By Theneisha Smith/reporter
The Langston Hughes Project, a multimedia concert with spoken word, jazz quartet and large-as-life visual illustrations, will visit all four campuses in April to highlight National Poetry Month.
The Langston Hughes Project Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz is Hughes’ epic 12-part poem scored with musical cues. Both were written in the early 1960s by Hughes.
The multimedia presentation pays tribute in verse and music to the struggle for artistic and social freedoms in American and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s.
Dr. Ron McCurdy, the project’s music director and composer, orchestrates the original music.
He based his composition on the music cues suggested by Hughes, from the blues, New Orleans jazz, Latin cha-cha and African drumming.
The words, spoken by Dr. Diane Richardson, and music, played by McCurdy’s jazz quartet, are linked by the images of black artists and photographers Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks and Romare Bearden.
“ The biggest attraction for the Langston Hughes project is that it crosses several disciplines: history, music, culture and poetry,” Vesta Wheatley, student activities director on NW Campus, said.
This project has been at TCC before, about two years ago, was well received by the students and provided a lot of avenues for learning, Wheatley said.
Wheatley said the campuses are anticipating a similar response with this year’s presentation.
The Langston Hughes Project Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz will be presented on the campuses Wednesday-Thursday, April 4-5.
NW Campus: April 4, 10-11 a.m. in WSTU 1303-05. For more information, contact Wheatley at 817-515-7795.
NE Campus: April 4, 12:30-1:30 p.m. in NSTU Center Corner. Contact Paula Vastine, NE student development services director, for more information at 817-515-6644.
SE Campus: April 5, 10-11 a.m. in the North Ballroom. For more information, call Doug Peak, SE director student development services, at 817-515-3595.
South Campus: April 5, noon-1 p.m. SSTU cafeteria. Contact Zeb Strong, South student activities director, at 817-515-4206 for more information.
