BORN INTO A FAMILY of Mississippi sharecroppers, Sarah Addison learned the art of storytelling while rocking on her grandmother’s knees, listening to her elder weave tales of wit and wisdom. Talkative, spontaneous, and always optimistic, Addison has been the president of the nonprofit Storytellers of Las Cruces since moving to New Mexico with her husband, Jesse Addison Jr., in 1995. “As a child, I had the gift of gab,” she says. When her mother once asked why she couldn’t keep her mouth shut, Addison responded: “Well, I don’t have a gift. Everybody can do something. They sing. They dance. I can’t do either.” So her grandmother taught her the art form. Now 73, Addison travels the state under the stage name Juba, dramatizing the lives of sheroes—extraordinarily brave Black historic women including Buffalo Soldier Cathay Williams (1844–1893) and civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–1977). In February, Addison portrays Ella Boyer, co-founder of New Mexico’s once-thriving Black homesteader community Blackdom, for A Century of Black History program at Central New Mexico Community College, in Albuquerque.
My mother did not want me to grow up in Mississippi, so she moved to Bonner Springs, Kansas. It took my father two years to pay off his debt to the plantation, and then he moved to Kansas too.
My parents left Mississippi because they wanted to vote.
My grandmother gave me my stage name, Juba. It’s an African name that means joy.
Often, you will hear musicians say, “I need to get my juba back!” They’re referring to the joy of making music. I can tell how people know me if they say, “Hey, Juba!”
When I joined the Storytellers of Las Cruces group, there was no person of color in it. My mother said, “That’s why you need to be there.”
The group received a request from Fort Selden Historic Site for someone to talk about Buffalo Soldiers. At the time, I didn’t know the history of Black soldiers in the area. My husband is a historian. He helped me do it.
Cathay Williams was a New Mexico shero. People need to know her story.
Cathay hid her identity as a woman for two years while she served in the U.S. Army. She was smart enough to hang in there with the guys.
I learned that other women had done the same thing.
Fannie Lou Hamer and I are both from Mississippi. Fannie’s home was 30 miles or less from where I was born.
When I think about everything that happened to Fannie, it brings tears to my eyes. From beatings she received while protesting for her voting rights, Fannie lost part of her vision. But she still loved people.
My mother was a lot like Fannie. My mother was in the Civil Rights Movement, and she believed in feeding everybody that was hungry.
My mother told me, “Memorize a story and repeat it three times.” It’s only after you can repeat it three times without making any mistakes that you can start to add voices and retell it from the perspective of different characters.
I performed a slave narrative portraying Tempie Cummins of Texas. I remember this woman saying to me, “I don’t know when you left, but I know when Tempie Cummins entered the room.” She was absolutely right. Tempie Cummins’s spirit totally took over.
When the pupil is ready, the lesson comes. That’s my job.
I firmly believe that we all have a mission. My mission here on this earth is to help others grow in wisdom, grow in compassion, and grow in empathy.
Enjoy every moment that you have—and leave a legacy. Write your stories down. Record your stories.
SEE FOR YOURSELF
See Sarah Addison at Central New Mexico Community College on February 5, and follow Storytellers of Las Cruces on Facebook at nmmag.us/storytellers-lc.