Program for the May 31, 2002 concert that included a performance of Margaret Bonds’ “The Ballad of the Brown King”
I have long believed that the study, teaching, and writing of history all give back beautiful gifts. Evidence to support this belief is readily available in the Praying Grounds Collectionat Cleveland State University and in countless other library and archival collections throughout the world. Information obtained from my personal collection reminded me that my home-based RASHAD archives also contain abundant evidence of historical gift-giving.
As the end of the first week in Women’s History Month 2021 approached, I spent several joy-filled hours at home recalling events from 2002, one of my favorite years in African American cultural history. In that year, it was my great pleasure to serve as the director of Cleveland’s award-winning Langston Hughes Centennial Celebration. Hughes (1902-1967) began his writing career when he was a student at Cleveland’s Central High School. Today, I am but one of the city’s many Hughes fans.
After reviewing the printed program from one of our 2002 Hughes-related concerts, I concluded that March would be the perfect time to celebrate the creative genius of a long-time Hughes collaborator, Chicago native and award-winning composer Margaret Bonds. Born on March 3, 1913, Bonds and Hughes were the co-creators of “The Ballad of the Brown King.”
As the program notes for the May 31, 2002, “Music from the Words of Langston Hughes” concert suggested, ” The Ballad of the Brown King (1954) is a Christmas cantata for SATB chorus, solo voices, and piano, although originally scored for orchestra. Langston Hughes, commissioned by Bonds, wrote the text, the subject of which is Balthazar, one of the Magi, who had dark skin.”
My recent listening session featuring the Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra’s 2019 recording of “Margaret Bonds: The Ballad of the Brown King & Selected Songs” was at once a feast for the ears and a birthday tribute to Bonds. I couldn’t have imagined a more pleasant way to celebrate both Women’s History Month and the joy that beautiful music and poetry always bring. When your schedule permits, I invite you to listen to this recording.
About Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the Founder and Executive Director of The RASHAD Center, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit educational corporation.
Williams holds a PhD in Social History and Policy from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. A native Clevelander and a four-time alumna of Cleveland State University, information on RASHAD's “Praying Grounds, African American Faith Communities: A Documentary and Oral History” project is now available online at www.ClevelandMemory.org/pray/, a site that is maintained by CSU's Library Special Collections, home of the Praying Grounds manuscript collections. Praying Grounds was the primary inspiration for the launching of the Initiative for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (RASHAD) at CSU, and links to RASHAD's scholarly journal and newsletter are also available on the Praying Grounds site. On April 28, 2020, the RASHAD Center, Inc. became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
In 2010, Dr. Williams was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University, where she taught history and directed a RASHAD-related oral history project that focused on the role of religion in recent Nigerian social history. Other research-related travels have taken her to Canada, China, France, South Africa, and Austria.
In 2013, she conceived and produced “Come Sunday @ 70: The Place of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Jazz in World History and Culture, c. 1943-2013,” a project that included scholarly presentations and performing arts activities. From September 1993 until May 2015, she was a faculty member in the Department of History at Cleveland State University. She served as a Fulbright Specialist at South Africa's University of the Free State in the summer of 2019, and completed a short-term faculty residency at Howard University in the fall of 2019. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
As a public scholar, her current research projects focus on African American history and culture, especially as it relates to music, religion, and spirituality. She is a member of the Oral History Association, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The RASHAD Center, Inc. 