Gladys Mae Sellers, a pioneering Milwaukee singer who gained fame in New York’s Yiddish theater scene of the 1920s and ‘30s and became the first African-American woman cantor, will finally get a grave marker.
Thanks to the efforts of Milwaukee singer and educator Shahanna McKinney Baldon, who has researched Sellers and performed as her onstage, Goldye’s long-unmarked grave at Mount Olivet Cemetery will get a memorial.
An event to dedicate the marker is slated for noon on Tuesday, Aug. 6 at Mount Olivet, 3801 W. Morgan Ave.
Gladys Mae Sellers (1895-1960) sang in Wisconsin before heading east and joining the world if Yiddish theater in New York City as “Madame Goldye Steiner.”
“In addition to being the only Black woman who sang Jewish liturgical music as part of the golden age of khazones, the art of Ashkenazi Jewish liturgical singing,” notes McKinney Baldon, “her list of varied achievements includes a notable part in ‘Lulu Belle’ on Broadway with Lenore Ulric, and delivering the first known major American stage performance of song ‘Frankie and Johnny,’ a song which become a quintessential American musical number recorded from artists from the likes of Stevie Wonder to Lindsay Lohan.
You can read a lot more about Sellers’ story at this link.
In addition to McKinney Baldon, the dedication ceremony will be attended by a number of community leaders, arts supporters and historians in honoring Sellers’ Milwaukee roots.
Rabbi Tamar Manasseh, the first woman to receive rabbinic ordination from Israelite Rabbinical Academy, the Black Hebrew Israelite academy which is affiliated with the International Israelite Board of Rabbis, will also speak.
On Wednesday, Aug. 7, a reception and theatrical presentation will be held at Gallery 507, 507 W. North Ave., as part of Bronzeville Week.
The event will include McKinney Baldon’s reenactment of Madame Goldye Steiner singing songs including traditional African American spirituals and Jewish khazones hymns.
"Like Madame Goldye, I, too, am a Black woman from Milwaukee who sings Jewish liturgical music," says McKinney Baldon. "I was so excited to learn of this pioneering artist and her Milwaukee roots, that I am dedicating myself to stewarding a reconnection of her story with the story of Black Milwaukee."
Both events are free and open to the public. For more information and to RSVP, visit linktr.ee/madamegoldye.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
