Monday Musicale with the Maestro – June 15, 2020 – Dasan Ahanu: “Black Holiness” and “Listen, Lord: A Prayer,”
Our programs at the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham have featured a mix of music, lectures about the history of African-American culture, and poetry. Our “poet laureate” for these events has been Dasan Ahanu. He is a resident artist for the St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation / Hayti Heritage Center, where he has developed poetry and spoken word programming for youth and adults.
A noted scholar, Mr. Ahanu’s academic work focuses on critical writing, creative writing, and popular culture. He is currently a visiting professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he teaches courses in Hip Hop and Black Culture. In 2004, 2015, and 2016, Independent Weekly Magazine awarded him an Indy Arts Award for his work in the arts and activism.
From our March 3, 2019 program Songs from the South: A Celebration of Southern Artistic Creativity, here are two readings from Dasan Ahanu. The first is his brilliant poem Black Holiness, a tribute to the strong African-American women who were and remain so important in bringing hope and joy to their communities.
The second is “Listen, Lord: A Prayer,” the opening poem of the classic God’s Trombones, by James Weldon Johnson.
William Henry Curry
Music Director, Durham Symphony Orchestra
Dasan Ahanu reads his poem Black Holiness
Hayti Heritage Center Concert, March 3, 2019
Songs of the South: A Celebration of Southern Artistic Creativity
Dasan Ahanu reads “Listen Lord: A Prayer”
from God’s Trombones, by James Weldon Johnson
Hayti Heritage Center Concert, March 3, 2019
Songs of the South: A Celebration of Southern Artistic Creativity