As we continue to celebrate Harlem month. Ambassador Digital Magazine Editor In Chief Musa Jackson has an inspiring Q. & A. with the phenomenal mother and daughter team Harlem legend Vy Higginsen & her beautiful
Knoelle Higginson, discussing their family legacy in Harlem, Vy’s groundbreaking career, the historic off Broadway musical Mama I want to Sing!, and their important work with Mama Foundation For The Arts.
Q. Tell us a little about your family and how long has your family been in Harlem?
A. My family has been in harlem for 100 years. My father arrived in Harlem around 1919. He came from St. John, Barbados and my mother came from Richmond, Virginia. My father was a minister. Mother and father met had four kids and I’m the last of the four kids.
Q. Vy what was it like being a pioneering Black woman in radio at stations like WBLS?
A. I always applaud Frankie Crocker for hiring the first woman in prime time radio. I was honored to be that person. So they say I was the First Lady of WBLS. It was a man’s world. No question doubt it. Men ran everything. Men were on the air, men were the engineers. So I walked into a man’s world which was fine with me. I enjoyed it, it wasn’t easy but we got through it. And we made a little bit of history as the radio station became number one in New York City and around the country.
Q. Vy you and your husband Ken Wydro, co- wrote, produced and directed, Mama I Want To Sing, which ran off Broadway for 8 years. What was that experience like for you?
A. Well it was scary in the beginning because we were doing something for the first time. A husband and wife team co-wrote, produced and directed a show. And we didn’t know it was going to work. We had very little money and we put in all of our savings. If it didn’t work I guess we would of been homeless. But word of mouth spread and people began to come from all over the United States to see this show. And we quickly began to sell out until we were running at least 10 performances a week, 4 shows on Saturday. Sold out.
Q. Vy how did you meet Ken, your future husband and life partner?
A. Strangely enough I was publishing a magazine called Unique New York Magazine. And I was invited to be a guest on Midday Live with Bill Boggs and Ken had completed a book called The Art of Living Single and everyone on the panel was single. And we met that day which was in 1978 and we’ve been together ever since.
Q. Knoelle you grew up literally backstage and touring did you know you always want to be a performer?
A. I did not always know I wanted to be a performer. It was just osmosis. And I think it was just a natural progression. You know when they say, “Young people are a product of their environment.” I think that is exactly explains my transition. It just happened. Singing just came out of me. Growing up I ended up saying to my Mom that I wanted to sing. And to my Dad and to everybody. I was born at the same time that, Mama I Want To Sing opened. My Mom basically had two births at the same time. I was onstage in her stomach. Mama I Want To Sing ran for eight years. When I was around seven years old they began to do the sequel Mama I Want To Sing 2. Written in the script was a role for a young child. They had hired a singer for that role. One day that singer didn’t show up and I ended up taking her place. And made my own history inside of Mama I Want to Sing and I continued to sing from there. And go off to all music schools and college.
Q. Knoelle did going to Professional Performing Arts High School and American Dramatic and Music Academy prepare you for life in the arts?
A. Every moment that I have lived has prepared me. My aunt Doris Troy, who was a pop soul singer. Who Mama I Want To Sing, was written about. She lived until I was like 17 years old. She said to me, “Your life is a stage and you have to take hold of it. You have to decide what happens on that stage. You wanna make it look good or you don’t.” And so that always stuck with me. But every single moment and especially when I went to college I was able to apply some tools to all the experiences that Mama I Want To Sing gave me.
Q. Knoelle what’s the best advice your mother ever gave you regarding the entertainment business?
A. Is to be ever ready. She would always say, “95 percent of anything is showing up.” I mean actually showing up. That there is an opportunity here and maybe I should do it. There is a point where you just have to take a risk and show up. You don’t know where the blessing lies. So that’s the best advice, to show up, to be ever ready, to be on time. Also be In the right frame of mind, ready, willing and able to work.
Q. Vy you co-produced the late great playwright August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone on Broadway. Was there any obstacles you faced being a Black woman producer on the great white way?
A. They credit that with me being the first Black woman to produce a Broadway show that’s not her own. The obstacles come in various ways as you blaze trails through uncharted territory. Part of what you saw back then was the objection to the pain that’s distributed in that show through slavery. Where a man is looking for his lost child and it’s so painful to watch. And it’s so much a part of American history. So the obstacles that you run up against is people really not understanding slavery. Not understanding the effect of slavery on African Americans and not understanding the current state of racism presently. So it’s almost a cultural clash. People are used to what they’re used to but they’re not used to what you’re used to.
