Paul Laurence Dunbar never had the acclaim he deserved while he was alive, but Ohio University's Central Region Humanities Center hopes to rectify the situation tonight, when UNSUNG HERO takes over Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium, said Joseph Slade, co-director of the center.
The musical and poetry program, featuring a live performance by Top Brass, a nationally touring jazz ensemble, will pay tribute to Dunbar, an Ohio native and one of the first professional black writers. Acknowledging Dunbar and his talents is long overdue, Slade said.
Dunbar was the first real black professional in his field
and he has never truly gotten the attention he deserves Slade said.
The free concert will showcase Dunbar's poetry, read by award-wining poet Herbert Woodward Martin, set to music by major composers, such as Norlan Bewley, Lennie Niehaus, Patrick Williams and David Baker. Students from the School of Dance also will join Top Brass for an improvisational dance of music and poetry.
Matt James, a professor in the School of Music and member of the ensemble, said his favorite song of the performance is Corn-Song.
The work 'Corn-Song' is a very moving depiction of slavery - the striking instrumentation and vocal virtuosity involved really make an impact on audiences he said.
Although many of the song titles might be unfamiliar to the audience, Dunbar's lyrics have been revamped and infused into pop culture time and time again, with the legend's lyrical influence on artists such as Alicia Keys in her 2001 song Caged Bird and Maya Angelou in her famous novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Celebrating Black History Month and paying homage to an important literary and cultural figure, UNSUNG HERO also descends upon Ohio University in the centennial of Dunbar's death. The program hopes to shed light on the life of the poet, as well as the significance Ohio plays in the foundation of black writing.
A native of Dayton
Ohio
Dunbar was a writer whose career makes clear that if African-American writing had its renaissance in Harlem
then its nascence was here in Ohio
where Charles Chesnutt and WEB Dubois also wrote
said Jennifer Scott, project manager for the Dunbar Project at the Central Region Humanities Center, one of the sponsors of the event.
The celebration of Dunbar's legacy will not stop once the music ends in the auditorium. A conference devoted to continuing the conversation on his legacy will take place next month at Stanford University.
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