Cincinnati poet/rapper Siri Imani’s poem “Lost Generation” has “inspired a mammoth Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra event” on August 3 called “CSO Look Around,” writes David Lyman in Tuesday’s (7/30) Cincinnati Enquirer. “It’s an event that includes dozens of performing groups, more than 600 performers and a Pied Piper-like procession that winds its way across Over-the-Rhine and Pendleton. Yes, the CSO will perform. So will the Cincinnati Korean American Chorale. And members of the Cincinnati Pride, an award-winning color guard. And champion jump ropers from Mason’s Comet Skippers. There will be dance groups such as Bi-Okoto, too, and a New Orleans-style jazz band and even the May Festival Chorus…. By the end of Saturday’s event, all the participating artists will be performing together…. Shara Nova, the Detroit-based composer/singer … along with director Mark DeChiazza [were] hired by the CSO to create ‘Look Around.’ … Since the CSO is using this to kick off its 125th season, it wanted a large gathering that would involve large swaths of the community. [During] the 7 p.m. procession that launches the event … some groups will perform in Ziegler Park. But as they move west … they will meet other performers, then fold them into the procession.”
Posted August 1, 2019
In photo: Audience members at a previous Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra event in Washington Park, in front of Music Hall. During “CSO Look Around,” as many as three groups will be performing at the same time in different areas of the eight-acre Washington Park during the first hour of the festival.
