VAL GRAY WARD: Rhapsody In Hughes 101

Val Gray Ward

Rhapsody In Hughes 101

© 1902 Val Gray Ward

CD IN STOCK. ORDER NOW. Will ship immediately.

A notable singer, actress and producer delivering Jazzy blues vocals and spoken poetry with insight and conviction.

tracks

1 Weary Blues
2 Trumpet Player: 52nd Street
3 Still Here
4 The Negro Speaks of Rivers
5 Harlem Sweeties
6 Tambourines!
7 Sunday Morning Prophecy
8 Sylvester's Dying Bed
9 Note On Commercial Theater
10 Junior Addict
11 Song For Billy Holiday
12 Troubled Woman
13 Harlem Sweeties (Dance Remix)
14 My People
15 Aunt Sue's Stories
16 Lullaby (For A Black Mother)
17 Negro Mother
18 As I Grew Older
19 To Dorothy Maynor
20 Let America Be America Again
21 I Dream A World
22 Do Nothin' 'Till You Hear From Me

notes

Val Gray Ward is an internationally-known actress, producer and theater personality who has made major contributions to the cultural life of Chicago and America through her work as dramatist, founder and artistic director of the Kuumba Theatre.

Since its founding in 1968, Kuumba has never missed a season in which plays were offered to a grateful Chicago audience. Kuumba has also produced many shows that toured in cities such as Louisville, Atlanta, San Antonio, Milwaukee, Montreal, and Osaka, Japan. As the principal creative force behind the Kuumba Theatre, Ward has produced and directed such plays as Sister Son / ji by Sonia Sanchez, Ricky by Eugenia Collier, Five on the Black Hand Side by Charles Fuller, and The Image Makers by Eugene Perkins. She also created the Emmy Award Winning Precious Memories: Strolling 47th Street which aired over the PBS network in September 1988. Val Gray Ward has also appeared in her one- woman show, I Am A Black Woman from 1966 to the present at colleges and universities, conferences and educational meetings across the country. She currently lives in Syracuse, New York.

http://www.freshangles.com/realtime/education/articles/27.html
http://www.kuce.org/hughes/ward2.html
http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=228&category=artMakers

reviews

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  • Da BOMB!
    author: karendee

    The CD is a great marriage of music and spoken word, it truly captured the tone, enviroment, and heart that Mr. Hughes conveyed in his poetry. I simply love it.

  • Excellent. Great creativitiness.
    author: Virginia Butler-Simmons

    This is the first time I have heard or seen any of Val's work, but her CD "Rhapsody in Hughes 101" is excellent work; very creative.

  • Langston Hughes For Our Age
    author: Timothy J. Etherington

    Excellent reading of excellent poetry with excellent music accompanying.

  • "Val Gray Ward's new CD 'Rhapsody In Hughes 101,' is a creative masterpiece"
    author: Pride of Syracuse Newspaper
  • Perfect
    author: Bob Mellin

    Thank you for providing students of Hughes with an accessible, enjoyable performance of the work. The CD will be ideal for my Introduction to Literature students next semester, many of whom have a difficult time *hearing* verse. If only I had the CD for last semester's creative writing course . . . .

  • A woman of great depth
    author: Nikki Giovanni - Poet

    Although I am excited about Val's new Compact Disc,I am even more eager to see a DVD version of Val's interpretation of Hughes. Val is the reason video cameras were invented. Some people do the work, and the work is wonderful. But other people, like Val, become the work. If Hughes, who died in 1967, were still alive, he would want to stand stage and mouth (his poetry and let Val be the voice behind it). The CD is wonderful, great, almost perfect.....

  • An historical treasure
    author: Mari Evans - Poet

    We all see Langston as our epic hero, our literary icon, our cultural Renaissance man. Val's skill, respect, and understanding of our cultural nuances does him justice. The CD will prove to be an historical treasure.

  • Val Ward shines through on every line of "Raphosdy in Hughes 101
    author: Mark Bialzczak - Syracuse Post Standard

    On TRUMPET PLAYER:52nd Street she's as silky and sassy as the cool-cat horn player, then as wound up as a hot jam. On NEGRO MOTHER, she's so sad you hear her voice crack, and it's enough to make your heart break. This collection strays strickly from the spoken work. With just the right amount of Jazz instrumentation. Gray Ward's just a bit short of flat-out singing. Put it on when you want to get into a poetic pool deep in wisdom and insight from the rhythm and flow of Langston Hughes works. Jazz, Blues, Hip Hop,Rap and Negro Spiritual..

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