American Mavericks Project Vl. 1: Quest

Quest is pianist Chelsea Randall’s interdisciplinary commissioning project celebrating the potent and timely work of trailblazing Black Arts Movement poets and the legacy of her great uncle, the poet and editor Dudley Randall, through the lens of new piano music. Chelsea will premiere six new piano pieces commissioned for her American Mavericks Project celebrating commissions by esteemed composers Carolyn Yarnell, Adolphus Hailstork, Joyce Solomon Moorman, Anthony R. Green, Regina Harris Baiocchi and Jeremiah Evans, inspired by the poetry of Sonia Sanchez, Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, Naomi Long Madgett and Dudley Randall, who platformed these poets via his Detroit-based Broadside Press. Melba Joyce Boyd, Michigan’s Poet Laureate and Dudley Randall’s biographer, will recite the poems which inspired the commissioned works alongside Chelsea’s performances. Quest is dedicated to the memory of Nikki Giovanni.