Word/ Wind/ Rhythm tours the backstreets and weather-torn alleyway of Black experience, emerging with flashes of sound light rhythm heat to illumintate homeward journeys.

It is comprised of poet Tyehimba Jess, saxophonist David Boykin, and percussionist Orisegun Olomidun. Tyehimba Jess? poetry book, When Niggas Love the Revolution Like They Love the Bulls, has been praised by poet Sterling Plumpp. He has recently contributed to the critically acclaimed play ?Blakk Love? and Soulfires: Young Black Men on Love and Violence (Viking/Penguin, 1996). As the winner of the 1994 Chicago Sister Cities Poem for Accra he traveled to Accra, Ghana as a poetic emissary. He has recently performed with drapetomania, a performance poetry group. David Boykin, one of Chicago?s most inspiring and gifted young saxophonists, is a student of Aaron Horn, Jimmy Ellis, and Phil Cochran. David?s technical proficiency and spiritual sagacity combine to lift audiences to their higher selves. Lately, he has stomped, smoked, and swooned his sax at the legendary Velvet Lounge and the Firehouse on Chicago?s South Side. His debut performance as bandleader with the David Boykin Trio at the Ancient Egyptian Museum wrapped the audience in the fabric of sound, raining notes from standards and original work.