Hayes School of Music

Born in Mississippi, William Grant Still grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, attending the same elementary school as Florence Price. After studies at Oberlin Conservatory, Still achieved early recognition for his Afro-American Symphony (1930). This work was widely performed and led to a commission for an opera at the New York City Opera as well as conducting engagements. Still’s earliest musical experiences were with jazz ensembles and in theaters, playing with WC Handy and doing arrangements for Sophie Tucker, for instance. A Guggenheim Fellowship came in the mid-1930s, when the composer had just moved to Los Angeles. He used the award to write Blue Steel, the first of what would total 7 operas, one of which was performed on national television in 1981.  Besides his activity as a classical composer, he also continued to conduct and to write music and arrangements for the entertainment industry, working with such luminaries as Bing Crosby, Ronald Coleman and Hollywood’s most storied film composer, Dmitri Tiomkin. His broad and deep public exposure through much of his career has earned him the sobriquet, “Dean of African American Composers.”

Billy Strayhorn came to prominence as Duke Ellington’s most important arranger. But he was also a composer, although the system was such that Ellington received authorship for some compositions that were actually written by Strayhorn. Billy Strayhorn’s early musical ambition was toward classical composition, but found too many roadblocks to his musical desires on account of his race. But his indomitable attitude and talent spurred him to approach Ellington after a concert, introducing himself to the jazz master by way of suggestions for better arranging his work! Ellington was impressed and took him into the fold of the band. During the next 25 years, Billy Strayhorn was indispensable to Ellington, penning such favorites as “Take the A Train,” “Lush Life,” “Chelsea Bridge,” and many others. 

Mary Lou Williams is primarily known for her activities as both a jazz pianist and as an arranger during the Big Band era. A 1937 Variety Magazine article on the importance of arrangers lists her as the only woman in a list of 52 musicians who arranged for Big Bands. After years in New York City, the composer eventually moved to Europe, where she founded a record label and composed a series of jazz liturgical pieces, including Black Christ of the Andes, the first jazz mass given at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. Later in life, Mary Lou Williams received an appointment at Duke University, where she finished out her career. 

Acclaimed poet and teacher Michael S. Harper was born in 1938, in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his BA and MA from California State University and his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Known for his innovative use of jazz rhythms, cultural allusion, historical referent, and personal narrative, Harper was “a deeply complex poet whose mission is to unite the fractured, inhumane technologies of our time with the abiding deep well of Negro folk traditions,” wrote John Callahan in the New Republic.Poetry reviewer Paul Breslin noted that Harper did this by drawing “upon black history, literature, and myth.” However, Harper was distinctive in that he often sought to bridge the traditional separation between black America and white America, writing poems that speak across the divide and draw upon elements of the racial, historical, and personal past of all Americans. (Source: Poets.org)

Yusef Iman.  He was a Black poet, singer, actor, playwright, and director. Born Joseph Washington Jr. he was one of five children from Savannah, GA.  His journey into adulthood included a membership in the Nation of Islam, through Malcolm X of Muslim Mosque Inc., and the O.A.A.U. (Organization of Afro-American Unity). It was in the Muslim Mosque Inc. that Malcolm X bestowed the name "Yusef Iman" on him.  Malcolm X always marveled how faithful he was, so he changed his name from Joseph, which is Yusef in Arabic and Iman means faith. As a writer his volumes of poetry include Something Black (1967) and Poetry for Beautiful Black Women (1969). Iman contributed poetry to The Journal of Black Poetry and to numerous anthologies. Some of his poetry was used as a grand finale for the cultural exhibit "Harlem on My Mind."  Yusef Iman died on to June 23, 1987. (Source: AAREG)

One of America’s most significant literary figures, Ishmael Reed has published over 30 books of poetry, prose, essays, and plays, as well as penned hundreds of lyrics for musicians ranging from Taj Mahal to Macy Gray. His work is known for its satirical, ironic take on race and literary tradition, as well as its innovative, post-modern technique. Critic Robert Elliot Fox described Reed’s work: “In his writing, Reed is a great improviser, a master of collage with an amazing ability to syncretize seemingly disparate and divergent materials into coherent ‘edutainments’—forms of surprise, revelation, and frequent hilarity.” Fox described how Reed uses humor “as a weapon in the very serious enterprise of exposing human excesses and absurdities, and, at the same time, to remind us of the dangers of taking ourselves and our cherished opinions too seriously.” (Source: Poets.org)