Cover image: Mike Ladd performs spoken word at Le Duc des Lombards
© Entrée to Black Paris

Le Duc des Lombards, a jazz club located in central Paris, was the venue for an evening of musical and spoken-word performance on July 6.  Hosted by Rashida Braggs, professor of Africana Studies at Williams College, the event was part of a biennial study-abroad program organized by Trica Keaton, professor of African and African American Studies at Dartmouth College.

The show was originally dedicated to the memory of two African-American expat jazzmen - Rasul Siddik and Farris Smith, Jr.

Rasul Siddik
© Entrée to Black Paris

Farris Smith, Jr.
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In the aftermath of the shooting of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk by French police, which resulted in Merzouk's death, the show was also dedicated to him.

Braggs organized a one-day workshop at Le Duc during which fifteen (15) Dartmouth students learned the art of scat singing and spoken word composition and delivery from several professionals in these fields.  Participating students had the option to join the line-up for the performance that evening, and several chose to do so.

The two-hour program opened at 9:30 PM with Braggs announcing what the audience could expect and introducing the musicians who would perform throughout the evening. 

Rashida Braggs
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Pianist Gerard Hagan, bassist/guitarist Darryl Hall, and drummer Mourad Benhammou provided the perfect musical bedrock for the singers and poets.

Gerald Hagen
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Darryl Hall
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Mourad Benhammou
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Three female jazz singers opened the show:  Michèle Hendricks, Leslie Lewis, and Sylvia Howard.  All demonstrated their "scatting" prowess and warmed the audience for the spoken word performances that were to follow.

Michèle Hendricks
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Leslie Lewis
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Sylvia Howard
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Spoken word artists Mike Ladd and Jamika Ajalon were highly complementary of the students and the works they created during the workshop.  They performed separately and together, with the jazz trio providing the musical scaffolding for their words.

Mike Ladd
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Jamika Ajalon
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Then it was the students' turn. 

Jared Pugh, Jr. anchored the spoken word performance of several of his fellow students with musings about his memory of the talk his mother had with him after Michael Brown's shooting death in Ferguson in 2014.  Between stanzas, other students came to the stage and recited their own works about topics ranging from black-on-black racial profiling to the Palestinian conflict.

Jared Pugh, Jr.
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Two students sang and one played a tune on the saxophone.

Lexy Piton
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Emilie Hong
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Devontae Lacasse
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The evening ended with all the performing students coming to the stage and singing Bill Withers' "Lean on Me" with Professor Braggs.

Rashida Braggs (third from left) and students
© Entrée to Black Paris

The full list of students participating in the workshop is as follows:

Esmeralda Abreu-Jerez
Bryson Berry
Maya Cole
Nuhamin Demeku
Hayden El Rafei
Emilie Hong
Yasmeen Hussein
Reign Jefferson
Devontae Lacasse
Lexy Piton
Jared Pugh, Jr.
Anne Rhee
Alexander Stanford
Tia Walker
Janessa Yan