Queen Esther

While still in high school, Queen Esther earned early recognition by securing one of only thirty junior spots in Georgia’s Governor’s Honors Program for theater, then one of twenty-five senior invitations to The National Foundation for the Arts’ Arts Recognition and Talent Search in acting. A theater scholarship took her to the University of Texas in Austin, yet she soon stepped away from the program to explore wider artistic paths. During those Austin years she first crossed paths with blues great Hubert Sumlin, joined local favorites Ro-Tel and the Hot Tomatoes, and stayed involved in theater productions. Five years later she answered New York City’s call. At the New School she completed a B.A. in screenwriting while deepening her presence in the city’s music community, sitting in regularly with Hubert Sumlin, performing alongside James Blood Ulmer, and launching the blues duo Hoosegow with downtown icon Elliott Sharp; the pair issued Mighty in 1996. Her collaborative work spanned alternative rock, spoken word, and performance art. She also sustained her stage ambitions, creating and staging the solo performance piece The Moxie Show before joining the Worth Street Theater Company. Her second solo outing, the semi-autobiographical Queen Esther: Unemployed Superstar, toured several venues and enjoyed a five-week sold-out engagement at Joe’s Pub. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks she served as host and performer for Tribeca Playhouse’s Stagedoor Canteen, a weekly free USO-style variety program for Ground Zero workers that earned the 2002 Drama Desk Award. She appeared in the cast of the acclaimed Rent and took on multiple roles in George C. Wolfe’s Harlem Song, earning an Audelco Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 2003 she placed among six finalists chosen from twenty-five hundred submissions in the Billboard Magazine/Discmakers’ Independent Music World Series. That recognition led to her participation in James Blood Ulmer’s No Escape from the Blues: The Electric Lady Sessions and the formation of the offshoot 52nd St. Blues Project, which also featured Ulmer and violinist Charles Burnham and released Blues and Grass in 2004. The same year she issued her debut solo album of Black Americana, Talkin’ Fishbowl Blues, on her own El Recordings imprint. She continues to sing regularly with the J.C. Hopkins Biggish Band.