Photography by Todd Davis
During her childhood in Cape Girardeau, Yalaka “Laka” Huyette sang in the Pentecostal church her family attended and quickly realized she had a gift. As she got older, music became a constant for her. “It was something I would use during challenges or hard times,” says Huyette. “I always leaned on music.”
While attending the University of Missouri, she performed in a few talent shows, but music ultimately fell by the wayside as she studied to become a dietitian. “My family was very much like, ‘No, you have to get a job—like, a real job,’” Huyette recalls.
Then, around four years ago, after seeing a post on LinkedIn about a restaurant seeking a house singer, Huyette began singing again and posting videos of her performances on social media. These days, she records solo music and sings with local band Vote for Pedro. Recently, though, writer and director Joe Hanrahan of The Midnight Company approached her with perhaps the most ambitious offer yet: a one-woman show.
“I was really impressed by her singing,” Hanrahan says of the first time he saw Huyette perform. “She knocked me out.” He invited the singer to one of his shows, and, after seeing it, Huyette knew she wanted to work with the director as well.
The resulting collaboration, St. Louis Woman, comes to .ZACK October 6–22. The new production shares the stories and work of seven iconic and influential women with St. Louis ties. “There’s been a lot of history and takes on the music from St. Louis,” says Hanrahan. “I don’t know that there’s ever been anything that really explored it from the point of view of the women who produced some of that music. That’s what we’re focusing on.”
Huyette will narrate the stories of Josephine Baker, Tina Turner, Willie Mae Ford Smith, Katherine Dunham, Fontella Bass, Ann Peebles, and Maya Angelou, all while sharing their various talents. She’ll sing such hits as “J’ai deux amours” and “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” among many others; address the audience as both Turner and Baker; perform Dunham’s dances; and recite Angelou’s poetry.
“These women are such legends, so to really embody all of them is an honor,” she says. “This is probably the first time that all of these women have been presented on one stage or been put in one category of St. Louis women, so I’m really proud of what it means not just for them, but for our city.”
St. Louis Sisterhood
A crash course on the ladies of St. Louis Woman
Maya Angelou (1928–2014)
Maya Angelou’s primarily autobiographical work earned her respect the world over as an author, activist, and poet.
Josephine Baker (1906–1975)
Baker was born in St. Louis but spent much of her life in France, where she was embraced as a dancer, singer, and actress.
Fontella Bass (1940–2012)
The daughter of a gospel singer, she began her singing career as a child. Bass was nominated for a Grammy for her No. 1 hit “Rescue Me” in 1965.
Katherine Dunham (1909–2006)
A prolific dancer and educator, Dunham pioneered her own movement method and was artist-in-residence at SIUE.
Willie Mae Ford Smith (1904–1994)
Known as “Mother Smith” by some, the local pastor has been called “the most influential female gospel singer of all time.”
Ann Peebles (b. 1947)
Born in Kinloch, Peebles performed with her family’s choral group before setting out on her own to become a Memphis soul star.
Tina Turner (b. 1939)
St. Louis nightclub performances and local radio thrust the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” into the spotlight in the 1960s.
