KIJANA
KIJANA
A Unique, Award-winning International Entertainer
Kijana Wiseman, M.Ed.
began her theatrical career as a child actress at Houston's Theatre Inc. and Alley Theatre where she held many lead roles in musicals and plays. A former member of the famed Sudan Arts Southwest guerilla theatre group, she received her BFA in Theatre from the University of Houston and her Masters, specializing in African Theatre, as a result of joint studies at Texas Southern University and the University of Liberia, West Africa. Kijana lived in Liberia, for 6 years, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer, working and performing with the National Liberian Cultural Troupe, then as a performer, model and TV host of “Under the Palm Tree with Kijana” (for 3 years) on ELBC-TV. She sang with Mariam Makeba, Hugh Masakela and, upon returning to America, for several years with the Houston Symphony Chorus, The WABC Workshop Chorus, The Oratorio Society’s Masterworks Chorus and as a Texas Commission on the Arts Touring Roster Artist.
Kijana credits her finely tuned voice to her vocal coach, famed international opera singer--now residing in Berlin-- David Brewer of Brewer-International. Her voice is so crisp and her sound so clean that most audiences think she is a lip syncing with a CD when they first hear her. She has a working songlist of hundreds of jazz / pop / vaudeville / showtunes and international songs with tracks or live accompaniment and has appeared in over 20 countries on the American, African and European continents.
She has appeared in over 20 countries and performed
her one-woman show, “The Griot” at over 300 venues
in America and Europe. Kijana is happily married to
the love of her life, Aundra Sebastian Fusilier.
“Rebate a Date”
A candid workshop on the realities of dating survival. Proven techniques to help students avoid date rape, awkward goodbyes, HIV-AIDS, "Homer" and the "Hoochies." Includes extensive audience participation with interaction, dramatic improv, Q & A and open discussion. Perfect for high school /college orientations.
“So, What RU Doin’ Bout the Rest of Yr Life?”
Kijana uses dramatic interp, discussion, role-playing, Q&A and customized worksheets to imbue a sense of self-determination ...encouraging participants to take control of their lives. This workshop is customized to suit the needs of participants in various stages of life: elementary, teens, college, adults & seniors.
Here is a downloadable copy of the
participant’s Worksheet: WRUD-WorkBooklet.pdf
THE GRIOT
Adaptable Audience Adventures!
National Winner: APCA Best College Diversity Program for 2001 & 2002
Kijana, as The Griot, takes your audience on a time trip back to the dawn of existence while portraying many different types of women in history: an African maiden, slave, gospel choir director, preacher, toddler, jazz, blues, vaudeville rock and even opera singer-- celebrating our common ancestral musical heritage.
THEME VARIATIONS: The Kwanzaa Griot,
The Children's Griot & The Women's Griot.
Click here to see excerpts
of Kijana as The Griot on YouTube..
HeartSongs
Beautiful, romantic melodies ...perfect for receptions, banquets, parties, country clubs, weddings and special events...
Workshops:
Offerings are available with tracks and live musicians and as a part of Kijana’s speciality programs: “The Griot”, “HeartSongs” plus Christian Spirituals and special music for Weddings, Funerals, Banquets, Parties, Receptions, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, MLK Day Freedom Songs and a smattering of songs in select foreign languages ... just ask for your favorites. Kijana reads music, is a quick study...and her 3.5 octave range can probably accommodate you! Check out her must current Songlist!
Shows:
SKYPE Address: kijanawiseman
International? On SKYPE?
Interested? Got a date in mind?...
TELL US ABOUT YOUR EVENT
on the online form HERE
and get a free quote
Kijana uses her 3.5 octaves to sing romantic showtunes and melodious originals--and more: Streisand, Norah Jones, Alicia Keyes, Whitney Houston, Natalie/Nat King Cole, Billy Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, etc, peppered with the music of Vaudeville, Cats, The Sound of Music, Finian's Rainbow, Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Porgy & Bess, etc. Available w/ tracks or live musicians.
