Sekou Sundiata
| Sekou Sundiata | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Robert Franklin Feaster |
| Born |
August 22, 1948 Harlem, New York |
| Died | July 18, 2007 (aged 58) Valhalla, New York |
| Occupation(s) | Writing Professor at New School University |
| Instruments | Spoken Word |
Sekou Sundiata (1948–2007) was an African-American poet and performer, as well as a teacher at The New School in New York City. Famous students include musicians Ani DiFranco and Mike Doughty. His plays include The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop, The Mystery of Love, Udu, and The 51st Dream State. He also released several albums, including Longstoryshort and The Blue Oneness of Dreams. The Blue Oneness of Dreams was nominated for a Grammy Award. In the year 2000 Sundiata received the Creative Capital Performing Arts Award.
His subjects included Jimi Hendrix, Nelson Mandela, and reparations for slavery.
Sundiata was a Sundance Institute Screenwriting Fellow, a Columbia University Revson Fellow, a Master Artist-in-Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, the first Writer-in-Residence at the New School University in New York, and a professor at Eugene Lang College. He was a featured poet on two occasions, at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, most recently in 2006.
Sekou Sundiata was born Robert Franklin Feaster in Harlem but changed his name in the late 1960s to honor his African heritage. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from the City College of New York in 1972 before successfully undertaking a master's degree in creative writing from the City University of New York.
Sundiata's works combined poetry, music and drama. His musical influences included jazz, blues, funk and rhythms. He worked closely with Craig Harris on works such as Udu about slavery in modern Mauritania and The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop about African Americans reaching adulthood in the 1960s.
...
Wikipedia