Racial identity of ‘Black Sam’ debated

Racial identity of ‘Black Sam’ debated

When the Continental Congress passed a resolution barring Black men from serving in the American army, one of the first heroes of the Revolution was an African-American, Crispus Attucks, who died in the 1770 Boston Massacre.

Surprised by the large number of slaves who responded to a British offer of freedom for all slaves who joined their forces, George Washington approved Black enlistments.

After the war, General Washington came to New York City to say farewell to his officers at a restaurant owned and run by Samuel Fraunces, a successful Black businessman from the French West Indies. When Washington moved to New York and then Philadelphia as the nation’s first president, he chose Fraunces to be his chief steward.

“Black Sam” Fraunces (1734-1795), who was renowned for his good food and business savvy, was also a spy and loyal friend to Washington, who lauded him as a patriot.

“You have, invariably through the most trying times, maintained a constant friendship, an attention to the cause of our country and its independence and freedom,” wrote Washington to Fraunces of their relationship.

Today, nearly 214 years since Frances’ death here in Philadelphia, he lies buried in an unmarked grave in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church cemetery located at Third and Pine streets in the heart of Society Hill.

Around the corner, a Pennsylvania state historical marker at Second and Dock streets marks the location of last tavern Fraunces operated following his retirement from the presidential household.

Frances ran the business for about a year until his death at age 61.

For over 30 years, Charles Blockson, historian and curator emeritus of the Blockson Collection at Temple University, has been documenting the story of Fraunces, his personal relationship with one of America’s most powerful men and the legacy that has continued with some of his over 500 descendents.

Blockson, author of “The Liberty Bell Era: The African American Story (Insight, $19.99),” along with the help of genealogist C. R. Cole have confirmed that Fraunces was born in the West Indies of African and French ancestry.

Cole, author of “Samuel Fraunces ‘Black Sam’ (Xlibris, $19.99),” has been researching the free Blacks living within the boundaries of Pennsylvania before the Civil War for the last 20 years.

Both the historian and the genealogist are of the opinion that Fraunces and his descendents are long overdue their acknowledgement as celebrated African Americans.

While the 1790 New York Census lists Fraunces (who until 1776 called himself Francis) as having been white and a slaveholder, other historians have claimed that references to “Black Sam’s” racial identity may instead refer to his temper or appearance from working in the kitchen.

“He should be given his due, so to speak,” said Cole. “Even within his family, I think the thing I noticed the most that you can explain a lot, but that’s not saying he’s not African in origins. And when you say it does not matter, what you’re saying is that it’s all going away. It dismisses a whole part of colonial America, at the same time because then you dismiss the fact that most of the skilled labor was African American.”

One of the oldest colonial structures in New York City today is the Fraunces Tavern, near Wall Street, which still serves as a restaurant and revolutionary era museum.

According to Cole, early in the museum’s history, a reporter wrote of a portrait that used to depict Frances at his namesake tavern and “described him with curly brown hair, a slight double chin and dark black eyes.

That’s missing now. What they have in its place is some guy in a white powder wig and a blue velvet coat with green eyes and no hint of a double chin. And that’s their biggest piece of proof that he’s not African American.”

While some historians have cited that there are no 18th-century references of Fraunces’ African descent, Blockson notes that “many fair-skinned persons of African descent were presumed as white from appearance unless their racial identity is known.

“While researching the story of his life, it was discovered that Fraunces’ racial identity was recorded as Negro, colored, Haitian Negro, Mulatto, ‘fastidious old Negro’ and swarthy. Fraunces was immortalized in Philip Freneau’s 1786 book of poems as ‘Black Sam.’ He was familiarly called by his nick name because of his tan complexion and his tight, curly hair. Keeping with the time, he often wore a white, powdered wig.”

The Fraunces family history includes the heroic act of “Black Sam’s” daughter, Elizabeth “Phoebe” Fraunces, whose beauty helped unravel the treachery of a British double agent’s plot to murder Washington and several military officers by adding a poison to a dish of peas placed before Washington.