THE GRIOT
Kijana takes you on a musical time trip with stories, poems, songs
and audience participation ...
SAT • FEB 12, 2011 • 2PM
at Houston’s downtown
Discovery Green Public Library
1500 McKinney, #R2, Houston TX 77010
832-393-1375
SUN • FEB 20, 2011 • 5PM
Ministers for Christ Christian Center
5208 South Acres, Houston, TX 77048
Need to Promote your program?
Visit this PROMO PAGE or download and print these handy files for your event!
Kijana-GRIOT BROCHURE-2013.pdf
Also...
Juneteenth at Houston’s
Emancipation Park:
3018 Dowling at Elgin, Houston, TX 77004...MAP
June 14: 5-8pm
42nd Juneteenth Parade from TSU to Emamcipation Park followed by the Juneteenth ‘Freedom Fest.
June 19 2pm 1
42nd Annual Juneteenth Festival w/Food, Vendors, Church Choirs, Contests, Bands, Arts & Crafts, Musical/Drama Entertainment, Speeches... & more! performer@juneteenthfest.com vendors@juneteenthfest.com
Here are the last 2 minutes of Kijana in singing a cover of Alicia Keys’ song from Empire, “Powerful”
Kijana performs a medley of the National Anthem and “America the Beautiful” at the Houston Procurement Breakfast at Houston Community College.
“Before Television Was Invented,
...there was...
Kijana performs excerpt from a cover performance of Adele’s “Hello” at a banquet.
“She’s a canvas that she
paints people on.”
-The Star Telegram
Interested? Got a date in mind?
No-obligation Online Quote Request form
SEE ALL OUR ARTISTS AT THE LINK BELOW!
© 2016 MoShows.com
FANTASTIC SHOW! What a delightful trip through history with song and stories. The students enjoyed participating and learning at the same time. We just loved your voice! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful performance.
-Joan Buchanan, Coordinator of Student Activities, Bluefield State University, Bluefield West Virgini
KIJANA, YOU’RE AMAZING! There was so much positive feedback about your presentations...please consider performing next year at the Sam Houston Folk Festival!
-Ahia Shabaaz, Cultural Advisor, Sam Houston Folk Festival
Ms. Wiseman, I was a student of yours many many years ago at American Cooperative School in Liberia.
I am so glad to find you again. I cannot express the impact you have made upon me and my life. I hope this finds you well!
- Laura Stark
A 4 minute demo of Kijana performing scenes from her 90 minute show “The Griot” at a APCA conference in Dallas Texas...
GriotLove
Kijana performs original love songs..
Kijana performs her originals at the Ensemble Theatre at SHAPE Center’s Anniversary African Ball...
“EbonyMan”
This is an original song she wrote just before moving to Liberia West Africa for 6 years. The song chronicles the effect American slavery has had on African American love.
“I Loved You in My Fantasy”
and “Relax, Breathe...I Love You.”
Kijana shares a recurring dream and a poem she wrote to her husband 10 years before she met him, followed by the song she wrote and performed for her wedding.
“No Trees” Kijana, recounts a time when a victim of a drive-by was allowed to rot in the hot Liberian sun. The fact that the man was summarily buried where he lay made her see life itself in a different light…That night, she wrote the poem “No Trees”
“Jaws ate Jaws” Here Kijana tells the story of the time, while at her favorite lagoon in Liberia, she was caught between having to choose whether to die by Crocodile or in the embrace of a hungry Python...All the while trying to protect the novel she was reading--ironically named "Jaws"
“Against Tradition” Kijana Wiseman is a surviver of the infamous “Camp Johnson Road Food Riot and the subsequent massacre of 125 people by government troops in Monrovia Liberia. Weeks later, as hunger set in, this is the story of a young food thief, a Lebanese merchant and an elderly sidewalk-based cassava seller who did something very much “against tradition".
