The International Society for Black Musicians is pleased to announce its 1st Annual Convening, to be hosted virtually on November 20, 2021. The theme, "Temples for Tomorrow," centers the poet Langston Hughes' admonishment for young Black artists to create without fear or shame in his 1926 essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”:

“We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”

Read the full essay here.

If you are a member of ISBM, you may register to attend the conference here.

Access the conference program booklet here.