1977 – Give the Dancers Castenets: The first evening-length collaboration of Maida Withers Dance Construction Company with performance poet, Chasen Gaver,  Dance Project, Adams Morgan, Washington, DC with Sculptor, Edward LeBoe; Architect, Terry Rosenheck.

Chasen Gaver  wrote new poems and selected previous poems that he performed with the dancers on stage.  He was considered a Washington, DC “original.”  Some say he was one of Washington, DC’s first rappers.

Beloved Chasen was one of the earliest in Washington, DC to die of AIDS.  Chasen Gaver’s papers, 1977-1988  (collection number 7575) are part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections at the Cornell University Library.  http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM07575.html

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