BALTIMORE, Md. – The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American Historical past and Tradition (The Lewis Museum) – a Smithsonian Affiliate – at the moment introduced Danny Simmons – the prolific artist, poet, and philanthropist who co-created the hit HBO sequence Def Poetry Jam – will deliver his critically acclaimed WordSmith sequence to Baltimore on Friday, September twenty second. These intimate performances function world famend musicians paired with icons from the world of poetry, delivered towards a backdrop of curated visuals that includes established and rising artists. The Baltimore installment aligns with the town’s celebration of Artscape and can honor lauded artist Derrick Adams for the impression he has made regionally and nationally on the cultural financial system. The occasion additionally serves as a homecoming for Simmons who’s Adams’ first cousin and spent summers along with his household in Baltimore.
“The Lewis Museum is worked up to have this chance to welcome dwelling one of many foremost arts patrons and contributors to the tradition in Danny Simmons,” stated Drew Hawkins, Board Chair for The Lewis Museum. “It’s greater than becoming that WordSmith Baltimore coincides with Artscape and celebrates Derrick Adams as all three embody the numerous historic, cultural, and financial contributions Black Baltimore has made to the State and to our nation.”
Poetry has been and continues to be experiencing a renaissance. Simmons acknowledged this a number of years in the past in founding Def Poetry Jam which was chargeable for discovering many younger gifted poets and visible artists, a number of of whom went on to fame, together with Saul Williams, Kehinde Wiley, and Wangechi Mutu. WordSmith Baltimore revisits this format and can function performances by bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma’s Band of Resistance, a quartet that can embrace guitarist Jake Morelli, Marc Cary on keyboard, and percussionist Wes Watkins. They can even function the night’s home band, backing Simmons, vocalist and emcee Lezlie Harrison, guitarist/vocalist Khemist, and an assemblage of Def Poetry Jam veterans together with, Toni Blackman, Derick D. Cross, Kraal “Kayo” Charles and Bonafide Rojas. The night can even embrace a efficiency by Baltimore Slam Group.
“WordSmith is a novel expertise,” stated Simmons. “The mixing of visible artwork poetry and stay music makes not solely a feast in your thoughts and ears however the addition of the artwork makes the overall expertise a feast in your soul. WordSmith is the twenty first century inevitable evolution of Def Poetry.”
Baltimore-native Derrick Adams has turn out to be one of the vital notable advocates for increasing the dialog on arts and tradition to incorporate its function as an financial sector and an avenue to stimulate financial prosperity. As an artist, Adams celebrates and expands the dialogue round up to date Black life and tradition by scenes of normalcy and perseverance. He has developed an iconography of pleasure, leisure, and the pursuit of happiness inside a observe that encompasses work, sculptures, collages, performances, movies, and public tasks. Adams synthesizes representational imagery with planar Cubist geometry to supply multifaceted figures and faces that tackle the richness of the Black expertise.
In 2022, Adams established Attraction Metropolis Cultural Cultivation, a corporation to help and encourage underserved communities within the metropolis of Baltimore by occasions carried out by three entities: The Final Resort Artist Retreat, a residency program that subscribes to the idea of leisure as remedy for the Black artistic; The Black Baltimore Digital Database, a collaborative counter-institutional area for accumulating, storing, and safekeeping the information of native archival initiatives; and Zora’s Den, a web based group of Black ladies writers began in January 2017, which has since expanded into in-person writing workshops, a writers’ circle, and a month-to-month studying sequence that attempt to advertise instruction, help, and social engagement.
In step with the Metropolis’s celebration of its huge group of visible artists, WordSmith Baltimore can even shine a lightweight on seven creatives assembled by Alma Roberts, a public well being advocate-turned-abstract painter who serves as a member of each The Lewis Museum’s Board of Administrators and the Baltimore Public Artwork Fee that oversees and approves the set up and upkeep of public artwork all through the town. The night will embrace a digital show of works by Anita Henley Carrington, Ram Sueno, Tanya Bracey, Erasto Curtis Matthews, Thomas Dade and Marie Antoinette Diaw.
WordSmith Baltimore is made attainable by the help of Verizon with further help from The Roberts Household Fund. Tickets are $20 for members and $25 for non-members and might be bought at https://bit.ly/wordsmithbaltimore.
Concerning the Reginald F. Lewis MuseumLocated two blocks from Internal Harbor in Downtown Baltimore, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American Historical past & Tradition – a Smithsonian Affiliate – paperwork, interprets, and preserves the complicated experiences, contributions, and tradition of Black folks. It serves as a catalyst of sustained change by offering strong applications and exhibitions and daring conversations that educate and problem. Based in 2005, the 82,000-square-foot facility accommodates over 13,000 sq. toes of everlasting and momentary exhibition area, internet hosting greater than 11,000 objects in our everlasting assortment, particular exhibitions, instructional applications, and public occasions. For up-to-date data concerning applications and reveals and to plan your timed admission, go to www.lewismuseum.org, or comply with us on Instagram and Twitter at @LewisMuseum or on Fb @RFLewisMuseum.
