: I had to put that to the side to make
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: room for other things. But I grew up making up
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: little dances with like family members and friends and performing
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: them for other family members.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: Hopefully those family members we.
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: Performed for don't remember them, but I'm sure some of
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: them live in the bags of their minds somewhere. Thank God,
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure none of it's captured on video. So
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: I've been so dance is a big part of my life,
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: and I used to watch the dance shows. I used
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: to watch America's Dance Crew, like, oh yeah, I had
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: a Jabbawaki shirt. Yeah, yeah, I was that kid, And yeah,
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: I think dancing's super cool. Love I love it as
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: an art form. I love all different kinds of dances.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: I watch dance troops at theaters and other live performances,
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: and yeah, it's cool, love it.
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: I think the listeners because I've talked about it plenty
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: of times. Though I love dance, dance is one of
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: my favorite things in which I suddenly got into zoomba
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: slash hip hop, which sounds we were saying it out
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: like out of my mouth. And so I really got
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: into teaching because of that, and because I like to
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: make my own routines and now I can make other
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: people do them too, and I feel cool because I'm like, a,
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: look at this, that's what I made up. They're not
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: really hard, they're not that difficult, but they're really fun.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: And when I do connect with the students, they seem
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: to really like.
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: It and love it.
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: And so this makes me feel like a whole new level.
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: And that's kind of what I did as a kid too,
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: is like I never I took this.
• 7:30
  Speaker 6: This is for like a week.
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: It's expensive, like hobbies like that are ridiculously expensive. And
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: my low self esteem was like if I don't know
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: it immediately, which is impossible.
• 7:42
  Speaker 6: You can't know a routine.
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: Within thirty seconds but yet or the first two times.
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: But some people are actually ridiculously talented and able to
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: pick up choreo like that. So I was not like
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: that as a kid, so I immediately quit because also
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: performing in front of people was not my thing, which
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: is odd now that I'm teaching, but it feels different
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: that way.
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: So but I love it. It feels like it is.
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: My life, part of my life, and if I didn't
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: have it, I get really sad, Like that's that's for me,
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: my social stuff that I don't have to talk to
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: people for long periods of time, but for an hour
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: we are all doing something in common together to the
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: same music and having a good time, not thinking about
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: anything else.
• 8:22
  Speaker 6: So I absolutely love it.
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: It is a huge part and so obviously very active
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: dance also hopefully it's keeping my mind together because you know,
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: sometimes I forget things.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: It's beautiful. Sounds like you have a relationship with dance.
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: Yes, I think I do.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: I think I do.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: We'll see, Yeah, I think so. I think so, Samantha,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I also love dance. I grew up taking ballet. The
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: thing about the wetsuit, it reminded me like one of
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: my favorite parts was the day you got your costume.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: That was like the tling. Unless it was a bad
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: costume in this it was not a good day, but
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: usually it was fun, it was really exciting. I think
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: that was my favorite part was the costume. Yeah, okay,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: what about the movement? Though you can't I don't remember.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: I actually remember.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: I think I was in fifth grade and we did
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Swan Lake, like a fifth grade version of Swan Lake,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: and I remember the moves like I still remember, like
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: how we had to because it had like an intersecting
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: part where everybody had to kind of move between each other.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: I thought it was really cool. I liked I liked
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: doing it.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: I just remember the costume was like that was the
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: most exciting part to me. And then I was in
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I've done a couple of dancing classes over the years,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: and then in college, I was in an organization that
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: had a lot of dancing involved with it, and that
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: was fun, but those were mostly goofy dances. And I
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: did want to bring up two NERD related things. I
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: loved DDR growing up.
• 10:00
  Speaker 7: Every day, every single we would mess up, like you
• 10:06
  Speaker 7: would have those pads at home, and we would play
• 10:09
  Speaker 7: it so much that we had to like surgically operate
• 10:12
  Speaker 7: on the pad to move the censor back to where
• 10:16
  Speaker 7: it was supposed to be.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: And there are certain songs I can't hear without like
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: never Ending Story that's a DDR song. I can't hear
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: without remembering the move, like the sound of the footstops.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: So I like, I like dancing video games.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: I know that does not at all translate to skill
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: in the dance world.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I think in video dance video game dance world.
