About Sterling A. Brown
Sterling Brown was born in Washington, D.C. on May 1, 1901. He received a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and in 1923, a master’s degree from Harvard University. Three years later, Brown began teaching at Howard University, and in 1932 his first book, Southern Road, was published. Brown’s poetry was influenced by jazz, the blues, work songs, spirituals and other Black poets of the period. Along with Langston Hughes, Brown became part of the artistic tradition of the Harlem Renaissance. Some of Brown’s renowned students included the writers Toni Morrison and Lucille Clifton. Brown is known for his frank, unsentimental portraits of Black people and their experiences, and the incorporation of African-American folklore and contemporary idiom into his verse. He died in 1989.
Eady, the direct poetic descendant of Brown’s lineage, has brought his work shockingly alive by lovingly, painstakingly setting Brown’s words to music. With arrangements by the members of Eady’s band, Rough Magic, Sterling Brown’s work speaks as clearly in the era of #BlackLivesMatter as it did during the Civil Rights movement of Brown’s era.
About Cornelius Eady
Cornelius Eady is one of America’s most celebrated poets. Born in Rochester, NY in 1954, he is the author of several poetry collections. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for his book, The Gathering of My Name, and again in 1999 for his musical theater collaboration with Diedre Murray, Running Man. He is the winner of the 1985 Lamont Prize, and has received Fellowships from the NEA, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Traveling Scholarship, and The Prairie Schooner Strousse Award. Additionally, he has published three poetry/music chapbooks: Book of Hooks, Vol. 1 & 2 (Kattywompus Press), Asking For The Moon; Recordings, 1990-2012. (Red Glass Press), and Singing While Black (Kattywompus Press). He is co-founder of Cave Canem, a home for the many voices of African American poetry, was formerly the Miller Family Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing and Professor in English and Theater at The University of Missouri-Columbia, and is currently a professor of creative writing at Stony Brook University Southampton in New York.
About Rough Magic
Cornelius Eady & Rough Magic is a collaboration of writers and musicians whose focus is the nexus of the written word and music. Founded in 2012, the band has since released an EP, 7 Songs, several poetry/music chapbooks, and trio recordings. The performers on The Sterling Brown Project are Charlie Rauh (Destiny Records) on guitar, Emma Alabaster (Tamar-kali; decibelists) on bass, Leo Ferguson (decibelists) on drums, keyboards and percussion, Lisa Liu on guitar and keyboards, and Concetta Abbate on violin, along with author and poet Robin Messing (Serpent in the Garden of Dreams; Holding Not Having) on vocals. The musical director for the Brown project was Emma Alabaster. The album was recorded and mixed by Leo Ferguson & Jim Bertini, and produced by Leo Ferguson.
About Rowan Ricardo Phillips
Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a multi-award-winning poet, author, screenwriter, academic, translator, and journalist. His writing appears in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and other national and international publications.
The author of three books of poetry, two books of non-fiction, and a book-length translation of fiction, Rowan Ricardo Phillips has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Nicolás Guillén Outstanding Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry, a Whiting Award, and the GLCA New Writers Award. He has also been a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the National Book Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.