Nick Page (Niska Banja) has collaborated with poet Regie Gibson to create a work for youth chorus, jazz pianist, and slam poet. Jane Money’s Boston City Singers, conducted by Nick, will premiere WE DREAM at the national CHORUS AMERICA conference on June 17th in Boston.
from Nick Page: “Regie Gibson is a brilliant poet who combines classical and street styles. He is just as comfortable with Shakespeare’s sonnets as he is with hip hop. His masters thesis was a comparative analysis of the Iliad and gangster rap. Regie combines words in ways that make them electric. The piece ends with the words, ‘To dreamignite.’ I asked him if he meant ‘Dreaming Night’ or “Dream ignite.’ He said both. You won’t find his poems in many books. He is part of an oral tradition, one that predates written poetry by thousands and thousands of years. I recently heard him lecture on another great work from the oral tradition, a little piece called Beowulf.”
In the early 80’s I was a conductor with the Chicago Children’s Choir. It had been founded by the Rev. Christopher Moore with the twin goals of representing the true diversity of Chicago’s youth while holding the highest artistic standards. Jane Money’s Boston City Singers are living that dream. All of their singers are from Boston or neighboring Cambridge. One of Jane’s missions is to guarantee that every one of her singers goes on to college.
from Nick Page: “Regie Gibson is a brilliant poet who combines classical and street styles. He is just as comfortable with Shakespeare’s sonnets as he is with hip hop. His masters thesis was a comparative analysis of the Iliad and gangster rap. Regie combines words in ways that make them electric. The piece ends with the words, ‘To dreamignite.’ I asked him if he meant ‘Dreaming Night’ or “Dream ignite.’ He said both. You won’t find his poems in many books. He is part of an oral tradition, one that predates written poetry by thousands and thousands of years. I recently heard him lecture on another great work from the oral tradition, a little piece called Beowulf.”
In the early 80’s I was a conductor with the Chicago Children’s Choir. It had been founded by the Rev. Christopher Moore with the twin goals of representing the true diversity of Chicago’s youth while holding the highest artistic standards. Jane Money’s Boston City Singers are living that dream. All of their singers are from Boston or neighboring Cambridge. One of Jane’s missions is to guarantee that every one of her singers goes on to college.
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