Lunch, Concert, and Learn | Black History Month: Kika Wright and Ashley Adams

A celebration of Black History Month featuring presentations by BAE Teaching Artist Kika Wright (bassoon/essay). Ms. Wright will perform her favorite negro spirituals, including “Go Down Moses,” and recite an essay about her experiences as an Afro Latina, as well as providing a glimpse into how she presents the musical and historical background of the African American experience to her students. Adding further depth to the presentations of the negro spirituals, Ms. Wright will be joined by Ashley Adams who will recite “The Hill We Climb” by US National Youth Poet Laureate,  Amanda Gorman and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes, a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Program:

Dramatic readings by Ashley Adams: 

“The Hill We Climb” – Amanda Gorman 

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” – Langston Hughes

Traditional Negro Spirituals as performed by Francisca “Kika” Wright:

“Deep River”

“Go Down Moses”

Artist Bio: Kika Wright (BAE Teaching Artist)

Honduran-born bassoonist Kika Wright is an energetic and versatile performer and double reed instructor in New York City. She serves as the oboe and bassoon teaching artist for Bronx Arts Ensemble and the bassoonist of the Incidental Chamber Players in Pittsburgh. Ms. Wright also serves on the board of PROTESTRA. Previously, Ms. Wright served as the double-reed instructor at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington DC, bassoon instructor and chamber music coach at the Levine School in Washington DC, and an adjunct professor of double reeds at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. Ms. Wright has performed with Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, Trilogy Opera Company, Hamptons Festival Orchestra, Alexandria Symphony, DC Strings Project, Manhattan Opera Studio, Metro Chamber Orchestra (Brooklyn), and other regional orchestras in the northeast and the Greater Toronto area. Former teachers include Frank Morelli, Nancy Goeres, Daryl Durran, and Marc Vallon.

Artist Bio: Ashley Hart Adams (BAE Teaching Artist)

Ashley is an actor and theater educator from South Carolina.  She received her B.A. in Musical Theater from Anderson University and her M.F.A. in Acting from Louisiana State University.   Ashley has been with Bronx Arts Ensemble for 5 years and has worked with regional theaters throughout the country.  Currently, she is the Theater Junior Scholars Instructor at NYPL’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and will soon step into the position of Advocacy Program Coordinator at Drama Club NYC.