Event Calendar
April 2, 2013
Sekou Sundiata: Writer / Teacher / Artist / Activist
at the The New School, Theresa Lang Community and Student Center / Dialogue
Presented by The New School for Public Engagement and Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts
6:00 to 8:00 pm
Free with RSVP (click here to RSVP); Seating is limited
April 8, 2013
The Black Rock Coalition Pushing Forward
at the Clark Studio Theater / Dialogue
Presented by Lincoln Center Institute for The Arts in Education
6:30 pm
Free
Free
Reservations can be placed with: julia@mappinternational.org
Sekou Sundiata and his contemporaries began creating an alternative Black musical aesthetic that defied classification and demanded expressive freedom thirty years ago. Come hear how contemporary, genre-bending artists are extending the dialogue of this New Black aesthetic. With BRC President LaRonda Davis, founder Greg Tate, Kamara Thomas, Guillermo E. Brown and Garland Jeffreys.
Sekou Sundiata and his contemporaries began creating an alternative Black musical aesthetic that defied classification and demanded expressive freedom thirty years ago. Come hear how contemporary, genre-bending artists are extending the dialogue of this New Black aesthetic. With BRC President LaRonda Davis, founder Greg Tate, Kamara Thomas, Guillermo E. Brown and Garland Jeffreys.
April 8 - 12, 2013
Blink Your Eyes: Poets to Music
at the Clark Studio Theater / Performances
Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education
In-school performances, not open to the public
A music and spoken word program curated specifically for middle, high school, and college students led by music director JT Lewis and poetry director Tracie Morris with the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra. The multifaceted production, dedicated to and performed in honor of Sekou Sundiata, explores the thin line between poetry and lyrics, and the million questions along that line. How are the two forms different? In what ways are they the same? Do musicians work differently with poets than they do with lyricists? What's the difference between spoken word and rhyming? Does music change a poem? Can poetry change music?
In-school performances, not open to the public
A music and spoken word program curated specifically for middle, high school, and college students led by music director JT Lewis and poetry director Tracie Morris with the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra. The multifaceted production, dedicated to and performed in honor of Sekou Sundiata, explores the thin line between poetry and lyrics, and the million questions along that line. How are the two forms different? In what ways are they the same? Do musicians work differently with poets than they do with lyricists? What's the difference between spoken word and rhyming? Does music change a poem? Can poetry change music?
April 12 - 13, 2013
blessing the boats: the remix
at the Apollo Theater / Staged Reading
Presented by The Apollo Theater Salon Series and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
7:30 pm
Free with RSVP (click here to RSVP); reservations open March 20The Apollo Theater Salon Series hosts a one-week rehearsal workshop that will culminate in a staged reading of Sundiata’s autobiographical play blessing the boats. Under the direction of Rhodessa Jones (director of original production), Sundiata's solo work about a life-threatening illness is reconceived through the unique interplay of performers Will Power, Carl Hancock Rux, and Mike Ladd.
The premiere of blessing the boats: the remix will be presented by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s River To River Festival, June 27-30 at BMCC’s Tribeca Performing Arts Center.
April 27, 2013
Tongues of Fire Choir
at the Apollo Theater / Performance
Presented by The Apollo Theater.
8:00 pm
Tickets are $25, $35, and $45 (students $20). 212.531.5305
A historic evening with three generations of African American male writers sharing the Apollo Stage—Amiri Baraka, Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets, Rakim, and Black Thought—as well as Regina Carter, Vernon Reid, Bobbi Humphrey, Wumni, and Liza Jessie Peterson and featuring Craig Harris’s Nation of Imagination ensemble
April 30, 2013
Sekou Sundiata: Citizen Poet
at the Poet's House / Dialogue and Book Signing
Presented by Poets House
7:00 pm
Free
A conversation and book-signing to celebrate the publication of the Blink Your Eyes: Sekou Sundiata Revisited retrospective catalogue. Contributing essayists — author/poet/teacher Jane Lazarre, journalist/cultural critic Greg Tate, poets Kimiko Hahn and Amiri Baraka, and project researcher/dramaturg Talvin Wilks — will reflect on the breadth of Sundiata's accomplishments and his influence as artist, activist, educator and bandleader. Moderated by catalog editor Malaika Adero.
May 14, 2013
Jayne Cortez & Sekou Sundiata: The Legacy Conversation Revisited
at the Cave Canem / Dialogue and Reception
Presented by Cave Canem
6:30 pm
Free
June 27 - 30, 2013
blessing the boats: the remix
at the BMCC’s Tribeca Performing Arts Center / Performance
Co-commissioned by LMCC and BMCC, presented as part of the River To River Festival 2013
Thursday thru Saturday, 8:00 pm, Sunday, 3 pm
Free
July 3, 2013
longstoryshort: Remixed
at the SummerStage in Central Park / Performance
Presented by City Parks Foundation SummerStage in Central Park
7:00 - 10:00 pm
Free
Sekou Sundiata frequently collaborated with and was inspired by dynamic women throughout his career. SummerStage's longstoryshort: Remixed celebrates his idea of the influential female muse through the performances of three commanding female artists: Nona Hendryx, Sandra St. Victor, and Toshi Reagon, all known for their powerful voices as well as their socially relevant lyrics. These artists will perform their own work as well as selections from Sundiata’s last CD, longstoryshort, which was released on Righteous Babe Records in 2000. The show will be punctuated throughout with performances from cutting edge poets performing some of Sundiata's classic works and new pieces inspired by his artistic legacy. A video tribute from Ani DiFranco, who credits Sundiata as a mentor and invited him to record on her label, completes the program.
July 18, 2013
Free: Amplified
at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center / Performance
Presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
7:30 pm
Free: Entrance is on a first come first served basis; seating is limited
Free: Amplified, curated and organized by LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, invokes, remixes and deconstructs Sekou Sundiata’s FREE! (1977), his only published book of poetry. This multimedia concert features a generation of New York and L.A. based poets and performing artists who came of age in the 1990s as well as a new generation of poets in their twenties inspired by both Sundiata and his heirs. Free: Amplified’s ensemble features HPrizm (Anti-Pop Consortium), Tamar-kali, Douglas Kearney, Patrick Rosal, Kamala Sankaram, Jasiri, Val-Jeanty, Kassa Overall, and Lisette Santiago.
Co-commissioned by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for Target Free Thursdays and Poetry Society of America