Moon Songs: Kevin Coval

In this concluding installment of the Smart Museum of Art’s Moon Songs series, join Kevin Coval for a Sunday afternoon of ekphrasis and Chicago stories in dialogue with the works of sculptor Ruth Duckworth.

Kevin Coval is an Emmy-nominated, award-winning writer, filmmaker, and author of more than a dozen collections and anthologies, including The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop and A People’s History of Chicago. Coval is a creative consultant helping brands such as Apple, Nike, Adidas, Beats, and Gatorade tell stories and create innovative programs. His writing has been featured on/in HBO, The Daily Show, National Public Radio, The New York Times, Source magazine, CNN.com and other outlets. He has been awarded grants, fellowships, and residencies from the MacArthur Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kennedy Center, and the Lannan Foundation, among other organizations, and has shared stages with The Migos and Nelson Mandela performing on four continents across hundreds of cities around the globe. Coval is a Senior Advisor at Interfaith America and is founder of the production and consulting company Breakbeat Creatives.

Inspired by an anecdote about Ruth Duckworth and a friend climbing to the roof of her studio in a former pickle factory to sing a song to the full moon, the Smart Museum of Art’s Moon Song series invites Chicago-based musicians and poets to reflect on the interconnectivity of life through performances around the time of the full moon. Additional programs include:

Black Moon Trio – Sow the Seeds | Friday, September 29, 6 pm

Angel Bat Dawid – A Geomorphological Afro-Sonic Score of the Works of Ruth Duckworth | Saturday, October 28, 6 pm