Core Ensemble will bring Ferris State University back to the Harlem Renaissance with
its production "Of Ebony Embers" on Wednesday, Feb. 2 in Williams Auditorium. The
free performance runs from 7 to 9 p.m. and is open to the public.
"Of Ebony Embers" features the sounds of the cello, the piano and persuasion, as the lives of African American poets Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay are re-lived through a solo actor and chamber music trio.
With national recognition for new chamber and multi-genre works, Core Ensemble rekindles the emotions of the Harlem Renaissance to engage the audience, according to Trinidy Williams, assistant professor of Theatre Arts.
“It is my hope that the students and the Big Rapids community will walk away with a newfound understanding and respect for the Harlem Renaissance artists’ power and grace,” Williams said.
The Harlem Renaissance era of 1904 to 1935 was a period during which African Americans expressed their vision of freedom through art, poetry and music.
With music ranging from Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Billy Strayhorn and Charles Mingus to concert music composers Jeffery Mumford and George Walker, Core Ensemble has been reviewed as “often formidable, always intelligent, and ultimately compelling” by the Boston Globe.
Core Ensemble previously visited Ferris in September 2009 with its production of Tres Vidas, a theatre work based on the lives of three Latin American women.
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the College of Arts, Sciences and Education, the Department of Humanities and Williams Auditorium are sponsors of this event.