Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Paul Laurence Dunbar

Music historian Leah Broad hears about the meeting in London in 1897 between the African American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar and the British composer of Sierra Leonean descent, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The men became friends with Coleridge-Taylor setting a number of Dunbar's poems to music. Their collaboration also set a template for Black poets and composers of the twentieth century. Leah is joined by Samantha Ege, author pianist and music historian and by Justin Tackett, an academic who specialises in transatlantic literature to explore The African Romances.

Presenter: Leah Broad
Producer: Ruth Watts