Ask Your Mama

Epic poetry set to powerful music, brought to life by a cast of legendary performers: Ask Your Mama is an original musical setting by four-time Emmy®-winning composer Laura Karpman, of the 1961 masterpiece by Langston Hughes, delivered with majesty and magnetism by sopranos Janai Brugger and Angela Brown, hip-hop innovators The Roots and Medusa, jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon and others, conducted by Grammy® nominee George Manahan. Ask Your Mama premiered to a sold-out Carnegie Hall in 2009. It has since played from Harlem's Apollo Theater to the Hollywood Bowl, and has reached millions more through media coverage by NPR, PBS, NBC TV, The New Yorker, and the Huffington Post.