Yale Camerata’s spring concert, To Sit and Dream, is inspired by the music and texts of African American composer Margaret Bonds and author Langston Hughes.
Bonds’ multimovement work “Credo”, which features the text of civil rights leader W. E. B. Du Bois, depicts a positive description of African Americans. This is especially significant because it was written during a period of state-mandated racism in the form of Jim Crow laws throughout the United States. In a similar fashion the poetry of Langston Hughes, whose texts are featured in the second half of the concert, serves to challenge the stereotypes and practices held against the African American community, while at the same time providing an aspirational vision for freedom and for hope. Both authors promote the beauty, intelligence, and grace of the African American culture. If you are in the Yale or surrounding New Haven community, please consider attending this thought-provoking concert or join us via livestream.
Conducted by Dr. Felicia Barber, Yale Camerata is a seventy-voice vocal ensemble whose members are Yale graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, staff, and experienced singers from the New Haven community. The Camerata performs a widely varied spectrum of sacred choral literature, with a special commitment to choral music of our time.
Image: The Cries of my Brothers’ Blood, Imo Nse Imeh, 2020.