“I, Too, Sing America: The Friendship and Collaboration of Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes,” a lecture-recital curated by Arkansas Tech University music faculty member Dr. Mary J. Trotter, will be performed at ATU’s Witherspoon Auditorium on Saturday, Aug. 23.
The program will begin at 2:30 p.m. Admission will be free and open to the public.
“This has its roots in my doctoral work,” said Trotter, ATU assistant professor of music. “I discovered that I didn’t know much about the music of Black American women composers. So, I commissioned myself to pursue that as independent study and I fell in love with the work of Margaret Bonds and Florence Price, the latter of which is a native Arkansan. I found that Margaret and Florence both knew poet Langston Hughes, and not only that, but Margaret and Langston were friends for 30 years and wrote letters to each other. I became so enamored with their friendship.”
As a result, Trotter visited Yale University and the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago to view the letters between Bonds and Hughes, who were frequent musical collaborators during the mid-20th century.
“From there, it just fell in my lap,” said Trotter, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Whitworth University, a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. “This idea of friendship became an ideal frame for a recital that could delve into matters of race, but not solely focus on that. They were friends, and out of that came all of this beautiful art. I have loved, over the last six or seven years, getting to hang out with them. They had a lovely, beautiful friendship that was full of humor and heart. Both of them believed that art has the power to speak truth, and they used it as such.”
Trotter has worked with collaborators Mikalia Bradberry, mezzo-soprano and member of the voice faculty at the MacPhail Center for Music, and Dr. Sarah Howes, soprano and associate professor of music at Southwest Baptist University, on performances of the lecture-recital in the states of Colorado, Missouri, Washington and Wisconsin.
“This is the sixth time we’ve done this program across the country,” said Trotter, who offers a lecture at the beginning of the performance and plays piano during the recital. “Riding the journey with (Bradberry and Howes) has been a really special and deep honor. To see how this program shapes us as we share these texts and this music…as we deliver it to different audiences and answer questions from students at various institutions…several of these songs are heavy in terms of what they speak about racial strife in our culture. It’s been a privilege to tiptoe into Margaret and Langston’s friendship, but also having these two women on the stage and on the journey with me through all this has been so beautiful.”
The appearances by Bradberry and Howes for the ATU performance are made possible, in part, by the Robert and Frankie Casey Guest Artist Series.
Trotter, Bradberry and Howes will be joined for the ATU performance of “I, Too, Sing America: The Friendship and Collaboration of Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes” by Dr. Amy R. Porter, soprano and ATU assistant professor of music, and Holly Ruth Gale, mezzo-soprano and retired faculty member in the ATU Department of Music.
It will be the first opportunity for Trotter to perform the lecture-recital for her ATU students and her fellow ATU faculty members.
“I’m delighted that they get to know Margaret and Langston…that they get to know my collaborators…and that they get to see a different way of conceiving of a recital,” said Trotter, who joined the ATU faculty in 2022 and was voted ATU professor of the year by the student body in 2023-24. “I hope that it inspires some imagination in the students. This is unlike most programs. The word lecture feels really stuffy…it’s really just storytelling. We see ourselves as a vessel for Margaret and Langston to share their story.
“I hope they leave with joy,” continued Trotter. “I think it’s impossible not to…Margaret is rather hilarious. I hope they leave challenged…some of these topics are hard. I hope they leave with curiosity because that’s what this is for me. I started down a rabbit trail, and what a wonderful thing I uncovered. I hope they leave fed with meaningful words, music and a reminder of what human connection can be.”
