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Lineage - For My People the Margaret Walker Song Cycle Starring Broadway Singer Aurelia Williams and Composer Randy Klein.

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A Forbes Center presentation in partnership with Furious Flower Poetry Center

April 2, 2011, Saturday @ 8 p.m, Concert Hall

Lineage is a new musical work that incorporates the poetry of Margaret Walker, the instrumentals of composer Randy Klein, the vocal talents of the JMU Chorale and Broadway artist Aurelia Williams, as well as a photographic montage of African American history.

The JMU Chorale will also perform the premier of For My People by Randy Klein.

Aurelia Williams

Poet, novelist, and educator Margaret Walker was born in 1915 in the Deep South, the granddaughter of slaves and the child of a minister. In her writing, Margaret Walker recounts the hardships of slavery, the turmoil of reconstruction and the inequity of the sharecropping era. She confronts lynchings and murders, chronicles sit-ins and civil rights marches, and illuminates the pain and beauty of African American's everyday lives.

Lineage is for lovers of classical or contemporary music, for anyone who appreciates poetry, and those who want to learn more about African American history.

Aurelia Williams has performed in many Broadway shows both regionally and in New York City, such asDreamgirls, Ain't Misbehavin,' Smokey Joe's Cafe, All Shook Up, Menopause the Musical, Caroline or Change, Nunsense and many more. She is currently on tour with the new musical Madagascar LIVE, a stage adaptation from the DreamWorks hit movie. In addition to the theater world, Williams keeps one foot in the recording industry as well. She has worked with various composers and producers on recording projects and continues to make strides with her own songwriting efforts.

Randy Klein

A pianist, composer, and record producer, Randy Klein is the president of Jazzheads, an independent record label featuring improvised jazz. He has performed concerts throughout the world at venues such as Birdland, Klavierhaus, Trumpets, the Berklee Performance Center in Boston and the historic Union of Composers Club in Moscow. Klein is the recipient of the 2011-2012 Simons Public Humanities Fellowship at the University of Kansas and the 2009 BMI Foundation Jerry Harrington Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Musical Theatre. His has received four Southern Regional Emmy Awards and three USA Songwriting Competition awards. His new duo project Sunday Morning was released in May 2010 and features trombonist Chris Washburne and Russian saxophonist Oleg Kireyev.

The mission of the Furious Flower Poetry Center is to advance the genre of African American Poetry by providing opportunities for education, research, and publication.

Furious Flower Poetry Center serves as a resource for the campus and local Harrisonburg community. The Center hosts visiting poets, sponsors poetry workshops for emerging poets, holds an annual poetry camp for children in the community, and produces scholarly texts, videos and DVDs on African American poetry. Furious Flower has sponsored two decade-defining conferences celebrating the African American poetic tradition.

Ticket prices: $8-$15

JMU Student Tickets: $8 discount tickets in person at the Forbes Center Box Office only with ID. Student tickets are not available online. One ticket per ID. Advance tickets (up until 1½ hours prior to performance) can be purchased with check, cash, or major credit card. Cash Only 1½ hours prior to performance.

Mailing Tickets/Will Call —Tickets that are ordered more than two weeks in advance of a performance will be mailed to the address on file. Ticket orders received less than two weeks prior to a performance will be held for pick-up at the Will Call window.

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