Larry Duckett

Larry Duckett Jr, a key figure in Washington DC performance art, musical and literary circles, died this week at home.   In Washington DC, in the 1980s and 1990s, Duckett was part of several leading performance groups.

With a degree in applied music from Virginia State University, Duckett was known as a poet, playwright, and musician.  With Essex Hemphill, and later joined by Wayson Jones, Duckett created Cinque, DC's standard-setting performance group.  Duckett and Hemphill experimented with arrangements of poems for performance, using call and response patterns, unison recitation, and interweaving of lines to dramatize meaning.  In their unison work, Cinque worked at matching pitch and inflection of the individual voices to produce a resonant sound that was almost one voice.

With Hemphill, Jones, Michelle Parkerson, Chi Hughes, Christopher Prince, and others he powerfully explored rhythm and syncopation in the performance of poetry and music.  After Jones left, Cinque, Chi Hughes added her performance gifts to Duckett and Hemphill's performance of poetry.

Cinque:  Essex Hemphill, Larry Duckett, and Wayson Jones (left to right)

He was an integral member of the corps of innovative artists and performers who made the EnikAlley Coffeehouse, at 816 I St NE.  The Coffeehouse, organized by Ray Melrose and the DC Coalition, was a powerful presence in Washington DC's African-American gay and lesbian artistic circles.  The trio of Hemphill, Jones, and Duckett first performed as Cinque at the Coffeehouse, moving later to venues such as Blues Alley.

With Hemphill and Jones, Duckett also worked with Marlon Riggs on Black Is .. Black Ain't.