Today, he’s a Broadway Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at his alma mater, Miami University, and a guest curator of the I, Too, Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100 exhibit at the Columbus Museum of art (opens Oct. 19).

Haygood took the time to answer a few of our questions about the Harlem Renaissance and its connection to modern-day Columbus.

To start, I’d love to learn more about your connection to Columbus. To which part of the city do you feel closest? Describe why.

I was raised on the Northside of Columbus, near the OSU area. My family moved to the Eastside in 1968. My sentiments are even for both of those geographic locales of the city because I have deep memories steeped in both. And in my writing life I’ve written about both of the neighborhoods I knew in my youth.

Given your research on the Harlem Renaissance, why is it significant that this campaign is happening in Columbus, Ohio?

Anniversaries are always a good time to pay homage to something historically significant. It’s been a hundred years since the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance. A new generation needs a sharp reminder of that epochal moment in American history.

How is modern-day Columbus similar or different to Harlem during the Renaissance?

All big cities in the 20th century had pockets of black neighborhoods. Culture and music and genius grew from these neighborhoods. Columbus  – on the east side – was a microcosm of 1920s Harlem. Langston Hughes, Chester Himes, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, all Renaissance figures, passed through Columbus.

How is the Harlem Renaissance nationally relevant in this day and age?

The Renaissance was a time of high art and expressiveness in that art. But it was a cultural moment aligned with protest. In America today, we see various social movements – MeToo, Black Lives Matter – that utilize some of the same passion exhibited during the Harlem Renaissance. Movements need creative souls, and we see creative souls in many places now.

Why do you think artistic expression and exposure is important?

It is no secret why presidents and political candidates adopt songs and poems. Artistic expression becomes a universal language for so many when they are hurting or aggrieved. Art represents the best of any generation.

Tell me a bit about your latest publication, Tigerland: 1968-1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing.

TIGERLAND is a book about athletic expression. At all-black East High in the 1968-69 academic year, the basketball & baseball team both won state championships that year. It was a historic feat. And it all happened in the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr’s death. They were kids, athletes, and young Renaissance men.

Wil Haygood’s Latest Book

Today, he is a Broadway Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at his alma mater, Miami University, and a guest curator of the I, Too, Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100 exhibit at the Columbus Museum of art (opens Oct. 19).

Here is where you can hear Haygood speak:

Harlem Renaissance with Wil Haygood

9/19/18 at 12 p.m. | The Boat House at Confluence Park

The Columbus Metropolitan club will host Wil Haygood tomorrow, Sept. 19, from noon to 1:15 p.m. at the The Boat House at Confluence Park. This event falls on the day after the release of Haygood’s latest book, Tigerland: 1968-1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing.

Click here for more information.

An Evening with Wil Haygood

9/19/18 at 5:30 p.m. | The Lincoln Theatre

To celebrate the release of his latest book, The Lincoln Theatre will host a conversation with Wil Haygood. For more information or to reserve your tickets, click here.

By Hailey Stangebye

Photos  courtesy of Matthew Vaughn

If he were an animal, Matthew Vaughn says he’d be a snake.

That’s because he can create melodies that glide elegantly through themes of heartbreak and death. Then, in the next track, he can write a verse that bites down with a ruthless edge. A snake represents the practiced union of grace and force.

Practice is a crucial component of the equation. He didn’t master his voice and style overnight.

“I started writing poetry at a very young age, like elementary,” Matthew says. “My uncle wrote poetry a lot. He would just walk around the house and recite it and I thought what he could do with words was super cool. So I started writing and continued to write throughout middle school and high school.”

Poetry was his first passion. Taking after his uncle, Matthew would write poem after poem, filling up notebooks with the written word. Things changed, though, his freshman year of high school.

“I had gotten one of my journals stolen, and so I was just really upset about that,” Matthew says. “Then, my oldest brother passed away and I just didn’t feel any motivation to do poetry. Over the summer, I still wanted to write, but I didn’t want to write poetry. So I started rapping.”

“Then, my oldest brother passed away and I just didn’t feel any motivation to do poetry. Over the summer, I still wanted to write, but I didn’t want to write poetry. So I started rapping.”

That summer between freshman and sophomore year in high school, Matthew started recording his tracks. Looking back, he describes those early recordings as disturbing; those songs show how he processed every complex emotion he encountered after losing so much.

When he recorded that first song, he didn’t have any fancy equipment.

“I started by blasting the music out of the computer speakers, and then recording the verse with the music in the background on my sister’s cellphone,” Matthew says. “Then I would upload those tracks to my SoundCloud. I still have a few of them.”

Over the next few years, Matthew honed his craft and practiced with a rap group. Once the group disbanded, though, he decided to take a leap of faith and perform at his first open mic. Until then, he had never performed anything live.

“I was shaking and everything and afraid of everything. I went on stage with sunglasses on because I didn’t want to look at the crowd, and it was just very, very scary,” Matthew says. “But I fell in love with performing, and so I started writing more spoken word. It was pretty much a wrap after that because I fell in love with the expression and the connection to people that I could have. Now I’m here.”

“I was shaking and everything and afraid of everything. I went on stage with sunglasses on because I didn’t want to look at the crowd, and it was just very, very scary.”

So where is “here?” It’s a place and time where Matthew proudly introduces himself as an artist. That’s because the term “rapper” doesn’t cover half of his creative endeavors.

“Yes, I can rap. Yes, I can do poetry — write it and perform it — but I also like to take pictures, I also like to sing (I’m in the gospel choir at my university), I also like to do a little bit of graphic design,” Matthew says. “I like to introduce myself as an artist because I feel like I can do a lot of things. Even dancing.”

Currently, Matthew is a published author of Intentional Scribbles and a student at Wilberforce University majoring in sociology. He says he owes a great deal of his success to support from Underdog Academy and his friends at Sun Tribe — or, as he describes the tight-knit group: “Those people in your life that give you motivation and hope for the future of humanity.”

“My purpose in life is to create, and I literally don’t know how to go about my life without doing it. It’s my form of breathing,” Matthew says. “My way of breathing is through art and creation. That’s my way of understanding and describing things.”

“My purpose in life is to create, and I literally don’t know how to go about my life without doing it. It’s my form of breathing.”

Matthew Vaughn’s Work