Newark’s own? Newark always claimed him. He must have been a jazz club fixture there, back in the day.
Category Archives: american history
Asante Sana, Ruby Dee
In Europe And Want To See “Mumia?”
Well, here’s your chance!
A powerful film (and yes, of course I would say that! 😉 )!
re: Maya Angelou, The “Loaned Voice of God” (And My Thoughts About The Funeral, Which Can Be Seen Here)
My two cents: Oprah’s eulogy was powerful, but understandably restrained.
FLOTUS’ was beautifully crafted.
I wanted Cicely Tyson to keep going.
As former President Bill Clinton said, she lived so many lifetimes that all the speakers could show up and talk about just a part of her life. Unfortunately, virtually nothing of the political Maya was mentioned, other than a brief mention of the Harlem Writer’s Guild, her work in Ghana, and knowing Malcolm X. And most of that was done by Clinton, not the Black speakers! LOL! 🙂
Below is from “Democracy Now!”:
SONIA SANCHEZ: It’s going being her sister, Amy, and you are right, it is a very sad occasion, but anytime I can hear and see her perform, you know that she will live forever. I first met Sister Maya in the 1960’s. That was period when we were all gathering together to change the world. I saw her on a couple of occasions at affairs where we all read our poetry. I most especially remember her in the play “The Blacks.” She came out in her tall, six feet majesty, and you were just stricken by her, by her beauty and by her grace. And I still have in my memory, when Lumumba was killed, Louise Meriwether and Sister Maya, climbing, going over the walls there at the U.N. They were protesting. To have seen that, you stood there in awe.
AMY GOODMAN: The first president of the Congo.
SONIA SANCHEZ: Yes, Lumumba.
AMY GOODMAN: The democratically elected president of the Congo.
SONIA SANCHEZ: It was an amazing moment to see the resistance that they were doing there in New York City at the U.N.
The post below, showing a conversation between Dave Chappelle and Maya Angelou, show the “realness” of her much more than the soft-shoe funeral did.
Maya Angelou and Dave Chappelle
Wow! From 2006.
Richard Pryor and Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is being memorialized as I write this. This video from 1977, from one of Richard Pryor’s television specials (before he got a very short-lived and controversial show), has been making the Web rounds.
A Woman Called MAYA: 1928 – 2014
[col. writ. 5/28/14] © ’14 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Maya Angelou had to be the name of a poet; for it is too perfect, too lyrical to fit any other personality.
Born on April 4, 1928 as Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, MO., she blazed an incandescent streak across the heavens as a voice of memory, as poet, actress, author and activist. She taught generations of students as an honored professor of literature. As a young woman she struck the boards as an African dancer.
And she was a close friend and colleague of Malcolm X, working briefly as a leading member of his post-Nation of Islam grouping, the Organization of African-American Unity (OAAU).
During the early ‘60s presidency of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana attracted activists from around the world, especially Black Americans. Maya Angelou would be among them, making Western Africa her home.
There she would meet Malcolm again, tanned dark by the African sun, goateed, and fresh from his Hajj to Mecca, appearing at her door.
The assassination of Malcolm X seemed to have marked a turning point in her life, for it seemed like the work of “crazy people”, she said.
She got a call while visiting a relative in San Francisco, and the news of Malcolm’s fate numbed her into shock.
Her brother appeared at the house, unbidden, and drove her away. As they walked the city’s Black district – then the Fillmore – the conversations being heard around them were about Malcolm – but decidedly negative: “ ‘[H]e got what he deserved,” said one; “Serves him right”, said another.
Her brother turned to her and said, “These are the people that he died for.”
She would thereafter write, mother, teach and mentor.
Her autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, a tale of childhood betrayal, vengeance, and death, would be joined by works of poetic wonder, light and hope.
Her majestic contralto would lend Presidential Inauguration nobility if did not deserve, when she delivered “On the Pulse of the Morning”, reciting:
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again. (1993)
It seemed more fitting for her own extraordinary life.
She is the mother of the brilliant novelist, Guy Johnson.
-© ‘14maj
Can “Arsenio” Come Back? SHOULD “Arsenio” Come Back?
Decided not to jump on the second time around, but I did like it when Earth, Wind and Fire made him an honorary member and gave him a Kalimba. 🙂
Hmmmm…….. And this explained what happened well. And I’ve attempted to truth-squad what happened the first time he got canned.
Are you satisfied in your life and time?
Does it clear you mind
With all the hurt you find?
Built on Mother Earth
They were meant to stay
Nations bloom today on gifts of yesterday
Born of the Earth, are nature’s children
Fed by the Wind, the breath of life
Judged by the fiery hands of God
World goes by the hand of the master plan
Can’t you understand
You’re but a grain of sand
Do you need a guide
Who you know will make you feel satisfied?
Head to the sky will tell you why
Born of the Earth, are nature’s children
Fed by the Wind, the breath of life
Judged by the fiery hands of God
Do you need a guide, make you feel satisfied?
Can’t you understand
You’re but a grain of sand
When you search the sky, alright
Does it make you cry, though you understand?
Ain’t nothing but a big old man, alright
Don Cheadle Is On Indiegogo, Asking If You Want A Miles Davis Movie
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/join-miles-ahead-a-don-cheadle-film
Great idea! My first reaction is that I can deal without the hiphop artists, but then again, I miss hiphop jazz.
And Speaking of Eartha Kitt…….
…..look at this example of traditional Black media. You can feel the indigenous nature of the interview.
This is an episode of Detroit Black Journal. The host is Ron Scott, and the episode is from 1978.
Batgirl and Catwoman, On 1970s Tee Vee Every Day
Until I started watching the 1960s “Batman” show on ME-TV’s “Sci-Fi Saturday,” one of my summer pastimes was to watch this show on youtube.
As a kid in the mid-1970s, watching weekdays in endless syndicated reruns, I thought the “Batman” TV show was perfection. It was the only show on TV that met all my needs: pacing, color, action, cool music, a trap, and more action!
(Serious aside: Did anybody know that Burgess Meredith, who most remember from his Penguin role here, ABC’ s “Those Amazing Animals” and the “Rocky” films, was the director for James Baldwin’s “Blues For Mister Charlie?”)
I remember when I first saw Batgirl on the show. I really liked her, but had no idea why. Now, as a adult, looking at that practically painted-on costume, I can guess! LOL! From that time on, a “good” Batman episode was one that had Batgirl in it. (But a friend of mine once pointed out when we were in our early teens that if a villain amputated one of her legs, that would be it for her as a crimefighter. 😉 )
I now know that the Batgirl episodes (all of Season 3) are the worst, but what helps me deal with it is that reality is that they are also the ones that star Eartha Kitt as Catwoman!
Heeheeheeheeheehee……Catwoman has come upon some hard times, clearly. 🙂
Drums in the Global Village 