Longing to Tell

In their project “Longing to Tell”, the hip-hop artist Akua Naru, the composer and per-cussionist Tyshawn Sorey and the Ensemble Resonanz come together for a joint per-formance where rap and spoken-word poetry meet the music of a chamber orchestra and vocal ensemble. The artists and hip-hop, jazz and classical musicians team up to explore the predominance of White men. In a one-year development phase, the partici-pants will investigate how this predominance has been inscribed into musical practice. The material created in the process will serve as the basis for an evening-long music per-formance.

The starting point and inspiration for the title is the book Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy, in which the American sociologist compiled inter-views with Black women about love, relationships and violence. Naru and Sorey have condensed the women’s testimonies into six fictitious characters, expressed in spoken-word poetry, rap, instrumental music and vocal arrangements. The poetry of Akua Naru embellishes the narrative thread with references to mythology, magic and folklore.

The development phase will be integrated into the Körber Resonanz Lab in Hamburg. This is where the Ensemble Resonanz regularly develops transtraditional concert pro-jects and builds connections with selected communities of Hamburg’s urban society. With this type of platform, the project can introduce itself to the public already in the de-velopment phase. The premiere will take place during the 2025 International Summer Festival at Kampnagel in Hamburg. Additional performances are planned.

Artistic direction: Akua Naru, Tyshawn Sorey
Musicians: Ensemble Resonanz, Stephan Kondert, Matthias Löscher, Josiah Woodson and others

Performances in Hamburg: International Summer Festival, Kampnagel: 14–16 Aug. 2025
European performances: Vienna / Amsterdam / Cologne / Antwerp and other cities: 2025/26 season
International performances: Brown University / Providence, Rhode Island and other locations, USA: 2025/26 season