“Freedom Now” Details

Cave Canem’s 20th anniversary and the Schomburg Center, for their year-long exploration of the Black Power Movement, will present  an inter-generational, interdisciplinary performance based on the musical composition of jazz composer and drummer Max Roach’s 1961 Freedom Now Suite. “Freedom Now!” will feature Cave Canem co-founders Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady and Black Arts Movement icon Sonia Sanchez, with a special appearance by New York City-based youth poets. The evening’s artistic director will be composer/performer and Cave Canem fellow Karma Mayet Johnson. Members of the  Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber will furnish the piece’s musical foundation.  Musicians and poets share the stage for the duration of the performance to deliver their own original compositions as well as excerpts of texts from Audre Lorde and Henry Dumas.