Faculty member Carla Walter dancing. Photo credit: Brian Stethem/CLU

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - California Lutheran University professors and students will sing, dance and discuss the poetry of Langston Hughes from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Monday, April 29, in Samuelson Chapel.

The lecture recital, titled “Genius Child,” is part of the university’s Seventh Annual Festival of Scholars.

Jacqueline Lyons, assistant professor of English, will talk about the poetry of Hughes, a major contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Music instructor Michael Hart will explain the compositional techniques of “Genius Child,” a cycle of ten songs for soprano and piano by U.S. composer Ricky Ian Gordon based on the 1937 poem of the same name and other works by Hughes. Carla Walter, a former ballerina who specializes in arts marketing as an associate professor in the School of Management, will give the last mini-lecture, “Personal Approach to Choreography.”

The event will conclude with a performance of Gordon’s “Genius Child.” Walter and liberal studies majors Marie Orechoff of New Brunswick and Lorna Banuilos of Torrance will dance. Music major Susannah Ruth of Thousand Oaks and Mariana Robles-Dalany, an assistant professor of education who integrates music into teaching, will sing.

CLU’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Scholarship is presenting the free event.

The chapel is located south of Olsen Road near Campus Drive on the ThousandOaks campus.

For more information, contact Robles-Dalany at mroblesd@callutheran.edu or 805-493-3889.