Concert of Colors: Umar Bin Hassan and Straight Ahead

Umar Bin Hassan, a founding member of The Last Poets, epitomizes the essence of spoken word artistry and activism. With a career spanning decades, he has collaborated with icons such as Public Enemy, George Clinton, and Bootsy Collins, infusing his poetry with potent social commentary and raw emotion. Bin Hassan will be joined by Straight Ahead, a group of inventive instrumentalists who have shown themselves to be powerful composers and arrangers. Straight Ahead was the first all-woman group signed to Atlantic Jazz records.

Concert of Colors is metro Detroit’s free annual global music festival, an upbeat event celebrating diverse World music traditions-including the indigenous music of the Motor City. The festival also hosts the Forum on Community, Culture and Race, a series of conversations with artists, cultural, and community leaders examining the role of the arts in overcoming social barriers.

For a complete schedule of Concert of Colors programs at the Detroit Institute of Arts and neighboring institutions, visit the festival website at concertofcolors.com

Concert of Colors is produced through the partnership of Culture Source, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, ACCESS,  University of Michigan – Detroit Center, Michigan Science Center, Detroit Historical Museum, College For Creative Studies, Hellenic Museum of Michigan, Third Man Records, Lowriders of Detroit, Science Gallery Detroit, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Midtown Inc., University of Michigan Dearborn, University of Michigan – Detroit, Arab American National Museum, WDET, The Scarab Club, International Institute of Metro Detroit, and Marx Layne & Company