Contact: Dr. Donna M. Simon (304) 766-3363 dsimon@wvstateu.edu
INSTITUTE, W.Va. – A performance celebrating the music and poetry of the Harlem Renaissance era will take place Friday at West Virginia State University (WVSU), beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the theater of the Davis Fine Arts Building.
“Of Ebony Embers: Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance,” examines the lives of three well-known and very different African American poets — Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay — as seen through the eyes of painter and muralist Aaron Douglas.
The show features the music of jazz legends Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Billy Strayhorn, Thelonius Monk and Charles Mingus, as well as concert music by Jeffrey Mumford and George Walker.
The performance is free to WVSU students, faculty and staff, and is also open to the public. General admission tickets are $15 and will be available at the door.
The show will be performed by the Core Ensemble, a chamber music trio featuring cello, piano and percussion.
Since 1993, the Core Ensemble has travelled to every region of the United States and internationally to England, Russia, the Ukraine, Australia and the British Virgin Islands.
The Core Ensemble was the recipient of the 2000 Eugene McDermott Award for Excellence in the Arts awarded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Friday’s performance is one of several events being held during February celebrating Black History Month at WVSU.