As we reported earlier, poet, activist, and educator Sekou Sundiata died last Wednesday at age 58. In the last two years of his life, he spent a lot of time in Minneapolis. He was in residence at the Walker developing and performing the 51st dream state in Spring 2006, and this June he gave the keynote address at the Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed conference held in the Twin Cities. (Prior to that, he’d visited for performances three times: The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop and Udu, both copresented with Penumbra Theater, and 2004’s blessing the boats.)
Commemorating a writer in words can be a daunting task; luckily, Sekou left a rich body of work, in both text and — the best way to experience his work — audio and video formats. The Walker Channel now features the full video of the 51st dream state, as well as his audience Q&A. And KFAI’s Janis Lane-Ewart rebroadcast a May 31 interview with Sundiata, and includes a spoken-word/music piece by Sundiata that commemorates the birthday of Nelson Mandela. Listen here (starts at 36:10).
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