Sekou Sundiata

Aug. 22 would have been Sekou Sundiata’s 59th birthday, but the incredibly talented African-American poet, playwright, songwriter, vocalist, performance artist, educator and liberation fighter died on July 18 of heart failure. Hundreds of friends, family and admirers gathered at New York City’s New School on Aug. 22 to celebrate his birthday and remember his brilliance.

After a drum call by the Sing Sing Percussion Ensemble, a benediction and libation by the Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, a shout-out by Malik Yoba, and the singing of the “Black National Anthem,” Ted Wilson and Rha Goddess welcomed the standing-room-only crowd to the three-hour, heartfelt tribute.

After reading two poems by Sundiata, fellow poet Louis Reyes Rivera, who’d been a friend since their days at City College, noted that Sundiata and many in the audience had organized the struggle for open admissions there in 1969. Reyes Rivera wrote in the July 20 Black Star News: “The net effect of the student takeover culminated in both an Open Admissions Policy that took effect in September 1970, [and] the full legitimization of ethnic studies departments throughout the nation.” When he asked their classmates to stand, the audience offered them a sustained ovation.

Reyes Rivera noted that Sundiata had begun reciting his poetry at City and, after completing both bachelor and masters degrees there, established himself as part of the Black Arts and Black Consciousness Movement. The Grammy-nominated artist broke ground for a new literary genre, performance poetry, which anticipated both Hip Hop culture and spoken word art.

Since music—jazz, blues, funk and African and Afro-Caribbean percussion—was a vital component of his work, many musicians paid tribute to Sundiata. Among them was trombonist Craig Harris, a longtime collaborator, who led the crowd in a spirited chant of Sundiata’s name and played excerpts of “TriHarLenium” with the Nation of Imagination.

Nona Hendryx sang “Winds of Change,” Queen Esther and Marvin Sewell sang “Stand by Your Man” and Danny Glover and Doug Booth gave a tender rendition of “Open Heart.” LaTanya Hall and Bill White sang “Grey,” composed by Ani Difranco. The singer-songwriter studied poetry with Sundiata at Eugene Lang College where he was the first writer in residence and later a professor for many years.

But the performances were not limited to singers. Choreographer Ronald K. Brown danced a tribute to “For You” played by Doug Booth. Fellow professor Gregory Tewksbury and Bob Kerry, president of the New School, saluted Sundiata’s work and gifted teaching. And a video montage, created by his nephew Keith Omar Feaster, summarized highlights of his life.

Amiri Baraka gave a lengthy eulogy. He noted that the poet had chosen to name himself after two great Africans—Sekou for Sekou Torre, who led the liberation of Guinea from French colonialism; and Sundiata for the first ruler of the great Mali Empire (1230 AD) in what is called Africa’s Golden Age.

Baraka recounted that he had met “the young, dark, strikingly handsome, shy but articulate brother who seemed to be finding his way through the maze of Pan African unity, struggle and polemic” at organizing meetings in New York for the sixth Pan African Congress in Dar es Salaam in 1974. “So it was in that period of more intense struggle for the liberation of Africa and equal rights, self-determination and democracy for Black people wherever they were in the world that I came to appreciate the mind, heart and will of the still developing Sekou Sundiata. It was only later that I discovered Sekou was a poet. So it was the political consciousness of this poet that I first appreciated.”

Baraka called Sundiata “the most artistically powerful and politically advanced voice to emerge” from the anti-imperialist Black Arts Movement and praised his “voice committed to the nitty of truth and the gritty of real life.” Noting the freshness and innovation in his work, Baraka lauded him for being “so metaphorically precise, so exquisitely wordish.”

Baraka ended his eulogy with the words, “Bring on the Reparations!” That’s the title of the poem Sundiata performed on HBO’s “Def Poetry Jam,” a video of which can be viewed on YouTube. Some of Sundiata’s work—”The Blue Oneness of Dreams” and “longstoryshort”—is available via the Web.

“I was constantly awed by Sekou’s incredible sensitivity and skills,” said Baraka. “To me he was a comrade in struggle, a co-cultural worker giggling hard at the task of raising the consciousness of the people, yes, our people, but all people.”