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: Yes. Uh.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: And also I'm glad you brought up Eve's like media
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: around dancing because there are a lot of good horror
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: movies with dance.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Hold on, wait which one that jump?
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: There's a bunch of like Suspiria, uh, Black Small.
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: I wanted it to have to do with it like
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: ballet feels like or interpretive dance.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, there's a all genre out there, creepy dances.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: Oh yeah, Megan, But yes.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: That is true.
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: I've never seen it. That's the only part I know
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: of it, to be honest, I'm.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Just saying there there's there's also reality TV shows, but
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: there are horror movies as well. And you know, Samith,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: aren't we doing for our next feminist movie Friday?
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Isn't it a dance?
• 11:36
  Speaker 6: It's not a horror movie.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: However, it's not a horror movie.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: There's a whole genre of non horror dance movies as well.
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: Oh yeah, Like eventually we might have to go into
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: like step up and like you guys served and all
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: of that stuff.
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: Stop the Yard, which still is one of my favorite.
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: But yes, we are going to do center Stage because
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: I was like, oh, I've talked about it so often,
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: but I'm like, this is one of those Holt classics.
• 12:01
  Speaker 6: That we need to talk about.
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: Also, it was it was Zoe Saldana's first movie, and
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: I feel like that needs to be recognized as well,
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: because you know.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: I haven't seen it, so I'm excited. That's that's kind
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: of fun.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: I forgot to mention a critical I think point when
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: you ask me the question about my relationship to dance,
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: and that's that I actually wanted to be a backup
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: hip hop dancer for a while. Like that is another
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: path that my life could have taken. I won, like
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: a free hip hop dance when I went to some
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: I was at some conference and I won a free
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: lesson once and I.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: Never did it, and I regretted that, Yeah, but I could,
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I would have. I did dream of it. I actually
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: that was another path my life could have taken.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: But that those they're infinite paths for me because I've
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: been to so many things.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: I just got to pick and choose.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: And one life you're professional surfer, you know, Yeah, all
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: these paths that.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: Eves is so much cooler than this, Eves.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: No, I don't think so.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: is a first for female first where we're talking about sisters.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it is a first.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, here.
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: We go, and that makes me want to jump into
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: another musical or they dance that song sisters.
• 13:24
  Speaker 8: Anyway, moving back, I'm very.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Excited to talk about these sisters. So who are we
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: discussing today, Eves? We're talking about the Higher Sisters. And
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: I didn't even think about it being a first because
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: they've been in my list for so long to talk about.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: We've talked about other people in theater like the Higher
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Sisters are.
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: And in music and in performance. But the Higher are
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: really special, so I'm glad we get to talk about
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: them today. They starred in the first known black American
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: play that was set in Africa, and the filmmaker Sushiel Bibbs,
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: who has made films about them and researched their history,
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: says that they also created the first American musicals. But
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: what it comes down to is that the Higher Sisters
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: were pioneering in the field of theater in musical theater
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: and concert in performance in America, and their history is
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: super cool, so I am excited to talk about them today.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: Anna Meda Hires and Emma Louise Hires. Yes, they've got
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: a really fascinating story. So shall we get into it?
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Yes?
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: So, Anna Meda Hires was born in eighteen fifty five
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: and Emma Louise Hires was born in eighteen fifty seven,
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: and there was some sort of migration from New York
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: to California that might have been sometime around eighteen fifty six,
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: not so sure about the exact year, but basically after
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: the Goal Rush, and they grew up in Sacramento.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: The parents were named Samuel B. Hires and Annie E.
