Gaye Adegbalola (born Gaye Todd; March 21, 1944, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, United States) is an American blues singer and guitarist, teacher, lecturer, activist, and photographer. Early life Adegbalola's father, Clarence R. Todd, was the first Black school board member in Fredericksburg, as well as a jazz musician. He founded a performing arts group for black youth called "Souls of Shade", today known as "Harambee 360° Experimental Theater." Her mother, Gladys P. Todd, was an early organizer of local civil rights movement in Fredericksburg and she frequently brought home old jazz records from her job at the Youth Canteen to give to young Gaye. Abegbalola attended a segregated highschool called Walker-Grant High School, and she graduated as her class valedictorian in 1961. During her time at Walker-Grant High School, she participated in numerous sit-in protests and picket lines as a member of the civil rights movement. She later attended Boston University, where she graduated with a B.A. in biology. Career Adegbalola's occupations after college included being a technical writer for TRW Systems, a biochemical researcher at Rockefeller University, and a bacteriologist at Harlem Hospital where she was also the local union representative. These were all in sharp contrast to her first job as a teenager, where she worked at a laundry mat for forty-five cents an hour. From 1966 to 1970, she was involved in the Black Power Movement in New York and she organized the Harlem Committee on Self-Defense, where she met individuals such as Audre Lorde. In 1970, Adgbalola returned to Fredericksburg, where she taught science, gifted and talented and creative thinking courses in local schools. She helped her father direct the Harambee Theater, sometimes acting in performances herself, until his death in 1977. That same year, Gaye began studying guitar after already mastering the flute while she was in her high school's band. In 1978 she received her Master of Education in Educational Media from Virginia State University, and in 1982 was honored as Virginia's Teacher of the Year. She spent much of the rest of the 1980s conducting teachers' workshops on motivational and teaching techniques. Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women was first formed as a duo in 1984 by Adegbalola and her guitar teacher, Ann Rabson, with Earlene Lewis joining later to form a trio. Lewis was replaced by Andra Faye in 1992. Saffire recorded their first album, Middle Age Blues, on their own label in