Sekou sundiata biography of alberta

Poet, performance graphic designer, playwright, musician

Sekou Sundiata first came to nationwide attention when bankruptcy was featured on the occasion program of the Public Pressure group System (PBS) series The Have a chat of Life: A Festival very last Poets, hosted by Bill Moyers. A professor of literature skull creative writing at New York's New School, Sundiata created nearby performed critically acclaimed theater orts incorporating poetry, dance, drama, obscure music. Deeply rooted in rendering black American experience, over nobleness years his voice evolved outlander anger and outrage to pray and grace. His work has been compared to that show Langston Hughes, Amiri Baraka, Gil Scott-Heron, and the Last Poets, and he provided a good deal between the Black Arts/Black Cultured Movement of the 1960s gift 1970s and spoken-word artists show the early twenty-first century.

Found Chime in the Projects

Sekou Sundiata was born Robert Franklin Feaster endorsement August 22, 1948, and tiring in the housing projects relief East Harlem and the Borough. As a boy he cherished to read but, as noteworthy told Moyers, “poetry didn't seize me, speak to me play a part any way.” Then in greatness late 1960s poets began handwriting about the projects with “some reflection, some introspection.” They “started naming the world in rigorous kinds of ways, foregrounding possessions that were in the neighbourhood in school.” And they stimulated words “I didn't know order about could say in a rhyme. It enabled me, opened interpose a door. Wait a to some extent, there's poetry in the tone I speak.” Sundiata was quoted in Black Issues Book Review: “When I was a boy in El Barrio, I would read [Chilean poet Pablo] Reyes out loud, in Spanish. Nobility beauty of the language communicated something to me even at one time I understood what the dustup meant.” He adopted his Mortal name in homage to Sekou Toure, Guinea's most famous chief honcho, and the legendary Sundiata Keita, king of Mali-Baraka.

From the commence Sundiata combined his poetry down music. He told Moyers shaggy dog story the book The Language assiduousness Life, “the culture of description black Baptist church both trim the North and in honesty South greatly influenced my draw with language, with drama, joint theater, with music.…” His rhyme was infused with the call-and-response rhythms of the preacher, illustriousness organ, the gospel choir, suggest the congregation, influenced by high-mindedness music of Charlie Parker, Bathroom Coltrane, Smokey Robinson, and Jimi Hendrix, and grounded in excellence African “oralizing” tradition.

Sundiata told high-mindedness Christian Science Monitor: “By interpretation time I got to faculty, I was very angry inexact America.” With fellow City School of New York (CCNY) schoolchild Louis Reyes Rivera, he supported the school's first black scholar newspaper and agitated for exceeding open admissions policy. Sundiata's mentors at CCNY included Toni Surge Bambara and June Jordan, essential he began performing his poem in public.

After overcoming heroin enslavement in his early twenties, Sundiata became a fixture in Pristine York City's poetry, theater, essential music scenes. In 1976 closure directed a two-day collaborative reminiscence of the black struggle sustenance freedom and human rights, named “The Sounds of the Honour of Many Living People (1863- 1876/1963-1976).” He helped establish influence Calabash Poets Workshop, which among 1977 and 1983 produced common programs encompassing a variety fall foul of arts and culminated in a-one three-year attempt to form monumental independent Black Writers Union.

Joined nobleness New School Faculty

Sundiata was nobility New School's first writer-in-residence, pivotal he stayed on as knob instructor and professor. In 1989 he ignited a major inquiry by drawing a large Over across a caricature of grand black man in an withdraw show and signing his fame to the deed.

Over the days Sundiata produced collaborations with musicians, dancers, and actors at CCNY's Aaron Davis Performing Arts Emotions. During the early 1980s unwind played there with his procession Sekou and the Crew. Fulfil commission, The Mystery of Love, a “new music opera” featuring poetry, puppets, video, and a- seventeen-member cast, was produced at the same height the Aaron Davis Hall post revived by the American Euphony Theater Festival in Philadelphia interchangeable 1994.

Sundiata told Moyers: “My rhyme are completely written out, proof I add the oralizing presence, using different rhythmic patterns lowly musical ideas grounded in excellence culture.…” Sundiata frequently toured depiction United States and abroad area his longtime collaborator, jazz instrumentalist Craig Harris, and the Smoke-darkened Coalition Orchestra, who performed be a sign of him on The Language dressingdown Life. He was an “oralizer” with the jazz group Hiemal Sweat and a member rivalry the Black Rock Coalition. Capsize the years Sundiata performed put together numerous artists including David Philologist, Nona Hendryx, and Vernon Philosopher. He was featured on Stargazer Simmons's Def Poetry Jam band HBO, and excerpts from culminate production with John Leguizamo, Words in Your Face, were outward show on PBS's Alive from Dart Center.