She whispered to Washington the nature of the contents. Washington, according to tradition, threw the peas out of the window where some chickens were feeding. The chickens picked the peas and fell dead.

Thomas Hickey later confessed to the assassination plot and on June 28, 1776, was hung before a crowd of 20,000 people.

In 2003, the rediscovery of The President’s House at Fifth and Market streets further highlighted the role Fraunces played in the nation’s past and future into the 21st century, as Blockson explained. “One of Samuel Fraunces grandsons, William D. Kelly (1814-1890), whom they called ‘Pig Iron,’ was one of the founders of the Republican Party supporting Lincoln and also founded the Union League. He was a friend of African people. He also helped organize the U.S. colored troops at Camp William Penn.”

So, does the controversy over the racial identity of Fraunces continue to deny him his proper place in American history as a person of African descent?

The anonymous Society Hill gravesite of an acknowledged American patriot who was a right-hand man to the father of this country serves as a sour reminder of this nation’s conflicted stance on race.

“There was no question of his origin because certainly the daughter was still in the area,” stated Cole. “Phoebe and her husband had a large successful boarding house for years in Philadelphia. I’d go out on a limb and say the grave is probably not marked intentionally.”

 

Source:  Philadelphia Tribune

Date: March 22, 2009

Byline: Bobbi Booker

…just because.

Nutter: City needs new identity for future

Nutter: City needs new identity for futureMayor-Elect Michael Nutter addresses his vision of “The Identity of the New Philadelphia” at Franklin Hall in The Franklin Institute Science Museum Tuesday. — HIROKO TANAKA/TRIBUNE STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER   By Bobbi Booker Tribune Staff Writer As Philadelphia Mayor-elect Michael Nutter prepared to give a Tuesday evening keynote address titled “Identity and the New Philadelphia,” it was breaking news of the crime-riddled city that concerned many of the 400 guests gathered at the Franklin Institute.Moments before Nutter’s arrival, he had been briefed with a report of another Philadelphia police shooting.“Two more police officers were shot earlier this evening,’ said Nutter. “It is an unconscionable situation. We’ll do what we need to do on the streets of this city and make Philadelphia safe.”In what was Nutter’s first speech since his election, Nutter offered a visionary look at the future of Philadelphia in a dressed themed with the kickoff of the Institute’s new exhibit, “Identity: An Exhibition of You.” Using the films “Rocky” and “The Philadelphia Story” as talking points, Nutter said residents need to embrace a new image of themselves. Nutter says he believes the city is entering the “post-Rocky era” and suggested, “The Rocky identity is not working. For one thing, businesses do not want to come to the city if they think we’re an uneducated population not ready for the new world. And unfortunately, I have to share with you that the statistics about Philadelphia are overwhelming: We have the highest percentage of adults with a high school education and not college degrees.” Nutter’s address and the subsequent question ad answer session was punctuated by several sustained rounds of applause while he explained his intention to expand education and employment opportunities for residents and the implementation of his get-tough policy of crime and litter. “It’s about identity,” explained Nutter. “It’s about who we think we are and who we can be. And so as we grow our economy, as we get businesses to come here, as we think better of ourselves and each other in adopting a can-do kind of spirit and attitude. “We have to change the model of what leadership is about in Philadelphia because that will change the model of who we are and what we’re about. So let this be the new identity of Philadelphia: the can-do city; the city that works; the city that keeps clean; the city that educate its kids; the city that works hard; the city that makes sure our streets are safe and that our kids are going to school; that we’re creating economic opportunity and that we value arts and culture. “That we share our collective and wonderful city, not only with our suburban neighbors, but also with the rest of the country.”

