Report To The Community 2021

ig band and playing standup
bass, with contributions by
singer Alicia Olatuja and the
18-member Voices of the Flame
choir (led by J.D. Steele, who
also stepped out to do some
electrifying singing of his own).
Four orators — poets Sonia
Sanchez, Willie Perdomo and
John Murillo, and actor Dion
Graham — did the readings,
which were interspersed
throughout the musical
passages. They then joined
forces to cap the piece with
excerpts from Barack Obama’s
presidential election victory
speech of 2008, concluding
with his call to “reaffirm that
fundamental truth that out of
many, we are one; that while we
breathe, we hope; and where we
are met with cynicism and doubt
and those who tell us that we
can’t, we will respond with that
timeless creed that sums up the
spirit of a people: Yes, we can.”
McBride wrote the first version
of The Movement Revisited in
1998, but has modified it in
various ways over the years.
It was released in February
2020, in album form, on the
Mack Avenue jazz label.
McBride has not presented the
work in concert since 2015, and
had never done so before in
New Jersey. In a pre-show
interview, he said he felt it was
“the right time…and the right
place” to perform it again, adding
that “the mood of the concert is
one of hope and promise” and
that “if you start listening closely
to the words and if you get, not
a sense of pride, but a sense of
what to do — a course of action —
I think it makes you feel good.”
As electrifying as that
performance was, the opening
act was almost its equal in
terms of emotional power,
particularly for an audience
that included many from the
Newark community, including
large numbers of students who
were invited to the show.
Taking the stage as the
concert began were The Last
Poets — Umar Bin Hassan,
Abiodun Oyewole and Baba
Don Babatunde — whose work
in the 1960s and 1970s, fusing
socially conscious poetry with
music, was a major influence on
future rappers and spoken word
“The Movement
Revisited is a
celebration of
social justice
movements, past
and present and
a clarion call to
take action
toward a more
fair and just
future.”
— John Schreiber
artists. Their appearance at the
event was facilitated by famed
musician and producer James
Mtume and his son, Fa Mtume.
The Last Poets were joined
throughout their performance by
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka, a
poet whose father, the late Amiri
Baraka, was a major influence
on The Last Poets themselves
with his poetry and activism.
As part of the set, Mayor Baraka
gave a fiery reading of his own
spoken word composition, What
We Want, drawing ardent cheers
from the crowd by envisioning
the world as “one big, giant,
outrageous we” and making a
series of assertions such as “we
need to allow everyone to vote,
to be represented no matter
where they are, no matter what
language they speak, no matter
what God they speak to.”
Welcoming the audience to
the show, NJPAC President
and CEO John Schreiber said
that “tonight’s performance is
part jazz concert, part poetry
reading, part celebration of
social justice movements, past
and present and part clarion
call to take action towards a
more fair and just future.”
Schreiber also thanked festival
sponsor TD Bank (“they have
helped us keep great jazz
playing here at the Arts Center
for 10 years,” he said) and
emphasized that the show
was part of the City Verses:
Amplifying New Voices Through
Jazz and Poetry program
that NJPAC is conducting
in partnership with Rutgers
University-Newark, with
support from a grant by the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
“And it was an intentional
choice to put The Last Poets
and the Mayor together on
stage for this particular show
about civil rights and the
Black American experience
in the struggle,” explains
Jennie Wasserman, Project
Director of City Verses.
“It was the mayor’s father,
Amiri Baraka, who inspired
and mentored The Last Poets
as a fledgling group in the ’60s.
So it was really a full-circle
Newark arts, culture and
history moment! It was
important and courageous,
I think, for NJPAC to program
the politically charged, often
searing social commentary
The Last Poets are known
for,” says Wasserman.
“The whole night was absolutely
magical,” Schreiber concludes,
“from beginning to end.” •
The Movement Revisited featured (clockwise from
top left) bassist-composer Christian McBride, poets
John Murillo and Sonia Sanchez, and Mayor
Ras Baraka reading alongside The Last Poets.
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