TOMORROW NIGHT: An Evening With Langston

Dear friends, do love jazz? How about jazz and poetry together? This even is going to be swingin'. Check it out…

An Evening with Langston

An Evening with Langston

Wednesday, February 2 at 6pm.
At The Sacramento Room, Central Library –– 828 I Street

Dramatist Wayne Cook and bassist Vincent Gomez combine poetry with jazz to create a remarkable collaboration in An Evening with Langston. Langston Hughes loved to visit Harlem night spots and challenge the band to improvise jazz with poetry.  In An Evening with Langston, Vince and Wayne will bring some of Langston's most famous works to life through spoken word, music and movement. Poet Laureate Bob Stanley hosts.

Wayne Cook is currently the Manager of the Arts in Education Program and the ADA 504 Coordinator for the California Arts Council. Mr. Cook has performed this one-person show dramatizing the poetry of Langston Hughes in many venues, from schools to performing arts centers.  Author of Center Stage, A Curriculum for the Performing Arts, Mr. Cook has been a drama and movement instructor at a number of universities, including Penn State University, CSU Long Beach and CSU Sacramento.  Wayne has also been very active with the California Department of Education rewriting the California State Framework to include recently adopted content standards for the visual and performing arts.

Vincent Gomez has been an active performer and conductor for over 25 years. He has served as the conductor for several orchestras in the United States and the Philippines, Central and South America.  In addition to conducting he performs professionally as a jazz bassist in the Bay Area.  Mr. Gomez is a current Artist in Residence with the California Arts Council at Trace Elementary and Lincoln High School in San Jose, providing training to non-English proficient students so that language is not an obstacle to becoming a participant in an orchestra.  Mr. Gomez was very instrumental in collaborating with Wayne Cook in the development of the music and script for this Langston Hughes performance.