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: Hires, and Samuel owned a barber shop in Sacramento, though
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: he later left that behind to work more on managing
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: his daughter's careers.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: And Annie was a crafts person.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: She apparently offered classes to women in things like embroidery
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: and leather work. And both of them had some musical skills,
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: seemed to be amateur opera singers, and they were able
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: to teach some of their daughters some of those skills
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: around performance and music as it so often goes, there
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: were quite a few discrepancies in the sources about where
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: they were born, when they were born, and how old
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: they were at a given time, but they guarded in performance.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: They started in performance pretty early on. Samuel and Annie
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: set their daughters up with piano and vocal lessons, and
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: they learned from a German teacher named Hugo Sank and
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: an opera singer named Josephine Dormy. And apparently Samuel told
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: his daughters that he would take them to Europe for
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: more training, although that never happened. But they, as you'll
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: find out here, soon went on to have an illustrious
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: career regardless.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: The sisters started.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: Singing at parties to gain experience performing, and in eighteen
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: sixty seven they had their professional stage debut at the
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: Metropolitan Theater in Sacramento. Now remember that I said they
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: were born in eighteen fifty five. In eighteen fifty seven,
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: and this is a mere ten years after the younger sister,
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: Emma Luis, was born, so very young when they had
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: their debut, Anna made a Hires was a soprano, and
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: Emma had a contralto voice, and they would perform male
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: and female roles in duets together, and they were giving
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: recitals around San Francisco and Oakland, and so in eighteen
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: seventy one they went on their first tour across the
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: US under their father's management. They performed in places like Utah, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio,
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: New York, and other places on the East coast, and
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: in Salt Lake City, for instance, they performed John Barnett's
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: opera The Mountain Self in that Anna plays a fairy
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: who falls in love with a young man and that
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: man is played by Emma. So their shows would include
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: a bunch of different kinds of pieces and music. They
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: would have operatic pieces, classical ballads, spirituals, and at the
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: time that was pretty expansive because there weren't a ton
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: of Black Americans who were performing certain music at the time.
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: In eighteen seventy two, they even headlined a festival called P. S.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: Gilmore's A Great Piece Jubilee. And in eighteen seventy six
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: they performed a musical drama in Massachusetts and that was
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: commissioned for them by their management company, Redpath Lyceum Bureau.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: This musical drama was written by a white playwright and
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: a former Union soldier Joseph Bradford, and it was called
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: Out of the Wilderness. The Higher Sisters and others who
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: were previously in the Georgia Minstrels joined the troops. So
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: we've talked about minstreul ce before in previous episodes of
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: Female First, but minstrel c was big at this time
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: in the mid eighteen hundreds to late eighteen hundreds, and
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: that was the context of blackface minstrel sy and like,
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: you know, this white playwright Joseph Bradford who had created.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Out of the Wilderness.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: You know, it was a lot of white people who
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: began these minstrel troops and put together these shows. So
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: that was it's still even though the Higher Sisters are pioneering,
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: they're still working with familiar frameworks and then so people
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: are going to be familiar with coming to shows like this,
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: but they are used to white people performing in blackface,
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: black people performing in blackface, and they're performing minstrel shows
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: where there are a lot of stereotypes of how black
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: people are viewed at the time that they're seeing on stage.
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: So they toured this show throughout New England and later
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: in the year they changed the show titled to out
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: of bondage. So the show is about an enslaved family
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: and friends who are living in the South pre Civil war,
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: and war ensues, the Union troops come and some of
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: the enslaved people that are in that are featured in
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: the show, they go north, and years later they all
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: meet up and the people who have went north become
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: professional vocalists, and of course that becomes this medium for
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: them to be able to sing this concert in the
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: last act of the show, and apparently there was a
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: quote from Mark Twain and the marketing material from Redpath,
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: and the quote was this, I went a mile and
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: a half in the most furious tempest of wind and
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: snow that I have seen for five years to see
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: the plantation sketches of the Higher's troop and hear the
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: exquisite music. And I would go three miles through just
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: such a tempest to have that pleasant and satisfactory experience again,
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: your friend Samuel L.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: Clemens.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: So of course the marketing material is going to do
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: what it does. They're going to uplift the Higher Sister's performance.
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: It's going to be laudatory. But as they do more performances,
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: they are getting positive critical reception.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: In newspapers.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: It's not always good reception because of the context of
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: what the show is about.
