Saul Williams & Mivos Quartet

The Mivos follow their instrumental performance by welcoming to the stage the legendary spoken-word artist Saul Williams. The performer whom CNN calls "hip-hop's poet laureate" developed his voice in the slam poetry crucible Nuyorican Poets Café before taking a leading role in the 1998 Sundance-winner Slam. He has since collaborated with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and published acclaimed collections of poetry. Williams' work - an incendiary mixture of "firebrand politics with metaphysical wordplay" (AV Club) - is complemented and amplified by the Mivos Quartet.

The evening centers on Williams' blistering poem NGH WHT, an exploration and demolition of stereotypes drawn from his 2006 book The Dead Emcee Scrolls. His words are set to music by German composer Thomas Kessler, who originally made his orchestration of Williams' poem for the Arditti Quartet. (The Arditti appear at Duke Performances in April). The program also includes the Mivos' setting of Williams' poem Colton as Cotton, as well as the Quartet's arrangement of No One Ever Does by Williams and Trent Reznor from the 2007 album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!