2012 Winter/Spring Season January
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2012 Winter/Spring Season January Philip Taaffe, Chorus, 2011 (detail) BAM 2012 Winter/Spring Season sponsor: Published by: BAM 2012 Winter/Spring Brooklyn Academy of Music present Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Come Share the Dream Joseph V. Melillo, 26th Annual Brooklyn Executive Producer Tribute to Borough of Brooklyn Marty Markowitz, President Dr. Martin and Medgar Evers College Luther King, Jr. City University of New York Dr. William L. Pollard, President BAM Howard Gilman Opera House January 16, 2012 at 10:30am Master of ceremonies Deputy Borough President Sandra Chapman Keynote speaker Dennis M. Walcott, Chancellor, New York City Department of Education Performers Institutional Radio Choir (The Hitmakers) from the Institutional C.O.G.I.C. of Brooklyn Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely Free screening of Black Power Mixtape in BAM Rose Cinemas immediately follows the performance. Seating is limited. BAM 2012 Winter/Spring sponsor: Target is the presenting sponsor of BAM Community Access to the Arts. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, GA, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man who devoted his life to the fight for full citizenship rights of the poor, disadvantaged, and racially oppressed in the United States. After receiving a BS (1948) from Morehouse College, a BD (1951) from Crozer Theological Seminary, and a PhD (1955) from Boston University, Dr. King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL. He and his wife, Coretta Scott King, who he met and married while at Boston University, had been living in Montgomery less than a year when Mrs. Rosa Parks defied the ordinance concerning segregated seating on city buses. In reaction to this event, Dr. King successfully organized a year-long bus boycott, which catapulted him to national prominence as a leader of the civil rights movement. After the boycott, Dr. King, who had studied the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, began touring the nation, preaching and further advancing the Indian leader’s doctrine of nonviolent civil disobedience. Meanwhile, Dr. King was also writing his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, which was published in 1958. In 1960 Dr. King and his father became co-pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and Martin Luther King, Jr. became president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). During this time, Dr. King also organized the massive march on Washington (August 28, 1963) where he delivered his brilliant “I Have A Dream” speech. The January 1964 issue of Time magazine named Dr. King “Man of the Year,” the first black American to receive the honor. Later that year, Dr. King became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at age 35. Early in 1968, while planning a second march on Washington, Dr. King flew to Memphis, TN, to lend his support to striking laborers. There, on April 4, Dr. King was assassinated. With his violent death, a symbol of moral and social progress in America was lost, and riots were ignited around the country. In 1983, Dr. King’s birthday was designated a national holiday. Who’s Who Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott ing Westside Center where he expanded services Dennis M. Walcott is chancellor of the New to children and families. Chancellor Walcott York City Department of Education. As chancel- graduated from New York City public schools in lor, Walcott oversees a system of almost 1,700 Queens, including PS 36, IS 192, and Francis schools with 1.1 million students, 136,000 Lewis High School. A lifelong southeast Queens employees, and a $23 billion budget. Building resident, Chancellor Walcott graduated from the on Mayor Bloomberg’s Children First reforms, University of Bridgeport in Connecticut with a Chancellor Walcott is committed to cultivating bachelor’s degree and a master’s of education in teacher talent, expanding school choices for 1973 and 1974, respectively, and in 1980, re- families so that students attend schools that best ceived his master’s of social work from Fordham meet their individual needs, creating strong part- University. He has served on numerous boards nerships with parents, and preparing students including Carver Bank Corporation, Primary Care to graduate from high school and succeed in Development Corporation, and the former New college and careers. Prior to his appointment as York City Board of Education. He has also served chancellor, Walcott served as Mayor Bloomberg’s as an adjunct professor of social work at York Deputy Mayor for Education and Community College and as a talk show radio host. Chancellor Development for more than eight years. In that Walcott and his wife Denise have four children, capacity, he oversaw and coordinated the opera- Dejeanne, Dana, Shatisha, and Timmy, and two tions of the Department of