MOTHER TO SON

NYCHORAL presents Mother to Son, featuring a performance of Undine Smith Moore’s powerful choral interpretation of Langston Hughes’ poem Mother to Son in collaboration with choreographer Francesca Harper and featuring Mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams. Francesca Harper is joined by dancers Hope Clarke and Ricardo Hartley and artist Alshante Baker in this meditation on history, storytelling and activism. Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor— Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, And reachin’ landings, And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light. So, boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps. ’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. Don’t you fall now— For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbing’ And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.,