Master Wel

about

http://www.nathanielturner.com/weldonirvine.htm Born in 1943 and bred in Virginia, after graduating from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), where he majored in literature and minored in music, he moved to New York City in 1965, forming his own seventeen-piece big band, including his lead singer from HU Myra Brown, aka Nalo, and was soon commissioned to work on Lorraine Hansberry's TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK, for which production he wrote the title tune. Throughout the '60's and '70s, he continued recording and performing in clubs and festivals, and premiered his first blockbuster musical at the Billie Holiday Theatre, in Brooklyn, YOUNG, GIFTED AND BROKE. It ran for eight months, won four prestigious AUDELCO Awards, and signaled the beginning of a decade-long relationship with that theatre, in which he produced well over twenty subsequent musical dramas. As he transitioned himself into becoming an elder of Hip Hop culture, many of the more politically conscious artists in that arena, including Mos Def, Talib Kweli, and Q-Tip, sought him out as teacher and mentor. As well, he was highly respected among political activist organizations and cultural institutions working in the African American community, including the December 12th Movement, Sistas' Place, Patrice Lumumba Coalition, the Afrikan Poetry Theatre, where he began the process of founding a church for artists, and among radio personalities Minister Conrad Muhammad, Clayton Riley, James Mtume, a