USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Rapper and actor Ice-T is teaming up with musical director and trumpeter Ron McCurdy and his quartet for an acclaimed multimedia production of Langston Hughes ’ epic poem Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz at the EFG London Jazz Festival.

Detailed explanation-2: -First recognized as a literary figure during the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes was best known for his innovation of the art form called jazz poetry.

Detailed explanation-3: -Jazz poetry has been defined as poetry that “demonstrates jazz-like rhythm or the feel of improvisation” and also as poetry that takes jazz music, musicians, or the jazz milieu as its subject. Some critics consider it a distinct genre though others consider the term to be merely descriptive.

Detailed explanation-4: -As poet and literature scholar Barry Wallenstein describes it, jazz poetry happens “when the two arts physically combine, when poets, collaborating with music in performance on stage or on record, merge language and music into a highly personalized synergism.”