[1] Washington enjoys impromptu tambourine performances with gospel and zydeco groups, seeking out collaborations and invitations at live shows to join whoever is on stage.

[2] When she was five years old, she witnessed her second cousin and godmother Wilhomenia Jackson Landry in church singing along with the congregation, playing the tambourine by a window, the instrument appearing surrounded by an aura of fire.

[1][2] Washington's first appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was on April 29, 1993, when she accompanied her friends the Banks Family, a gospel group from Violet, Louisiana, where she lived at the time.

In that role she accompanied many famous gospel artists including Charles G. Hayes, Dottie Peoples, Richard Smallwood and Shirley Caesar.

[6] The festival organizers knew that Washington was popular with the crowds, so in 2008 they gave her a third headliner set in the gospel tent, backed by the Greater Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church choir.

"[8] Washington also joined guitarist and singer Ruthie Foster in the blues tent for an electrifying song that was met with a standing ovation from an overflow audience.

[4] In 1995 she had a small part in the film Dead Man Walking and in 2003 she played gospel choir member Faye Jenkins in The Fighting Temptations.

[2] Other movies include the made-for-television Bump in the Night (1991), and the major studio films Runaway Jury (2003), Last Holiday (2006), American Violet (2008) and The Butler (2013).

[2] In April 2008, Washington took part in The Vagina Monologues musical stage production mounted inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans as a benefit against violence.

She accompanied Reverend Louis Dejean and the Voices of New Orleans Gospel Choir in a rousing number that sparked a barefoot dancing celebration from country music star Faith Hill.

Videos of her tambourine enthusiasm at football games went viral on Facebook in November and December 2017, leading to a profile about her on ABC News.