“Laziness” Kijana tells Nigerian producer Nosa Ajayi, about the time, while teaching 9th grade English to artists at the National Liberian Culture Center School, Boina, The dance troupe’s master-level Gio drummer, taught her the true antonym of "Strong."
“No Mi Yah” Life stories for Nigerian TV
Here Kijana shares with Nigerian audiences through television producer Nosa Ajayi, her original stores relating events she experienced while teaching at the National Liberian Cultural Center School, in Kendeja West Africa.
HeartSongs
Kijana performs covers of popular songs at a banquet.
June, 2019:
Kijana performs Andre Lloyd Webber’s Pie Jesu, on Fathers Day, 2019, at a special presentation of “Lights! Camera! Action!
...in the Tré” a tribute to the legends of Houston’s Third Ward.
Kijana Wiseman, M.Ed.
Digital Diva / Singer / Producer / Playwright
Winner: APCA Best Diversity Program of the Year 2001
Winner: APCA Performing Artist of the Year 2002
Winner: APCA Best Diversity Program of the Year 2002
Finalist: APCA Performing Artist of the Year, 2003-2005
Kijana is a versatile performer of theatrical and communicative arts.
This award-winning lyric coloratura soprano has a 3.5 octave range, and has been performing since she was four years old. She has been professionally since the age of nine. She has won the City of Houston Talent Competition and been voted nationally as the Best College Performing Artist of the Year.
Kijana’s interactive one-woman show, The Griot, has won Best College Diversity Program for two years in a row.
November, 2019:
Kijana Wiseman performs her original female empowerment version of the popular Liberian folk song "Koko Lio Ko" at the request of US Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee at a reception for the former first Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings.
*Nana Rawlings is author of "It Takes a Woman,"
January, 2020:
"LEST WE FORGET..." Portraying the original model of Lady Liberty, Kijana reminds 2,000 diners at the Greater Houston Frontiers' Club's 2020 Martin Luther King Scholarship Breakfast that the original statue of Liberty was of a freed African American Woman. Here, Kijana pays tribute to that original African statue by singing the words of Emma Lazarus' famous poem as an introduction to her unique rendition of the American National Anthem.
Chapter 7 through 10:
This Upload: July 24, 2020
CHAPTER TIME TITLE
Chapter 7: 00:21 Patience No More
Chapter 8: 06:20 Drugs
Chapter 9: 14:43 Dance With Me!
Chapter 10:: 27:55 Prince Charming
CHAPTERS 1 through 6
This Upload: July 17, 2020
CHAPTER TIME TITLE
Chapter 1: 00:35 Freedom!
Chapter 2: 07:16 Lisboa
Chapter 3: 20:01 Madrid
Chapter 4: 26:01 Footprints
Chapter 5: 35:09 The Taxi
Chapter 6: 49:16 The Dress
NOTE:
“NO MI’ YAH” IS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS (Covid 2020 Quarantine Project)
(©2020, Kijana Wiseman. All Rights Reserved. For demo and entertainment purposes only. Not to be reproduced for profit.
Upload versions below are free but subject to change with author’s edits. Current upload links are provided below. ....ENJOY!
Related sites:
Health and Wellness:
© 2010 MoShows.com All Rights reserved.
NOTICE: Material on this site is for demo purposes only and all music, licenses, and clearances are copyrighted by their respective record labels, artists or producers. Multi-media demos, photos and other representations on this site are the sole legal and/or fiscal responsibility of the client, artist or presenter and not of this site's owner agents or employees. Audio, video and photographic files should be considered the property of the artist and should not be downloaded, sold, copied, distributed or broadcast in any shape, form or manner. All music is copyrighted by the original artists, except where otherwise noted. It is our sincerest desire to honor and obey any and all copyright laws and to cooperate with the enforcement of said laws. Copyright laws should be honored by all members and visitors to this site. Information about honoring copyright laws can be found at www.ascap.com and/or www.bmi.com. All rights reserved for promo use only.
Click to visit the Memorial website for Mary Helen Wiseman