=Originally Published in The Philadelphia Tribune=

Koresh dancers share joy in their art

By BOBBI BOOKER   Koresh Dancer Fanju Chou-Gant   Lifestyles Headlines The seeds for the creative dance force known as the Koresh Dance Company began when its founder, Ronen Koresh, was a small boy growing up in an Israeli village. An uncle took the shy 10-year-old to the side to demonstrate a few dance steps so the youngster could participate in a family gathering. Those nascent steps unfurled the first essence of creativity that Koresh has harnessed into evolving from a noted street dancer to blossoming as a world-class choreographer and performer. “The creative part was always there,” recalled Koresh. “But there was also a part of me that wanted to perform a lot.” And perform he did. By his mid-teens, he was studying jazz and ballet at the Batsheva Dance Company, a Tel-Aviv group co-founded by legendary dancer Martha Graham. At 17, he choreographed his first show featuring 40 female dancers in a performance before an audience of 3,000 people. By the time he was 18, he was drafted for compulsory military service and he’d never even worn jeans. “Here is a country that is 15 years old. There were no lights in the streets. No cars. Nobody to call. Nothing. I had one pair until I was 20,” and Koresh laughed. “That’s why I have an obsession with jeans now.” Koresh was determined to continue dancing, and after appealing to his officers, he was allowed to pursue his dancing, but only after he had completed his day’s work as a soldier. After his discharge, Koresh headed straight for New York to study with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and then to Philadelphia to join the (now defunct) jazz dance company Waves. In 1991, the Koresh Dance Company was founded and has since been lauded as “The Ailey II of Philadelphia,” by Dance magazine. Koresh Dance Company’s performances feature an eclectic repertoire of over 50 works by Koresh, as well as guest artists such as Brian Sanders, formerly of Momix, Hector Vega and Donald Byrd. The company’s critically acclaimed work attracts increasing audiences across the nation, and Koresh’s reputation for passion and outstanding technique regularly results in sold-out performances. The company presents bi-annual home season concerts, and performs on tour at various national festivals, performing arts centers, university performance venues and charity benefits. Koresh Dance Company also teaches dance at all levels and offers free arts education to underserved youths in the region. Koresh says similar opportunities offered when he was a child created the dancer he was destined to become. “I am a product of outreach myself,” he said. “I didn’t grow up with money. We grew up with nothing. People reached to me and when I was a kid (so) I didn’t pay for classes. They kind of pulled me out of the community into a world where maybe if I didn’t do what I did, I may have been a hoodlum. You never know.” Company members give lecture-demonstrations in local public schools so the students can see a performance and talk to the dancers about their art and work. The students also participate by dancing in their own “master classes.” “Talent is a powerful thing,” said Koresh. “It gives you the feeling of self-respect and self-esteem when you know that you possess inside you something that nobody else does, or not a lot of people do. It’s kind of a light that’s inside you. It’s a little light bulb inside your heart that just lights up because a lot of people live in darkness all around them. All they see are not very nice things all day and then there is this light bulb that gives you direction.” When Koresh came to the region in the mid-1980s, he felt welcomed by the people and the potential. Today, at age 46, he looks forward to expanding his vision of maintaining the artistic legacy Philadelphia is renowned for. “There is something in Philadelphia that is so magnificent and so beautiful,” said Koresh, whose company is currently on a 24-city tour. “I think that we have a responsibility to make this city the best. The art and culture is the light and soul of the city. If we all continue to support it and put it on the map it will become a beam of light that will shine everywhere, and people are going to come to Philadelphia and would want to be a part of the culture in Philadelphia.” The Koresh School of Dance, at 2020 Chestnut St., will host its 15th anniversary celebration Fall Bash next Saturday. The evening will include a special performance by the Koresh Dance Company. For more information, call (215) 751-0959 or visit www.koreshdance.org.=Originally Published in The Philadelphia Tribune on Sunday, October 7, 2007=

…“Everyplace has stories and they don’t get told a lot.”

By Bobbi Booker

Photo Credit: James Keyser 2003
Winner of both the Newberry Award and the Coretta Scott King Medal, Christopher Paul Curtis has become one of the most important voices in children’s literature today. His new book, “Mr. Chickee’s Messy Mission” (Wendy Lamb Books, $15.99) continues to delight young readers with Curtis’ uniquely humorous brand of story telling.

