New World Symphony brings The Harlem Renaissance to Miami, and more
For influencers of all generations, breaking new territory is a mark of cultural excellence and a stamp of being a true trendsetter. There are few areas of entertainment that provide a great platform for influence like the symphony, musicals, and theater, The New World Symphony has a masterful opportunity
for influencers to take the lead in taking communities to the next level.
Click the screen below to watch the episode on The New World Symphony and the Harlem Renaissance.
They launch a long list of cultural giants whose greatness and genius forever changed America’s artistic landscape. Their soulful art, stories and more will leap from the history pages to the New World Center in I Dream a World—a five-day festival that explores and celebrates the history and influence of the Harlem Renaissance and the epicenters of Black excellence that thrived across the nation during the 1920s.
Langston Hughes (pictured at left) left his mark on musical history. Today, discover the Renaissance’s music, poetry, visual art, songs, and impact with MTT, NWS Fellows, and guests Kevin Young (Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and Poetry Editor for The New Yorker), musicologist Dr. Tammy Kernodle, conductor Thomas Wilkins, pianist Michelle Cann, soprano Michelle Bradley and the Ambassador Chorale of Florida Memorial University.
I Dream a World: The Harlem Renaissance and Beyond is made possible with support from the NWS Collaborations Fund, the NWS Fund for New Ventures and Bank of America.
Howard Herring, President & CEO of New World Symphony said reaching out to diverse audiences with diverse content will improve the scope and range of deliverables reaching new and diverse audiences. The five-day festival presents an opportunity to begin the process of inviting people to the beach that in the past may not have felt as welcome as they should.
in the interview broadcasts at the top of this story, Herring noted the "George Floyd effect" made a profound impact which drove NWS to expand its influence.
Also on hand will be Kevin Young, pictured above; the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He is best known as a poet, author, essayist, and editor. He has written 11 books of poetry, two works of nonfiction and is the editor of 10 other works, including African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song published in October 2020. In 2016, he became the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a research division of the New York Public Library, and he is also currently the poetry editor at The New Yorker magazine. Founded in 1925 and named a national historic landmark, the Schomburg Center is a focal point of Harlem’s cultural life with extensive collections of art and artifacts, reference works, rare books and archives, photography, and recordings.
Festival Events
Exhibition: Interludes of Harlem: Poetic Illustrations of Langston Hughes featuring Jacob Lawrence with Christopher Norwood, curator and founder of Hampton Art Lovers at the Historic Ward Rooming House, will curate an exhibition of art that contextualizes the Harlem Renaissance and the American Great Migration that ushered in the first Black arts movement. This exhibition will be on display at the New World Center throughout the festival.
Tuesday, February 1 at 7:30 PM
Noir Reverberations: A Night of the Music and Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance and Beyond. Poet Kevin Young and Dr. Tammy Kernodle explore topics and themes of the Harlem Renaissance through poetry and music. The Ambassador Chorale of Florida Memorial University, an HBCU, will join the NWS to perform choral settings of works by William Dawson and Moses Hogan as well as traditional gospel songs. Soprano Michelle Bradley will perform art songs by composers, including William Grant Still, Florence Price, and Margaret Bonds. The performances will be preceded by a 60-minute poetry reading by notable Miami-based poets and students, curated by P. Scott Cunningham, Founder of the O, Miami Poetry Festival.
Wednesday, February 2 at 7:30 PM
This project will include a website which augments selections from the concert with recorded performances of other works and biographical information about the composers." This reference site will continue to be updated. While the composers represented in this concert are from the Harlem Renaissance era, performances and website content will expand to include Black composers from different historical eras. Pianist and musicologist Dr. Samantha Ege (Lord Crewe Junior Research Fellow in Music at Lincoln College, University of Oxford), will serve as an advisor to the website. She is pictured at left. A Handful of Keys: A Retrospective of American Keyboard Music. This concert launches a multi-year exploration of piano and piano-centric music of Black composers and musicians. This project is a collaboration between the New World Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas, The Curtis Institute of Music, Michelle Cann, and students from her studio at Curtis.
The February 2 performance will feature works of Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Florence Price, Jelly Roll Morton, Hazel Scott, Irene Britton
Thursday, February 3, 2022, at 7:00 PM
(Truist Pavilion; Free, ticket required) -
Developed under the guidance of MTT and musicologist Dr. Tammy Kernodle pictured at left, Inside the Music: Echoes of the Harlem Renaissance; New World Fellows will present a vibrant multidisciplinary and exciting chamber program connecting the Harlem Renaissance’s artistic legacy to today. In tracing the musical roots of contemporary composers, we can follow their lineage not only to 1920s Harlem but also to companion artistic movements across the country.
Friday, February 4, 2022, at 7:30 PM
(Truist Pavilion; Free, ticket required)
ABFF Presents Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: The American Black Film Festival presents a special screening of Netflix’s award-winning film starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman about a fiery blues singer who joins her band for a turbulent recording session in 1920s Chicago.
Saturday, February 5, 2022, at 7:30 PM
Victory Stride: The Orchestral Legacy of the Harlem Renaissance
Michael Tilson Thomas and Thomas Wilkins lead the New World Symphony in a performance of orchestra and chamber music by the great composers of the Harlem Renaissance. This concert will be preceded by a talk curated by FIU Professors Shawn Anthony Christian and Nathaniel Cadle. This presentation—drawn from books, magazines, photographs, and ephemera—explores how authors and visual and performing artists created a vision of Black modernity that extended beyond New York to become a national and global movement.