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: But a lot of the.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: Time people are praising their singing abilities, and their comedic abilities,
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: and their performance abilities in general. So sometimes it's more
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: of a technical laudatory like feedback that they're getting, but
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: it is still generally positive. They performed this play out
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: of bondage until at least eighteen ninety one, so for
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: many years this was part of their repertoire. In eighteen
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: seventy nine, they performed in a play written by Es
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: Getchel called Erlena the African Princess. They performed it in
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: Indianapolis and other venues in Illinois and Iowa, and when
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: they got back to San Francisco they performed it there too.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: They later performed it in Oregon, so in many places
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: they were showing this. In the story, a king vanishes
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: Princess Erlina, who is the rightful heir to the throne.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: What ends up happening is that the king's son falls
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: for Princess Arlena. So you've created this external conflict, like
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: how could the sun go against his father? He and
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: a group of his allies try to rescue the princess
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: and they get caught up in the process, but the
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: son escapes and eventually he overthrows the king. In this play,
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: Anna played the princess and Emma played the prince, so
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: once again doing this whole role where one is playing
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: a woman, one is playing a man. This was the
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: first known Black American play set in Africa that I
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: referred to at the beginning of the episode for their
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: first So as you can see, based on the types
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: of stories that they're putting on in their place, they
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: are doing something that not a lot of people were
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: doing at the time, if anybody, in the ways they
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: were doing it, which is their setting plays in the
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: continent of Africa, kind of touching into this upliftment of heritage.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: We're in the reconstruction period, you know, so close to
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: black people being in bondage and telling stories about people
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: moving from bondage to freedom and shoring that for themselves
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: by escaping and that theme. Those themes continued in eighteen
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: seventy nine as well, when they worked with Black novelist
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: Pauline Hopkins, who wrote the play Peculiar Sam Or the
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: Underground Railroad, in which the Higher Sisters were in and
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: so was the popular black actor Sam Lucas. This play
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: was about a black family that escaped slavery on a
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: plantation in Mississippi and make their way to Canada. Lucas
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: played Sam, that main character. Ana played Virginia, who was
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: Sam's love interest, and Emma played Juno, which is Sam's sister.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: And in this story there's also a romantic tale too,
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: because Virginia is being forced to marry Jim, who's this
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: black overseer.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: She doesn't want to do that.
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: She doesn't want to be forced into this marriage, of course,
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: and Virginia and Sam planned to flee, and so they
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: make their way north and then it's what happens in
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: the aftermath. And it's one of the earliest portrayals of
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: a romantic relationship between black characters on stage, and the
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: first one that's written by a black woman and performed
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: by an all black cast. Now, Pauline Hopkins has her
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: own very fascinating history too, like you can read some
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: of her novels as well. But it also is kind
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: of indicative of the circles they were running in. Because
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: Sam Lucas was also very popular, Pauline Hopkins was a
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: notable figure in the literary world, and there were also
• 24:35
  Speaker 4: other people that they were in troops with who were
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: popular for minstrelsy and for stage performance.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: So they were running in.
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: Some circles where people were acclaimed for their work.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: In eighteen eighty they put.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: On a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin along with the
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: ideal Uncle Tom Cabin's Company, which was a racially integrated troupe.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: They performed in shows like this to supplement their income,
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: but these shows weren't their main focus. They had their
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: own repertoire, which we talked about those other plays earlier,
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: but they really told this line between the popular realm
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: of minstrelcy that could bring in the interest and that familiarity.
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: But with their concert work, which a lot of people
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: weren't used to the concert singing that they were doing.
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: For black women to be doing this on stage, let
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: alone the fact that they were producing shows that had
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: these black people who weren't in blackface and who were
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: portraying black characters who weren't shown in as much of
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: a stereotypical light is quote unquote authenticity. And so their father,
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: though there was a little bit of a history of
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: friction with their father, Samuel who was the one who
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: helped men and of course, along with their mother, helped
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: teach them about performance. Early on, their father, Samuel, he
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: formed a company called the Colored Musical Comedy Company, and
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: by the spring of eighteen eighty three, the Higher Sisters
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: had left the company because maybe because may Hires joined
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: the company, so this woman named may Hires starts to
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: be on the bill. Well, really she was a girl
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: at the time, because she apparently joined as a teenager,
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: but she was also a contralto singer, and so that
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: may have created some sort of friction as well, where
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: she was in competition with Emma. But she soon apparently
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: married their father, but there was an enormous age gap
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: between the two of them because he might have been
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: in his fifties at the time. I'm not so sure
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: about the veracity around whether this kind of friction is
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: the thing that caused the Higher Sisters to leave. There
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: seemed to be some nebulousness around that. But either way,
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: there was a separation that happened that is pretty fascinating
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: between Samuel and the work that he was doing and
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: then the Higher Sisters and the work that they were doing.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: And mind you, they're.