Q. Tell us about the Emmy Award winning Mama Foundation For the Arts?
A. It’s an out growth of Mama I Want To Sing which just celebrated its 35th anniversary. Over the years we discovered that young people could not sing a whole gospel song all the way through. Even our most treasured and traditional songs. We needed to do something about that. We needed to train young people and help them remember their history, culture and music. So that’s why Knoelle and I started the Mama Foundation. We started with young people from Professional Performing Arts School and it just begged for more. So we developed a curriculum that ultimately became successful in teaching young folks where they come musically while saving the music simultaneously. Mama means to nourish, encourage and fine tune and foundation means to educate experience and gain access to opportunity. So that is the principles behind our organization and what we attempt to do for inner city young kids and kids that are musical. So we want people to send their musical child to us so we can encourage, nourish and fine tune them.
Q. How is It working together?
Knoelle: Just like with life their are ups and downs. But it’s pretty incredible for me to have an example for my entire life of a woman in leadership. To watch her move and navigate and see her communicate with others. And it’s a lifelong mission and legacy to give back. So it’s pretty incredible that my actual environment has taught me to love. To give back. That’s the biggest gift she has taught me. It’s also to learn and study. I think we both learn and study each other.
Vy: For me I never got over the excitement of birth. From the time she took her first breath I was totally engaged and unbelievably in love. So to watch her evolve and to grow, to be creative, and to teach and to give. It’s just total excitement to watch her evolution. Mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. And how she shares her gifts and talents with young people. And teaches and trains them. The best word is I’m in awe. I’m awe of the birthing process, I’m in awe of the evolution process. And the magic of working together and creating something for the good of other people. What you do for others is what really counts.
Q. What is maybe the most important advice you give your students at the foundation?
A. The best advice is when they first come into our foundation and start the journey. We induct them in. It’s really a rite of passage. And what we say to them is, “You’re about to start a journey and this requires you to be ever ready.” And that phrase is our theme for the all of our programs. We give them the gift of a bracelet and it has the phrase, ever ready on it. It’s enrichment through music but these principles will apply to your entire life. Being ever ready for a job, for school, to compete your homework. Whatever that means to you. Which means you got to be ever ready for anything.
Q. How have you been able to pivot due to this pandemic?
A. Knoelle has taken the leadership in this pivot with the knowledge of computers. The technology of today to make sure that we communicate effectively with our young people. That we stay engaged. The spirit that we are not giving up and that we are not giving in. We are not going anywhere. Whatever we have to do to maintain our mission. And our idea is to make sure that young people stay engaged and understand the power of the music and how it effects their brain. And how we use music as therapy to heal and develop our future leaders of America.
Q. What does Harlem mean to both of you?
Vy: Harlem to me is the Mecca. We have the privilege of traveling all over the country and world with Mama I Want To Sing. We’ve gone to foreign countries like England, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, Germany and Japan. No matter where we went people had a love or affection for Harlem. To them it’s some place that was creative, musical, artistic and fashionable. And their was always an intrigue about Harlem. So I always feel privileged to live in the epicenter. Music came from the clubs and it was jazz,from the church and it was gospel, from the Apollo and it was R& B and from the street corners and it was doo wop. And we created a kind of magic and art form that is embraced by the whole world. So Harlem means good food, good music and good times.
Knoelle: Harlem to me is a vibe. It’s a feeling. It’s an immediate feeling. If I was to describe it in details because words have power. If I say to somebody Harlem in a sentence I can the way they physically react to it. So it’s like an exotic place that people dream of being. Because they know what has been rooted out of it. Which is the culture. For example I was in St. Tropez and I met a group of people. And the first ting they ask you is where are you from and I go Harlem. They go, “Ooohh, wow.” And so I wear it with pride. Harlem is a feeling, a vibe and a energy of love and entertainment.
Q. Knoelle tell us what having a mother like Vy and a father like Ken Wydro has been like?
A. The most revealing spiritual journey. A life of principles, iart and action. It means care and compassion, discipline and love. A world full of freedom. They let me grow up to who I wanted to be. At a young age figure things out so I could make the right choices. It is the most incredible experience that I would want to give my own family. A mother and father who stays together, And who creates together and loves together.
Q. Vy what would you tell Knoelle now.
A. To love everyone unconditionally including herself. And to take special care of her mind, her body and spirit. And to keep her light shining at all times. Share the joy and her special vocal ability.
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