11:00 am, Saturday, February 11, 2023
Mangum-Howell Community Center, 2500 Frick Rd., Houston 77038

Take a musical ride on the Underground Railroad to meet the heroic Harriet Tubman and learn of her early experiences as a slave. Highly acclaimed musician and storyteller, Hope Shiver, engages students in discovering how Tubman led fellow freedom-seeking slaves to hiding places on their way to safety in the North.

Soprano/storyteller Hope Shiver is an award-winning performer and writer who enjoys a varied career singing, dancing, writing and directing. She is also one of the most entertaining history teachers you’ll ever encounter. Even school history teachers agree. She receives standing ovations whenever she performs for them.

This Alabama native has brought historical characters to life for school audiences for nearly 20 years. A former college instructor, Hope Shiver began performing these musical, historical programs after realizing that many of her students not only did not know the historical significance of African American spirituals, they didn’t know them at all.

“It just amazed me when I was teaching that so many of my students did not know about spirituals. These songs are such an important part of our American heritage, we can’t afford for them to be forgotten. I was a woman with a mission. But, I soon realized that I could not just sing spirituals in school assemblies. So, I came up with the idea of interweaving the songs with life stories of famous women. I love to sing, and I love to tell stories. After completing the necessary research, it was a relatively simple task to create the scripts.”

Shiver comes from a family of storytellers. Her father, now deceased, was a minister who intermingled personal testimonials and humorous quips with his sermons. Her mother is a retired school teacher who even today loves to entertain her family with stories from her childhood and stories from her mother’s era. “We truly practice oral tradition in our family. I’m the youngest in the family, and I listen to all the stories. I know stories of family incidents that happened over a hundred years ago.”

Performance Location: Mangum-Howell Community Center, 2500 Frick Rd. (inside Doss Park)
Date & Time: 11:00 a.m., Saturday, February 11, 2023
Tickets: FREE
Single Ticket Sales: 9am, Monday, August 1, 2022