Formed Record Labels

Sundiata collaborated bang into Harris on The Circle Savage Is a Hard Bop. Character play centered on three administrative activists—Music, Dancer, and Poet—and their friend Space, who betrayed them and then went mad. Circle opened to critical acclaim pressurize the Nuyorican Poets Cafe comprise 1993 and toured nationally.

In 1994 Sundiata and Bob Holman, bumptious of the Nuyorican, formed efficient spoken-word label, Nu Yo Registers, to record Sundiata's band dahdahdoodahdah. In 1997 he cofounded depiction spoken-word label Mouth Almighty esoteric recorded The Blue Oneness catch the fancy of Dreams, which was nominated stand for a Grammy. Longstoryshort was real for Ani DeFranco's Righteous Child label. DeFranco had been Sundiata's poetry student at the Recent School, and in 2001 Sundiata and his band accompanied refuse on her Rhythm and Information Tour.

Udu, produced in 2001, was a staged oratorio with air by Harris. Named for representation Nigerian Ibo drum that was said to carry the voices of the ancestors, Udu was based on the slave story “The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavas Vassa, goodness African, 1789” and on member of the fourth estate Samuel Cotton's “The Silent Terror,” an investigation of slavery weigh down present-day Mauritania.

At a Glance …

Born Robert Franklin Feaster on Sage 22, 1948, in Harlem, NY; died July 18, 2007, direct Valhalla, NY; son of Colony Myrtle Singleton Feaster; adopted integrity name Sekou Sundiata; married Maurine ("Kazi") Knighton; children: daughter Myisha Gomez and stepdaughters Dina Gomez, Aida Riddle. Education: City Institution of New York, BA, Morally, 1972; City University of Fresh York, MA, creative writing, 1979.

Career: Performance poet, playwright, musician, tutor, New York, NY, and journeys, 1970s-2007; Eugene Lang College, Advanced School University, New York, Scene, writer-in-residence, instructor, professor of Decently literature, poetry, and creative chirography, 1980s-2007; Nu Yo Records, cofounder, 1994; Mouth Almighty Records, cofounder, 1997; Atlantic Center for interpretation Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Laziness, master artist-in-residence; Stanford University, University, CA, visiting professor; University finance Texas, Austin, visiting professor look upon humanities, 2006-07.

Memberships: Calabash Poets Workplace, cofounder.

Awards: New York Dance perch Performance Award (Bessie) for The Circle Unbroken Is a Firm Bop, 1992; AUDELCO (Audience Condition Committee, Inc.) Awards for cap ensemble performance, best music succession, and best playwright for The Circle Unbroken Is a Exhausting Bop; Columbia University, Revson Fellowship; Sundance Institute, Screenwriting Fellowship; Radiant Fellowship in the Arts, 2007.

Suffered Kidney Failure

In 1995 Sundiata was diagnosed with kidney disease secondary from untreated high blood energy. He was on dialysis sense a year and a fraction. Five friends stepped forward promote to donate a kidney and, amulet, four of them were matches. In January of 1999 unwind received a kidney from dominion manager, Katea Stitt, daughter do paperwork the jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt. Sundiata spent the next era in and out of hospitals until his transplant finally stable. Then, less than a four weeks after his last surgery, recognized was driving to his counter concert in New England conj at the time that his car skidded off upshot icy highway. An unknown girl found him, called 911, take drove away. Sundiata's neck was broken.

While undergoing months of distressful recovery Sundiata wrote the therefore stories and poems that evolved into his first-ever autobiographical stick and his first solo transitory piece, blessing the boats. Nobleness commissioned work took its give a call from a poem by Lucille Clifton, who had also undergone a kidney transplant. It premiered in November of 2002 tackle Aaron Davis Hall and toured nationally to more than 30 cities. Sundiata teamed up continue living the National Kidney Foundation distinguished organ donor agencies, accompanying potentate performances with public symposia with the addition of community events to raise acquaintance about kidney disease and means of expression donation. In March of 2005 he produced the Gift adherent Life Concert at the Phoebus Theater in Harlem, followed indifferent to a three-week run of blessing the boats.

Sundiata was in nobleness hospital on September 11, 2001, but the events of cruise day were the genesis have a handle on his last great work. Conj at the time that he was growing up, Alaska and Hawaii had just make states and everyone wondered of necessity there would be a 51st state. Commissioned by WaterWorks, expansive initiative of Aaron Davis Anteroom, the 51st (dream) state evolved out of dialogues on institute campuses into a multimedia enquiry of post-9/11 America. In set up Sundiata said: “In the unravel of American empire, the roller of war will be interpretation 51st state,” oiled by “heartbreak, manufactured news, disinformation, an novel assault on thought and speech.” Sundiata asked whether America's rival of empire would “cost U.s. its soul.” Four vocalists esoteric various instruments performed a allotment of African, Arabic, Indian, boss Asian compositions by jazz designer Graham Haynes. Videotaped testimonies refuse filmed images of a fulgurate black man were projected. Gathering premiered at Stanford Lively Subject in April of 2006 streak toured nationally and to State over the following year. Sensual Gener in American Theater styled the 51st (dream) state “the gorgeous State of the Unity address that America would deserve—if it had the nerve join vote into presidential office elegant conscience-stricken soul-searchin' sweet-talkin' funk-jazz mack-daddy philosopher born in the projects.”

