The Curb Center at Vanderbilt and Belmont University are sponsoring composer and musician Hannibal Lokumbe’s visit to Nashville this April. He will be speaking with courses, giving a talk alongside his biographer Lauren Coyle Rosen, and working with the Vanderbilt 16 on their performance of two movements of his piece “In The Spirit of Being.”
His book talk, which will take place Thursday, April 10th at 4:30 pm in The Space at Vanderbilt Divinity School, will discuss the new biography Hannibal Lokumbe: Spiritual Soundscapes of Music, Life, and Liberation, coauthored by Lauren Coyle Rosen and Lokumbe himself. Rosen is an author, poet, visual artist, and cultural anthropologist. This talk will be followed by a reception.
Jazz Legend Hannibal Lokumbe in Conversation with Biographer Lauren Coyle Rosen
- Thursday, April 10th
- 4:30 pm
- The Space at Vanderbilt Divinity School
Hannibal will be attending rehearsals for the Choral Prism performance of two movements from “In the Spirit of Being,” with the performance taking place on April 11th at 8:00 pm in Ingram Hall. Hannibal will be working directly with both students from the Blair School of Music and conductor and faculty member Tucker Biddlecombe. Tickets for this performance can be purchased here.
- Friday, April 11th
- 8:00 pm
- Ingram Hall
His work will also be performed by composition students at Belmont University on April 16th at 7:30 pm in McAfee Concert Hall. They will perform “Children of Fire” along with other significant works of the 20th and 21st centuries. This performance will be followed by a moderated discussion between Lokumbe and activist Kim Phuc Phan Thi.
- Wednesday, April 16th
- 7:30 pm
- McAfee Concert Hall
Lokumbe is also a jazz trumpeter who has performed with legends such as Gil Evans, Roy Haynes, Cecil Taylor, and Elvin Jones during his time in New York’s jazz scene. His work has been commissioned and performed by The Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and The New Jersey Symphony, and his oratorio “African Portraits” debuted at Carnegie Hall. He has been recognized as a Harlem Jass Hall of Fame Lifetime Inductee, a Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient among other achievements.
Hannibal Lokumbe has contributed to the creative space of Nashville before. In 2023, the prolific musician and composer worked closely with Nashville schools, places of worship, underserved communities, HBCUs, and the Nashville Symphony to create his first fully staged opera, The Jonah People. This opera linked Lokumbe’s own family ancestry with the parable of Jonah and the whale and is a tribute to those who were forced into slavery via the Middle Passage. The characters in The Jonah People endure great suffering but are also linked to pillars of artistic, literary, spiritual, and intellectual life.
This spring, The Curb Center has been hosting programs around the theme of Art and Democracy. This visit and others by artists and thinkers from across disciplines have been fostering discussions around art’s role in civic life. More information about past and future Art and Democracy events can be found here. Any instructors or individuals who are interested in visiting The Curb Center’s current exhibition or getting involved with future programming should email Rachel Thompson at rachel.h.thompson@vanderbilt.edu.
