Sekou Sundiata (August 22, 1948 – July 18, 2007) was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

and performer, as well as a teacher at

The New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Famous students include musicians Ani DiFranco and

Mike Doughty Michael Ross Doughty ( ; born June 10, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and author. He founded the band Soul Coughing in 1992, and as of ''The Heart Watches While the Brain Burns'' (2016), has released 18 studio albums, live albums, and E ...

. 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''.

Margalit Fox Margalit Fox (born 1961) is an American writer. She began her career in publishing in the 1980s, before switching to journalism in the 1990s. She joined the obituary department of ''The New York Times'' in 2004, and authored over 1,400 obituarie ...

"Sekou Sundiata Dies at 58; Performer of Text and Sound"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', July 20, 2007. The ''Blue Oneness of Dreams'' was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

.AP via Topix.net "Poet, Performer Sekou Sundiata Dies"
July 20, 2007. In 2000 Sundiata received the

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...

Performing Arts Award. His subjects included Jimi Hendrix,

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

, and

reparations for slavery Reparations for slavery is the application of the concept of reparations to victims of slavery and/or their descendants. There are concepts for reparations in legal philosophy and reparations in transitional justice. Reparations can take numer ...

. Sundiata was a

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers fr ...

Screenwriting Fellow, a

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

Revson Fellow, a Master Artist-in-Residence at the

Atlantic Center for the Arts Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) is a nonprofit, interdisciplinary artists’ community and arts education facility providing artists an opportunity to work and collaborate with contemporary artists in the fields of composing, visual, liter ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

, 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.

Early life and education

Sekou Sundiata was born Robert Franklin Feaster in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harl ...

, New York, 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 The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in 1972, before successfully undertaking a master's degree in

creative writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literar ...

from the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pr ...

Performance

In 1977, Sundiata together with poets including Rashidah Ismaili, Sandra Maria Esteves,

Akua Lezli Hope Akua Lezli Hope is an African-American woman artist, poet and writer. Early life and education Hope was raised in New York City by a "brilliant seamstress and tailor" mother who taught her to crochet at a young age and a father who enthusiastic ...

, Mervyn Taylor and others formed the Calabash Poets Workshop, regularly producing events. Sundiata's works combined poetry, music and drama. His musical influences included

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

, blues, funk and

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

rhythms. He worked closely with Craig Harris on works such as ''Udu'', about

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in modern Mauritania, and ''The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop'' about African Americans reaching adulthood in the 1960s. Sundiata based his one-man show ''Blessing the Boats'' on experiences of heroin addiction (back in the 60s), a car crash and a

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; bloo ...

transplant from a friend. He toured the show around the United States and internationally. The impact of the show inspired members of the audience to volunteer to become organ donors.Jo Roberts
"Vale inspiring poet/activist"
'' The Melbourne Age'', July 20, 2007 His last work, ''the 51st (dream) state'', featured music, dance, video and poetry about the responses to the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

. After a performance at the

Melbourne Festival Melbourne International Arts Festival, formerly Spoleto Festival Melbourne – Festival of the Three Worlds, then Melbourne International Festival of the Arts, becoming commonly known as Melbourne Festival, was a major international arts festi ...

, the show was performed at the

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...

in November 2006.

Recorded works

Sundiata recorded a number of works. His first album, ''The Blue Oneness of Dreams'' (Mouth Almighty Records 1997) was nominated for a Grammy. He toured with Ani DiFranco on her Rhythm and News tour in 2001 and his ''longstoryshort'' album was released on DiFranco's Righteous Babe label. Sundiata's work was featured on HBO's ''Def Poetry'' series and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...

's ''The Language of Life''.

Teaching career

Sundiata taught writing at The New School in New York City. DiFranco was one of his students and claimed at the time of his death that Sundiata "taught me everything I know about poetry."

also studied under Sundiata in DiFranco's class. He wrote "Screenwriter's Blues", which was a minor hit for his band

Soul Coughing Soul Coughing was an American alternative rock band composed of vocalist/guitarist Mike Doughty (also known as M. Doughty), keyboardist/sampler Mark Degli Antoni, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and drummer Yuval Gabay. Soul Coughing developed ...

in the 1990s, while studying in Sundiata's class. Another musician/poet who studied with Sundiata (at Eugene Lang College at The New School for Liberal Arts) was

Spin Doctors Spin Doctors are an American alternative rock band from New York City, best known for their early 1990s hits "Two Princes" and "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong", which peaked on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart at No. 7 and No. 17, respec ...

' lead singer Chris Barron. In fact, it was Sekou that coined the name "Spin Doctors" for the newly formed band in 1988/89.

Death

Sekou Sundiata died of heart failure at a hospital in Valhalla, New York on July 18, 2007. He had struggled with many life-threatening conditions throughout his life, including cancer, kidney failure, a kidney transplant, pneumonia, and a broken neck sustained in an auto accident."Poet's passing a profound loss", ''The Australian'', July 20, 2007.

References

External links

*Margalit Fox
"Sekou Sundiata Dies at 58; Performer of Text and Sound"
''The New York Times'', July 20, 2007
Sekou Sundiata's "the sound of the memory"
''Salon'', October 6, 2000 *A 2002

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated t ...

br>"Performance Poet Sekou Sundiata"
(interview), ''

'', NPR, November 20, 2002
A 2006 KadmusArts interview with Sekou Sundiata
interview with Sekou Sundiata

at AALBC.com (African American Literature Book Club)
"Sekou Sundiata"
at Righteous Babe record label
MultiArts Projects