Songwriter, producer and activist Vy Higginsen speaks to the crowd Thursday in the Union ballroom as part of the MLK Days of Dialogue. Gospel For Teens singers LennAsia Harvey and Elijah Lewis lead the audience in a vocal warm-up exercise during Higginsen’s speech.
University of Wyoming had a taste of Harlem Thursday at the keynote speech for MLK Days of Dialogue.
Vy Higginsen, a trailblazer for African American women and an accomplished publisher, producer and prominent role model in Harlem, gave her speech complete with performances from two of her students from her program, the Mama Foundation for the Arts.
Higginsen started the Mama Foundation in 1998 to preserve gospel, jazz and R&B music in youth.
“We were concerned modern music was taking over and young people wouldn’t have a chance to go back to the foundation of music and that’s why we created the Mama Foundation for the Arts,” Higginsen said.
“There was a gap, we felt culturally that a piece was missing once they dumped the music and art outside of the school, we felt that we had to fill that gap especially for the musical child,” she said.
The tradition and art of gospel music is a uniquely American experience. It is the story of a people in music and the first freedom afforded to African Americans, she said.
The Mama Foundation has over 400 students and they focus on more than just music. Higginsen said the students are required to leave their troubles at the door and they encourage them to work in the spirit of cooperation and goodwill because they often do not see it elsewhere.
“In the spirit of MLK, we teach them it’s OK to dream,” she said.
“That sounds so basic, but when you’re talking to people who are at risk, it is inspiring. I tell them that they are survivors, they are survivors of slavery.”
Higginsen also talked about her journey to find her roots. Using DNA testing, she said she was surprised to find that her family was a mix of several different ethnicities, including European. Meeting her cousin, Marion West, a white cattle rancher in Missouri, led her to the realization that everyone is a blend of different ethnicities.
Songwriter, producer and activist Vy Higginsen speaks to the crowd Thursday in
the Union ballroom as part of the MLK Days of Dialogue.
“Our story is one that offers a history of race in America, that once you can get past the color we really are the same,” she said. “I really learned from the DNA process that we are all humans and that there is no race, no one is 100 percent anything.”
In a talk earlier in the day, Higginsen spoke about her experiences growing up during the Civil Rights movement and hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak.
She said his message was instrumental in opening up doors for black women.
“Being the first woman in NY prime time radio was really a challenge because it was a man’s world. Now, there’s not a radio station in this country that doesn’t have a female on the roster or somewhere in management,” she said.
“He used words to stimulate our creativity and challenge our imagination, so it was a personal journey by knowing that it’s OK to push the boundary a little bit. It made it easy for me to be first in something because he came first and because he said it’s OK.”
