"Wisteria," a multimedia production co-sponsored by the Center for Southern African-American Music and the South Carolina Poetry Initiative, will take place at 2 p.m. April 9 in the Columbia Museum of Art. The event is free and open to the public.
Kwame Dawes, USC Distinguished Poet-in-Residence and professor of English, and Kevin Simmonds, a Ph.D. student in the School of Music, have put together the multimedia production based on “Wisteria,” Dawes' soon-to-be-published collection of poems based on his interviews with African-American women throughout South Carolina. Simmonds, an accomplished composer and poet, selected several poems and set them for voices and instruments.
Featured performers are Valetta Brinson, an opera singer from Memphis, Tenn., and soprano Valerie Johnson, a professor of music at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. “Wisteria” will also include photographs from the Richard Samuel Roberts Collection of the Columbia Museum.
“Kevin is the best person to work with poets because he is, himself, a quite gifted poet … I could think of no one better to work with me on bringing 'Wisteria' to life with music," Dawes said. "The poems emerge out of this South Carolina soil—they emerge out of the generosity of South Carolina's women and men—those old African-American people who have survived so much.”
Simmonds also has praise for Dawes’ work.
“Dr. Dawes’ poems have so much music already…and more music emerges when he reads them," he said. "Fortunately, I was able to find ‘additional’ music, especially writing for the stunning voices I have to work with.”
For more information, contact Simmonds at 622-5084 or Jennifer Ottervik, music, at 7-5425
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Kwame Dawes, English professor
Kevin Simmonds, music, graduate student