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: Still young At this time, Samuel went off and did
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: his own thing. The Higher Sisters began finding work in
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: other places. They performed together under the Higher Sisters combination,
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: and then their father renamed his company the SB Hire's
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: Colored Musical Comedy Company, and you'll see stuff that he
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: produced under that under that company that May Hires was
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: also in, but that had nothing to do with what.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: The Higher Sisters were doing.
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: So there seemed to be some confusion in historical record
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: keeping around things being under the Hire's bill, but that
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: not being Anna and Emma Hires, that just being there
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: and the work that he was doing on his own.
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: So Anna and Emma they joined Calendar's Minstrels in New
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: York and traveled with that troup, and then they performed
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: with other menstrual troops like McCabe and Young's Minstrels and
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: John Isham's Troop to Octoroons and the NB Curtis Afro
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: American Minstrels. But there wasn't any blackface in the shows
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: that the Higher Sisters put on. So there also seems
• 28:32
  Speaker 4: to be some weirdness around how many times they got
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: married who they got married to. It seems like Anna
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: got married she married a few times, and that Emma
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: might have married a couple of times. But the one
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: story that I want to tell is about Emma's marriage
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: to George Freeman. This is one part of her story
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: that I really love because she mixed her marriage and
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: her performance life together because she got married on stage
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: to George Freeman. So it's just so fascinating to me
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: to think about her getting on stage and bringing this
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: part of her personal life into her professional life and
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: blurring the line between the two and thinking about that
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: as another branch of the way that she was bringing
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: what was happening in the world at that time, right
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: after after Reconstruction, of blending these this movement from enslavement
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: to freedom and bondage to freedom that is so present
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: for people, and it's their white audiences that they're showing
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: these plays too, that they're uncomfortable with and they haven't
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: met in this way like viewed through artistry at all
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: maybe yet. And so yeah, this line that she's blending
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: between performance and what's actually happening in her personal life
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: and her feelings is very interesting. And also apparently it
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: was like a crowd of like three hundred people and
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: there was a banquet or something like that. So yeah,
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: very interesting that that was a choice of hers. But yeah,
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: so Emma died around nineteen oh one, not show sure
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: about the causes, and then Anna died later after touring
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: the world, she ended up going back to Sacramento. She
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: died sometime in the nineteen twenties. I've seen different years
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: for the exact date that she died. But like I said,
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: at the top, filmmaker Sushio Bibbs has made multiple films
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: about the Higher Sisters, and if it weren't for them,
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: a lot of the people after them wouldn't have been
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: able to produce the kinds of plays they did talk
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: about blackness and not do black face, and so they
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: really set the tone for black stage performance. And that's
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: the story of the Higher Sisters. I'm glad we finally
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: got to check it off your lists. I had not
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: heard of the Higher Sisters, but reading about the performances
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: they put on, it just it sounds so fascinating. And
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: I do agree there's a lot of elements of like
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: the personal life and professional life coming in because I'm
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: honestly also intrigued with just starting so young and working
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: with your sister for that that time.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: I just imagine there.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Were some ups and downs, but it sounds like they
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: had a great relationship. But yeah, I think having that
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: and then just the themes that they chose and what
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: they tried to focus on is really really fascinating.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: That's a good point.
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, like hearing about their stories. Of course, their loyalty
• 31:58
  Speaker 5: to each other, to be like, oh, you brought some
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: one into a place, me I'm out a man, like,
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: we're both out, so you're not only losing one, you're
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: losing both of us. But also that they were such
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: amazing performers that people love them at such a young age.
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: It would be fascinating if we could hear what they
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: sounded like. And you know, one of the things I
• 32:15
  Speaker 5: do know about music is like when you have a family,
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: they know each other's harmonies.
• 32:20
  Speaker 6: The blend is so natural.
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: So I just can't imagine how they sounded, and like
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: the beauty of the music that the harmonies have made
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: together too.
