American cellist, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Leyla McCalla, is reissuing her Langston Hughes tribute, ‘Vari-Colored Songs’ on Smithsonian Folkways.
McCalla celebrates the creative spirit of Langston Hughes, an influential African American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist, best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance cultural movement.
Leyla says about the album, “Langston Hughes’ work will always be relevant. The lessons and wisdom of his words hit hard. This year has forced us to look in the mirror and see the truth of ourselves and the world that we live in. When he writes, “All life is but the climbing of a hill” – I feel the struggle that we all share and it comforts me. When he writes “I wonder why it’s yes to me, but yes sir, sir to you”, it makes me wonder about the inequality in our society and how we can strive to change the status quo. When he says “Love is a naked shadow on a gnarled and naked tree,” we feel the tragedy of our white supremacist society.
“The nuances of Hughes’ poetry drew me into his work and inspired me to set his poems to music. When I started writing these songs, I had no idea that I was even a singer. And perhaps therein lies the lesson: some of these poems were written in the 1920’s but the truths laid bare continue to reveal to us who we are.”
Watch a mini-documentary with a mix of performances and narration from Leyla:
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Author: World Music Central News Room
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