The University can look forward to an entertaining night that combines poetry and jazz.
“Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods of Jazz — The Langston Hughes Project” is a multimedia presentation featuring trumpeter Ron McCurdy. It takes place Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall at Moody Music Building. The event is free and open to anyone who wants to attend.
The presentation is being offered by department of gender and race studies for the University’s observance of National Poetry and National Jazz months. The project is based on the poem “Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz” by Langston Hughes, the famous poet and novelist.
According to the news release, McCurdy, professor of music in the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, will perform with a jazz quartet to a multimedia presentation, which includes the words, life and images of Hughes. Film director Damini Baker linked words and music in a kaleidoscope of images.
DoVeanna Fulton Minor, chairwoman of gender and race studies, said McCurdy contacted the school about performing the Langston Hughes Project. She said she was already familiar with it because she had attended a performance in Arizona in 2006.
“When he contacted the University, I thought this would be a nice occasion for [the department of gender and race studies] to do our thing, to show our support,” she said.
Minor said when she attended McCurdy’s performance four years ago, she was impressed with how engaging the experience was.
“He is an artist and performer, so his work is rich with musical performance and rich in imparting Langston Hughes’ poetic understanding of the world in which African-Americans produce culture,” Minor said.
“I think one of the things for students is it brings poetry to life,” Minor added. “It’s not meant to be read, but heard. It was meant to fill the soul. You listen to rhymes as you hear the poetry.”
McCurdy said he was teaching a class on the Harlem Renaissance and came across Hughes’ poem. He said he used the poem to create a jazz piece to perform for the opening of Weisman Museum on the campus of University of Minnesota. Because he received so many good reviews, McCurdy said, he continued to perform the piece and has been doing so for the last 15 years.
“We have performed 700 performances all over the country,” McCurdy said.
He said the content of the poem was the reason why he contacted the University.
“There are a lot of references to segregation,” McCurdy said. “He talks about his life as a young boy growing up, his trouble and his freedom fighters. Langston Hughes grew up during the Jazz era. He listened to great jazz musicians. The 12 moods in his poem symbolize the 12 measures of blues.”
John Giggie, assistant professor of history, said Langston Hughes was a prominent figure in black history, and Hughes had a talent for making his poetry musical.
“He was one of America’s great poets from the early 20th century who deeply captured black culture in his work,” Giggie said. “He is most famous for taking black music, jazz and blues, and writing poems based on that music. He took blues and jazz and used it as an inspiration. He took the music and transformed it into poetry.”
McCurdy said the poem will help students recognize what their grandparents went through and to see why parents stress the importance of education.
“One thing I have noticed with my students is there is disconnect historically,” McCurdy said. “This poem will help them help them connect and understand why people like Dorothy Height, someone who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., did what she did.”