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I wish I could have been there for
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: some of their performances, and I wish I could have
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: been there for that marriage. I was like, man, that
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: would have been super cool to attend like this.
• 32:40
  Speaker 5: He was dramatic and they're like, yeah, you're at my wedding,
• 32:43
  Speaker 5: You're welcome.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how it went down.
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: But that's a good point because I don't think there's
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: too much out there about how they related to each
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: other at home or on stage, because we know all
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: the stories about the performing families and how much controversy
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: there can be between them and how one person might
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: not agree with the other, and they were so close
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: in age, and they were the sisters, they were the
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: higher sister's combination, even when they brought other people in,
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: and so, you know, I think it is a testament
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: to potentially a testament to how much they did enjoy
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: working together, the fact that they chose to continue on
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: even after they had differences with their father, and they
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: faced so much i'm sure opposition just to even though
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: they were critically well received in a lot of ways,
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: there were still two black women on stage in the
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: mid to late eighteen hundreds, So to go through that together,
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: I'm sure it was difficult. But then maybe also I'm speculating,
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: but might have been some solace that might have been
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: solace in that camaraderie in sisterhood as they went through that.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and from such a young age. I'm sure that
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: there were some things that other people just could not
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: relate to that both of them could because this.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: Was their life, how they grew up. Yeah.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Yes, once again another great story for HBO, Max or whoever.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: Wants to do it right.
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: Yes, I was honestly surprised about how little Higher Sisters
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: focused information there is of scholarly lectures that are easily
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: accessible because a lot of like not a lot of
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: the time, but sometimes you'll find people who have found
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: out about the Higher Sisters and made them the focus
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: of their scholarly work. They've made them their life's work,
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: or at least for whatever period of research they're in.
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: They might be someone who's focused, don't the history of
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: black performance in the United States and the eighteen hundreds,
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: like they have this specific and the Higher Sisters or
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: the people that focused on there's not a lot of
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: that about them, and I.
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: Wish there were more.
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: And you know, like I said, there was that filmmaker
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: and performer as well as Cecil Bibbs who did create
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: works about her. But when somebody is or in this
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: case more than one person are so pioneering in a field,
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: like so pioneering. You see a little bit more of
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: that in a robust way that's easily accessible.
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: So it is.
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: It is quite surprising that they don't have that, so
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: hope to see more of that.
• 35:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so I've got the perfect sisters, the Bailey, the
• 35:47
  Speaker 6: baby ladies. Oh yeah, Oh my gosh, that good idea.
• 35:50
  Speaker 6: Oh my gosh. I'm just saying. The casting has begun.
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: Look at you, casting director. That's a good point.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: We could do this. Maybe it's up to us. We
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: need to make the hire sister movie we want to
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: see in the world.
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: I'll do the casting, Eves. You've got the directing and
• 36:08
  Speaker 5: the writing. I got Annie is going to do all
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: out behind the scenes, get together all the sound, all
• 36:14
  Speaker 5: the music, all the stuff.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, well, thanks as always Eves for coming on.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: We love having you. Can't wait to check up with
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: you again in a month. Where can the good listeners
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: find you?
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: Y'all can go to my website which is Eves Jeffcote
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: dot com. That is spelled y V E S J
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: E F F c A T dot com. You can
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: get to all the other things from there. You can
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: contact me from there, but if you want to find
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: me on Instagram. You can't at not Apologizing, and you
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: can go back through episodes of stuff mo I've Never
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: Told You. I'm here for female first very often, so
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: there are a lot of other episodes where you can
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: listen to women's accomplishments in the past and how they
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: were pioneering.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Yes, so listeners, please go do that. If you haven't
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: already all of that. If you would like to contact us,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: you can. You can email us at Hello at Stuffhenever
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: Told You dot com. You can find us on Blue
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Sky at mom Stuff Podcast on Instagram, and TikTok at
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: stuff I Never Told You. We're also on YouTube. We
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: have some merchandise at common Hero and we have a
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: buck you can get wherever you get your books. Thanks
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: as always to our super producer Rima and our executive
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: producer Maya. Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Stuff I Never Told You is production by Heart Radio
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