Event Description

Launching the 2025/26 Fabulous Fugitive Freedom Tour, in direct defiance of the occupation of suppression, poet, bass clarinetist, composer, author, educator Toussaint St. Negritude is bringing his poetry of liberation to the people of Philadelphia. Performing works from his Firebird Award winning collection of poems, Mountain Spells {Rootstock Publishing, 2024}, Toussaint St. Negritude presents a dynamic solo performance of liberational truth telling, collaboratively pairing the call of his poetry with the intuitive responses of the bass clarinet, and additional instrumentation. Through his own unique montage of poetry, jazz, and fabulous hats, Toussaint St. Negritude creates a cosmic spectacle of trans-dimensional journeys, summoning all sights, ears, and souls to rise to the poignant joys of our collective humanity.

Author and winner of the 2025 Firebird Award for the collection of poems “Mountain Spells” [Rootstock Publishing 2024], former Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine, and 2024 Nominee for Poet Laureate of Vermont, poet, bass clarinetist, and composer Toussaint St. Negritude conjures whole liberations in full tempo. US Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks described his work as “full of sweet sounds and surprises.” Originally from San Francisco, Toussaint has lived and broadly thrived across the African Diaspora, from the sacred mountains of Haiti to the Coltrane District of North Philadelphia. He, along with bassist Gahlord Dewald, is the leader of the band Jaguar Stereo!,  a free-form ensemble of his own poetry and improvisational jazz, and his works have been widely published and recorded for over 40 years. On an alpine sanctuary facing east, Toussaint St. Negritude continues to thrive in the farthest elevations of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.