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Sundays at the Blake School Reading Series Presents
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Umar Bin Hassan and Pablo Cueco
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Umar Bin Hassan, a member of the legendary pre-rap group The Last Poets, will perform with Iranian drummer Pablo Cueco at the Northrop Campus of The Blake School on Sunday, October 15, at 2 o'clock. The performance is free and open to the public, and there is free parking at the school.
The Northrop Campus of the Blake School is located at 511 Kenwood Parkway, two blocks west of the sculpture garden.
Usually seen as the fathers of rap, the Last Poets was born in Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park on May 19th 1968 at an event celebrating the birthday of Malcolm X. Consisting at first of three poets and a drummer, the band quickly grew into a seven-member ensemble including Umar Bin Hassan. Mixing socially conscious - some would say "incendiary" - poetry with rhythm and music, the Last Poets were the spoken word expression of the Black Arts Movement.
Throughout his career, Bin Hassan's poetry has delved into critical and pressing social and political issues. While acknowledging some of the great achievements of rappers that came after him, Bin Hassan is also critical of what he sees as rap's excesses.
Pablo Cueco will be playing the zarb, a Persian drum probably never before featured in Afro-American music. Cueco, who studied with Jean-Pierre Drouet and Gaston Sylvestre in classical and contemporary music as well as with Djamchid Chemirani, a master on the zarb, is among the few virtuosos of this drum and is recognized for his skills as an improviser and the colorfulness of his playing.
The Blake School is an independent, pre-kindergarten through grade 12 school located on three campuses in the Minneapolis metropolitan area.
Blake School Contact: Jefferson Hansen, 952 988 3790.
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