Playwright Towonda Kilpatrick-Raffety Brings Biblical Women to Life in “She Spoke and Heaven Moved”
By Adrianne Murchison
Publish Date: November 11, 2025
In October, playwright and producer Towonda Kilpatrick-Raffety premiered her musical, “She Spoke and Heaven Moved,” at Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta’s historic Sweet Auburn district.
Described by Kilpatrick-Raffety as a fusion of faith, rhythm, and storytelling, the production weaves together the voices of eight women from the Bible through monologues. Each represents a quality Kilpatrick-Raffety believes mirrors the strength and complexity of Black women today.
Hagar embodies endurance; Ruth, loyalty; Esther, courage; Rahab, redemption; Tamar, resilience; Mary Magdalene, transformation; The Samaritan Woman, awakening; and the Woman with the Issue of Blood, healing.
“I wanted to show Black women that we are not what they say we are,” Kilpatrick-Raffety said. “We are powerful women. That’s what I want women to see.” She continued, “We are some bad divas. We are a sisterhood. We can cry and it’s okay.
We can get angry and it’s okay. We’re educated, we’re mothers. Some of us are married, some single. I am tired of the labels and how we are misunderstood.” The musical’s original theme song, which goes by the same title, “She Spoke and Heaven Moved,” was written by Eravani Townsend and scored by audio engineer Jarred Riley.
The story unfolds through monologues and music that connect the trials of biblical women to the experiences of women today. Kilpatrick-Raffety said the inspiration came as she began studying women of scripture and realized how timeless their stories are.
“The more I read, the more I saw that there really aren’t that many differences between the women of the Bible and us now,” she said.
Their struggles, their courage, their faith are the same, she added. Kilpatrick-Raffety’s desire to uplift and redefine the image of Black women also comes amid discouraging trends.
News outlets, including MSNBC, have cited U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that nearly 300,000 Black women left the workforce over a three-month period in 2025, largely due to federal policy changes in the public sector.
Kilpatrick-Raffety is a longtime playwright and a bold storyteller. Her early 2000s stage play, “Can a Hoochie Become First Lady,” starred Keith Sweat, Q Parker, and Phyllis Yvonne Stickney. She later produced, “Mama, I’m Your Child,” featuring BernNadette Stanis, Howard Hewett, and Dave Hollister; as well as “Cheezecake Boiz & the Diva,” starring Tony Terry and LaKeta Renee Booker.
After pausing her theatrical work for years to focus on an interior design business, Kilpatrick-Raffety said she felt a divine calling to write “She Spoke and Heaven Moved,” earlier this year.
She wrote the play in May while vacationing in Nice, France. Kilpatrick-Raffety said that she’s is now in talks to bring “She Spoke and Heaven Moved” to other churches in metro Atlanta, as well as to audiences in Arkansas and Tennessee. She has hopes of one day taking the show all the way to Broadway.
“With so much going on in the world, it was time,” she said of producing the musical. “We cannot listen to the media, we know who we are. I want to always be that vessel and let God use me.”
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