VCU Jazz has hosted
a number of multimedia concert events focusing on the African American
experience through jazz, including twice presenting The Langston Hughes Project created by Dr. Ron McCurdy. Hughes
has a brief connection to Richmond, having visited the home of Hunter Stagg on
December 1, 1926 for a welcome-party (close to what is now VCU’s campus),
writing later in a thank-you note: “Richmond was certainly kind to me. And I
discover that not all Southerners are as vile as Mr. Menken of Baltimore and
the Negro press make them out to be. I want to come back there sometime.”
Co-sponsors of VCU Jazz’s presentations of TLHP have included the VCU entities
African American Studies, Campus Activities Board, English, Jazz Studies,
Libraries, Multicultural Affairs, and Music.
