Musiqa's video: A conversation with Dr Josef Sorett

Josef Sorett is Professor of Religion and African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, where he is also chair of the Department of Religion and directs the Center on African-American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice. As an interdisciplinary scholar of religion and race in the Americas, he employs primarily historical and literary approaches to the study of religion in black communities and cultures in the United States. His first book, "Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of Racial Aesthetics" (Oxford University Press, 2016) illumines how religion has figured in debates about black art and culture across the 20th century. https://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Dark-Religious-History-Aesthetics/dp/0199844933 In this video Dr. Sorett provides insight into Robert Hayden and his poem “Stars”, the text for Trevor Weston’s new composition of the same name. Weston’s “Stars” was commissioned by Musiqa and will premiere in November, 2020. 0:00 - On Robert Hayden's Baháʼí Faith 2:30 - On Baháʼí in the 1940s 5:33 - On Stars as Metaphor for Spiritual Universality 7:24 - The Impact of Religion on Hayden's Poetic Form For more information visit http://www.musiqahouston.org. This commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.