"My Words Are My Sword was a rousing program of spoken-word artist Wallace passionately reciting poems and prose of Black thinkers and artists as he strode up and down the aisles of North Portland's St. Andrew's Catholic Church. The words were complemented by Daya Singh's multi-cultural music. In 2009 Daya Singh won a Grammy nomination in Latin Jazz for Live at Caramoor, a recording with Brazilian pianist Jovino Santos Neto at the jazz festival in upstate New York."
"At the time of My Words Are My Sword, Daya Singh was the composer-in-residence for the recently defunct PCO led by the beloved Yaacov "Yaki" Bergman, who died in 2023. Bergman also headed up the summertime Siletz Bay Music Festival on the Central Oregon Coast, which will host Wallace's and Daya Singh's newest collaboration, Hold Fast to Dreams: The Poetry of Langston Hughes. The festival recently hired a new executive director, Daniel Pack, a cellist and former arts administrator."
"Over the last four years, the two artists have stayed friends and creative collaborators, though Wallace lives in Conyers, Ga. outside of Atlanta, and Singh in Vancouver, Wash. An in-demand spoken-word artist and actor who often performs historically researched pieces for schools and other organizations, Wallace has persisted in his love of Hughes' powerful plain-spoken poetry and its easy adaptation to performance and music."
"“Hughes' poetry is populated with people, so there are characters. They're curious, tragic, wise. His poems are a biography of people and you may see your own biography,” Wallace said in a Zoom call in April. However, the show is not a biography of Hughes though you will surely piece together the poet and playwright's life as the poems unravel."
Darius Wallace and Daya Singh performed Langston Hughes poetry together in a 2022 Portland Chamber Orchestra program at St. Andrew's Catholic Church, with Wallace reciting Black thinkers and artists while Singh provided multicultural music. Singh previously earned a Grammy nomination in Latin Jazz for Live at Caramoor with Brazilian pianist Jovino Santos Neto. At the time of My Words Are My Sword, Singh served as composer-in-residence for the Portland Chamber Orchestra led by Yaacov “Yaki” Bergman, who later died in 2023. Bergman also led the Siletz Bay Music Festival, which will host their newest collaboration, Hold Fast to Dreams: The Poetry of Langston Hughes. Wallace values Hughes’ plain-spoken, character-filled poetry as adaptable to performance and music.
#langston-hughes #spoken-word-poetry #multicultural-music #siletz-bay-music-festival #portland-chamber-orchestra
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