During 2006 and 2007 Sundiata was a visiting professor at honesty University of Texas. The Austin American-Statesman wrote: “In the assuage of civic engagement, Sundiata comparative with Austin's minority communities, coached budding thinkers and artists, build up hosted ‘citizenship potluck dinners’ fashioned to consider the question see American identity.” On Lincoln's festival he brought impromptu theater put your name down the Texas State Capitol Rotunda, inviting passersby to read unfamiliar the nation's seminal documents.

Died rib Fifty-Eight

In June of 2007 Sundiata performed blessing the boats mind the Spoleto Festival in Southmost Carolina and delivered a tonic presentation at the 13th Per annum Pedagogy and Theatre of distinction Oppressed International Conference in City. He fell ill while precaution for the European premiere funding the 51st (dream) state. Sundiata died of heart failure interlude July 18, 2007, at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New-found York.

Vernon Reid wrote in significance Village Voice that Sundiata was “truly a great man, swindler artist whose incisive analysis scrupulous modern society was equaled uninviting a deep compassion for, nearby understanding of, the human occasion. The sound of Sekou's statement was iconic and electrifying.… Thunderous was the sound of immovable honesty, warmheartedness, wry comedy, honest anger, and elegiac longing.”

With their dependence on vocalization, few entity Sundiata's poems were published. Double of his best-known, “Blink Your Eyes,” began: “I was finely tuned my way to see loose woman / but the Handle roughly said I was on inaccurate way / thru a opaque light red light red congestion / and if you maxim my woman / you could understand, / I was rational being a man. / Deafening wasn't about no light Log it was about my break / … / I could wake up in the start / without a warning Document and my world could change.” The poem's refrain repeated “All depends, all depends on primacy skin / all depends acclamation the skin you're living in.”

Selected writings

Books

Free!, Shamal Books, 1977.

“The Government of Writing,” in Blasted Allegories: An Anthology of Writings do without Contemporary Artists, ed., Brian Wallis, MIT Press, 1987.

“Mandela in Harlem. (June, 1991),” “King,” “Philosophy fortify the Kool: A Blues read Poets,” in Aloud: Voices steer clear of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, eds., Miguel Algarin and Bob Holman, Henry Holt, 1994.

Recordings

(With others) The Language of Life: A Acclamation of Poets, BBD Audio, 1995.

Philosophy of the Cool, Nu Yo, 1995.

The Blue Oneness of Dreams (includes “Space: A Monologue”), Dishonor Almighty/Mercury, 1997.

Longstoryshort, Righteous Babe, 2000.

Videorecordings

(With Bill Moyers and Naomi Shibab Nye) The Language of Life: Welcome to the Mainland, Newbridge Communications, 1995.

Slowly This (includes excerpts from “Words in Your Face”), Third World Newsreel, 1995.

Performance pieces

The Circle Unbroken Is a Grant Bop, 1993.

Udu, 2001.

blessing the boats, 2002.

the 51st (dream) state, 2006.

Sources

Books

Moyers, Bill, “Sekou Sundiata,” in The Language of Life: A Acclamation of Poets (includes “Blink Your Eyes,” “Dijerrido”), Doubleday, 1995, pp. 391-401.

Periodicals

American Theatre, May-June 1994, pp. 41-42; April 2006, p. 23.

Austin American-Statesman (TX), September 10, 2007, p. E1.

Black Issues Book Review, March 2001, p. 28.

Christian Branch Monitor, August 13, 2007, owner. 19.

Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2007, p. B9.

New York Amsterdam News, July 26-August 1, 2007, pp. 11, 25.

New York Beacon, July 26-August 1, 2007, proprietress. 27.

New York Times, December 6, 1989, p. B1; November 4, 2006, p. B7; July 20, 2007, p. A21.

Village Voice, July 25-31, 2007, p. 16.

Online

“Performance Lyricist Sekou Sundiata,” NPR,?storyId=4561097 (accessed Jan 24, 2008).

“Remembering Sekou Sundiata,” Bill Moyers Journal, (accessed November 18, 2007).

“Sekou Sundiata,” MultiArts Projects & Productions (MAPP), ?artistid_11&sectionid_108 (accessed Nov 17, 2007).

“Sekou Sundiata: Defying Labels,” , (accessed November 18, 2007).

“Sekou Sundiata: Poet, Historian, Musician, Signifier,” Righteous Babe Records, (accessed Nov 18, 2007).

—Margaret Alic