Tuesday, January 17
12 noon–1 pm, Tucker Foundation Living Room, South Fairbanks
Light lunch provided
Nigerian-born writer and actor Tayo Aluko, who will perform in Call Mr. Robeson at the Hopkins Center this evening and Wednesday, joins the popular lunchtime series at the Tucker Foundation—Dartmouth’s center for service, social justice, and spirituality—to talk about his views on Africa and its portrayal in the arts and media.
Writer, performer, and producer Tayo Aluko was born in Nigeria and now lives in Liverpool. He worked until recently as an architect and property developer, with a special but as yet frustrated interest in eco-friendly construction. As a baritone, he has performed lead roles in such operas and musicals as Nabucco, Kiss Me Kate, and Anything Goes. Call Mr. Robeson won the Argus Angel Award for Artistic Excellence and a Best Male Performer Award at the 2008 Brighton Festival Fringe as well as two Merit Awards for Excellence in London in 2010.
Aluko has performed Call Mr. Robeson around the UK, the United States of America, Canada, and Nigeria, and will be performing at New York’s Carnegie Hall in February 2012 for his 50th birthday. His piece From Black Africa to the White House: A Talk about Black Political Resistance, Illustrated with Spirituals, has also been performed in three continents. He researched, wrote, and narrated to camera a piece titled West African History, Before the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, which forms part of the permanent exhibit at Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum. A song from his CD Recalling Robeson is featured as the July 2008 song of the month on the Labor Notes website.
