Camille Yarbrough

Multi-talented singer, dancer, actor, poet, activist, television producer, and author Camille Yarbrough (born on 8 January 1938 in Chicago, Illinois) displayed a strong affinity for the arts at an early age, dancing with the first African-American modern dance company – Katherine Dunham Company – as a teenager, which served as the springboard for her future career in theatre. She toured her one-woman, spoken word show, Tales and Tunes of an African American Griot, nationally in the '70s and '80s before shifting her focus to music. She released her first album, alternative folk odyssey The Iron Pot Cooker, via Vanguard Records in 1975, with Fatboy Slim sampling the civil rights-championing LP track "Take Yo' Praise" on his 1999 big beat chart-topper "Praise You". Her second album, Ancestor House, arrived nearly 30 years later on her own label Maat Music. Released in 2003, the bluesy soul-drench spoken word LP was recorded live at Joe's Pub in New York City.