CHICAGO -- Amiri Baraka's plays The Slave and Dutchman are currently playing at two Chicago venues -- and on Feb. 23 the dramatist/poet himself makes a rare appearance at Steppenwolf Theatre. Continuing the theatre's Traffic inter-arts performance series, "Music in the World" is an evening of poetry, free-jazz dissonance, rapping, funky rhythms and social commentary that unites Baraka (formerly known as LeRoi Jones), saxophonist Oliver Lake, and jazz/new-music composer Steve Colson in a first-time collaboration.
According to Traffic's curator, Kahil El'Zabar, the goal of the event is to pursue an "in-the-moment combustive excellence."
-- By Lawrence Bommer
Chicago Correspondent