Intergenerational Drum Dialogue Combines Drumming and Storytelling in Englewood
Poet Michael Warr Collaborates with Percussionist Areeayl Ra June 13
Release Date: 06/05/07
The Chicago Park District and the Englewood Community Cultural Planning Council (ECCPC) present an admission-free performance of “poetic memoir” by Michael Warr accompanied by renowned percussionist Avreeayl Ra and the storytelling/vocalist duo In the Spirit at the Hamilton Park Field House, 513 W. 72nd St., Wednesday, June 13 from 7 – 9 p.m.
The concert kicks off the summer season for the Drum Dialogue workshop, which takes place Tuesday evenings from 6 - 7:30 p.m. at Hamilton Park Cultural Center through December 2007. Drum Dialog is a partnership between the Chicago Park District, Columbia College Center for Community Arts Partnerships and the ECCPC. Its goal is to unite community residents of different ages through music and dialogue.
Warr conceptualized Drum Dialogue as Director of DanceAfrica Chicago. This event is his farewell concert as he leaves Chicago after 30 years to return to his childhood city, San Francisco. The program draws on Warr’s “Critical Junctures” poems, which track his life’s journey through various cities.
Vocalist, percussionist, and storyteller Glenda Baker hosts the weekly Drum Dialogue program. She also comprises the storytelling duo In the Spirit with Emily Hooper Lansana. Together with special guest Avreeayl Ra, they combine poetry, vocals and music in a rendition of Warr’s poem “Back to Baton Rouge,” about returning to the place of his birth.
Michael Warr’s literary awards include a NEA Creative Writing Fellowship for poetry, the Gwendolyn Brooks Significant Illinois Poets Award, a Ragdale Foundation US - Africa Fellowship, and others. His poems are included in many anthologies, and his first book of poetry, We Are All The Black Boy, was honored by the Illinois Library Association. He founded and directed the Guild Complex, Chicago’s award-winning literary arts center, for its first decade and remains an Editor at Tia Chucha Press. Also a journalist, he served as a foreign correspondent based in Ethiopia, writing for the BBC, The Manchester Guardian, The Economist, and other media.
Master drummer and percussionist, Avreeayl Ra is a renowned musician and a long-term member of the Chicago AACM. He has performed and/or recorded with an impressive list of acclaimed musicians such as Fred Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Fontella Bass, Lester Bowie, Ari Brown, Oscar Brown, Jr., Henry Butler, Hamid Drake, Malachi Favors, Donald Raphael Garrett, Charles Gayle, Henry Grimes, Billy Harper, Joseph Jarman, Edward “Kidd” Jordan, Nicole Mitchell, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Malachi Thompson, and many more. Besides playing and recording music, these days Avreeayl devotes much of his time documenting on film the hidden spiritual roots of Chicago music and the Chicago jazz community.
Glenda Baker has been performing in the Chicago area the past 20 years. She is co-founder of the performance duo In the Spirit, which has performed for countless venues including DanceAfrica Chicago, The National Association of Black Storytellers, and the National Storytelling Network. Zahra specializes in developing community through positive, engaging performances and workshops using music, poetry and story. She has performed with some of Chicago's most innovative players in jazz and world music such as Niki Mitchell, Leroy Jenkins, Jeff Parker, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Josh Abrams, David Boykin, Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang.
The Englewood Community Cultural Planning Council is a body of residents, artists, businesses, schools, church-based institutions, community agencies and organizations of Chicago's Englewood/West Englewood neighborhoods who are committed to using the arts for community development. Each artistic program helps participants to discuss and learn about critical issues, to engage in artistic expressions which bring insight and clarity, to develop expanded networks and relations of respect, and to build individual capacity and community social capital.
Round-trip transportation for this event will be provided and will depart from Shear Addiction Barber Salon, 752 W. 69th St., in Englewood. The bus will begin boarding at 5:30 p.m. and depart for the event at 6 p.m. Call 773-846-4058 to reserve a seat.
For more information about the Chicago Park District, visit www.chicagoparkdistrict.com or call (312) 742-PLAY.
- Contact Phone: 312 742 7529