Education, the New grandsons, Justin and Gavin. York City Housing Authority, the Department of Youth and Community Development, and Toshi Reagon the Mayor’s Office of Adult Education. He also re- Described by Vibe magazine as “one helluva viewed the activities of the New York City School rock’n’roller-coaster ride” and by Pop Matters as Construction Authority, City University of New “a treasure waiting to be found,” Toshi Reagon is York, and the City University Construction Fund. a one-woman celebration of all that’s dynamic, Walcott was responsible for collaborating with progressive, and uplifting in American music. community-based organizations citywide and Since first taking to the stage at age 17, this coordinating policies concerning youth programs versatile singer-songwriter-guitarist has moved and adult education. He currently serves on the audiences of all kinds with her big-hearted, board of the Governors Island Preservation and hold-nothing-back approach to rock, blues, R&B, Education Corporation, and previously served country, folk, spirituals, and funk. Over nearly 30 as co-chair of the Mayor’s Commission for Con- years, Reagon has collaborated with top innova- struction Opportunity. As a kindergarten teacher tors across a wide spectrum of the entertainment in the childcare center where he began his field. Since Lenny Kravitz chose her, straight out career, Chancellor Walcott recognized the need of college, to open for him on his first world tour, for a male role model in many of the children’s she has gone on to share stages with notable lives, and in 1975, he founded the Frederick colleagues such as Nona Hendryx, Elvis Costello, Douglass Brother-to-Brother program, a mentor- Ani DiFranco, Pete Seeger, Dar Williams, Lizz ing program for young boys. Before joining the Wright, Me’shell NdegéOcello, and Marc An- Bloomberg administration in 2002, he was the thony Thompson (aka Chocolate Genius). Her president and chief executive officer of the New performances with her mother, Bernice Johnson York Urban League where for more than 12 Reagon—civil rights activist and founder of the a years he expanded educational and youth service cappella group, Sweet Honey in the Rock—are programs including Jeter’s Leaders and Bridge to legendary. Reagon composed and served as Brotherhood programs, Healthy Start, Northern musical director for Bones and Ash: A Gilda Manhattan Perinatal Partnership, and the 140th Story (1995), a production by the acclaimed Street Building Block Program. He was previ- Urban Bush Women dance troupe. She has also ously the executive director of the Harlem Dowl- scored dance works by LAVA (most recently, Who’s Who we become in 2008) and by the Jane Comfort as the “Hit Makers” and founded by the late Dance Company (Asphalt and Underground Carl E. Williams, Sr., is a gospel choir with a River). Her musical work has been featured in contemporary message. For more than 75 years, film (The Secret Life of Bees) and television the chorus has served Fort Greene and has (PBS/WGBH’s Africans in America, The L Word, traveled around the world, singing traditional, Crossing Jordan, House, and HBO’s award-win- contemporary, hard-rock gospel, and anthems. ning Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, produced Touring resulted from their first gold album, by Jonathan Demme and LisaGay Hamilton). Stretch Out, and has taken the choir to Europe, She collaborated, as conductor, musician, and the Caribbean, Greece, Mexico, Canada, and instrumental composer/arranger, with director Asia. The choir has recorded 26 live albums, Robert Wilson and Bernice Johnson Reagon on a and has had the privilege of performing with Gustave Flaubert-inspired opera, The Temptation entertainers such as Ben Vereen, Donald Fagin, of St. Anthony (2003), which toured throughout Glenn Frye, Paul Simon, Morgan Freeman, Carl Europe and was in the 2004 BAM Next Wave Lumbly, Max Roach, Roberta Flack, Patti LaBelle, Festival. Poet and playwright Carl Hancock Rux Yussef Latif, Jay Giles, Brooklyn Philharmonic tapped Reagon as one of the producers for his Orchestra, Barry Manilow, and more. The Rux Revue album. She also produced Cassel- mission of the Institutional Radio Choir is to berry DuPree’s Hot Corn in the Fire and Gina spread the gospel of Jesus Christ through Breedlove’s Open Heart. She served as producer song and to offer hope to mankind. Under the or co-producer on four CDs for Sweet Honey in leadership of Bishop Carl E. Williams, Jr., the the Rock—In This Land (1995), Still On The Senior Pastor of the Institutional Church of God Journey (1993), Sacred Ground (1996), and in Christ in Brooklyn, the musical staff consists of The Women Gather (2003). She has written Rev. Alexis J.K. Williams (music administrator), songs for Lizz Wright’s Dreaming Wide Awake Walter Dixon (choir president), Vincent Bohanan (2005) and co-wrote and plays on several songs (Hammond organist), Emmanuel Hunter on Wright’s The Orchard (2008).