This week the Core Ensemble will launch its national tour of “Of Ebony Embers-Vignettes of the Harlem Renaissance” – a month-long touring celebration of a great period in our nation’s cultural history. Our fabulous actor Jamyl Dobson is back again to portray the iconic African Americans who left a legacy of amazing art for all Americans to cherish.
Our handsome trio will perform works by Ellington, Strayhorn, Mingus, Monk and many others – a brilliant soundscape illuminating the emotional life of the show. 
I will celebrate Black History Month in my own way – by consuming an entire box of the Core Ensemble’s signature chocolate collection, “Harlem Sweeties”, inspired by the Langston Hughes poem. You can get them for your own sweetie – (for Valentine’s Day?) at the Core Store:
http://store.coreensemble.org/
HARLEM SWEETIES
(excerpt)
Brown sugar lassie,
Caramel treat,
Honey-gold baby
Sweet enough to eat.
Peach-skinned girlie,
Coffee and cream,
Chocolate darling
Out of a dream.
Walnut tinted
Or cocoa brown,
Pomegranate-lipped
Pride of the town.
Rich cream-colored
To plum-tinted black,
Feminine sweetness
In Harlem’s no lack.
And while I’m eating those chocolates, I’ll be wearing a hat that Zora Neale Hurston would covet – captured here by the Core Ensemble’s favorite photographer, John Robuck.