YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA

 Through a series of improbable coincidences, Pulitzer Prize winning poet and New York State Poet Laureate Yusef Komunyakaa and Tomás Doncker first met and began making music together 20 years ago. When he told Doncker "We need some new blues, blues that doesn't rhyme with worn-out shoes," the creative spark was struck and their collaboration began. Over the course of four albums (The Mercy Suite, Big Apple Blues, The Black Magnolia Project and, most recently, Endangered) they've created what they refer to as Black Americana. It's a re-imagining of American Roots Music that looks to the past and future simultaneously. With their unique ability to tap into the common threads that bind blues, hip hop, americana, soul and gospel, and architect a space where they co-exist on an equal plane - often within the same song - they've birthed an ongoing musical continuum that is a genre-defying wonderland.