Harlem Renaissance Meets John Cage ( "nice to meet you")

So I found out this morning exactly why they were interviewing the drummer from Roots the other day. Roots is playing in an upcoming Cincinnati festival and it sounds really Cagean to me. Langston Hughes once wrote a poem called Ask Your Momma, and wrote it to be performed to music. Well, there's this opera singer (I think) who's going to sing the poem and Roots, as well as an entire orchestra, and a couple of guys on laptops will be providing the music. The laptops are for sampling, and they're even going to play recordings of Langston Hughes reading the poem and singing. They're combining, classical, and hip hop and jazz, and blues, and -well, you get the picture. It's sure to be reminiscent of Variations VII (without the blender and turtle tank)!