Genius Child: Singing and Dancing the Poetry of Langston Hughes

In a lecture recital titled "Genius Child," Jacqueline Lyons, assistant professor of English, will talk about the poetry of Langston Hughes, a major contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Music instructor Michael Hart will explain the compositional techniques of Genius Child, a cycle of 10 songs for soprano and piano by U.S. composer Ricky Ian Gordon based on the 1937 poem of the same name and other works by Hughes.

Carla Walter, a former ballerina who specializes in arts marketing as an associate professor in the School of Management, will give the last mini-lecture, “Personal Approach to Choreography.”

The hourlong event will conclude with a performance of Gordon’s Genius Child. Walter and liberal studies majors Marie Orechoff of New Brunswick and Lorna Banuilos of Torrance will dance. Music major Susannah Ruth of Thousand Oaks and Mariana Robles-Dalany, an assistant professor of education who integrates music into teaching, will sing.

Admission is free. This is a Festival of Scholars event. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.callutheran.edu/fos.