Born in Flint, Michigan, Curtis spent his first 13 years after high school on the assembly line of Flint’s historic Fisher Body Plant #1. Although he resides in Windsor, Canada with his wife, Kaysandra, and their two children, his heart remains in Flint, the partial setting of many of his books. “I’m a Flintstone to the bone,” Curtis enthused. “You don’t think that’s something we say with pride, but we do anyway.”

With grandfathers like Earl “Lefty” Lewis, a Negro Baseball League pitcher, and 1930s bandleader Herman E. Curtis, Sr., of Herman Curtis and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression, Curtis felt he was destined to life beyond the factory. “Oh, I hated working in that factory, but like so many people I was trapped. I had to have a new car and I had to pay the bills and I couldn’t get out. It was soul crushing. It was a really tough job physically, mentally and emotionally. I had to quit finally because I wasn’t heading for anything good working in that factory.”

During breaks at the factory, Curtis honed his writing skills enough to convince his wife to suggest that he take a year off from the factory to see if he could make it as a writer. “We had a long distance relationship and he use to write me a lot of letters,” said Kay. “I know he is funny and a good writer and I just thought it was something that he wanted to do and if I could help him in anyway, then we would see how it goes for a year.”

Throughout that year Curtis crafted his outstanding debut in children’s literature with “The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963.” His second novel, “Bud, Not Buddy,” became the first book ever to receive both the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Author Award.

“I would tell you that even though I thought he was good,” reflected Kay. “But, I didn’t think he was that good.”

Since Flint is an automobile town, once you leave the factory, you also leave behind the social fabric of the area. Curtis, however, remains true to his hometown roots and frequently visits family or catches a pickup game of basketball with friends. Although he’s lived in Canada for nearly two decades, Flint continues to influence his writing today.

“Everyplace has stories and they don’t get told a lot,” explained Curtis. “And that’s what I tell kids, nothing happened in Flint, but I just told my story about Flint. I could write a thousand stories about things that have happened in Flint. Flint is a very important part of all of my stories so far.”

=Originally Published in The Philadelphia Tribune on February 20, 2007=

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…A subject that is universal to all: Love.

By Bobbi Booker

Social activist, renowned author of more than 20 books, iconic feminist, and beloved teacher—bell books (lower case, please) is well known for her unapologetic intellectual writing. In language that is both spare and powerful, the poetry of “When Angels Speak of Love” (Atria Books, $16.95) offers the romantic reading public hooks as a major modern poet to contend with. Each of the 50 poems of “When Angels Speak” are designed to be read aloud, cherished and celebrated. Each numbered poem captures an emotion, or offers wisdom with straightforward language and clarity, leaving the reader with the resonance of hook’s fiery voice.

Readers of bell hooks’ scorching attacks on racism and sexism might be surprised to see her take on the elusive subject of love, but her previous four titles on the topic—from “All About Love” to “The Will to Change” –have made her the go-to source for contemplative contemporary literature on love. A theme in hooks’ most recent writing is the ability of community and love to overcome race, class, and gender. The interconnectiveness of these series of books on the elusive emotion was evident when she first wrote in “All About Love” the following: “When angels speak of love they tell us it is only by loving that we enter an earthly paradise. They tell us paradise is our home and love our true destiny.”

All of her books on love deal with the fleeting aspects of romance and society’s misuse, yet dire need of it. In poem Number 2 from “When Angels Speak”, hooks writes: in love/there are no closed doors/each threshold/an invitation/to cross/take hold/take heart/and enter here/at this point/where truth/was once denied.

hooks adopted her pen name from those of her mother and grandmother. Her name uses an unconventional lowercasing, which, to hooks, signifies that what is most important in her works is the “substance of books, not who I am.”

In her own unique way hooks continues to engage the public with the subject that is universal to all: Love.

=Originally published in the Philadelphia Tribune on February, 23, 2007=

Is Michelle Obama’s Scaling Back at Work for Her Husband’s Campaign Front-Page News?

Is Michelle Obama’s Scaling Back at Work for Her Husband’s Campaign Front-Page News?

Originally published on Tuesday, May 15, 2007
By: Bobbi Booker, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com

News of Michelle Obama’s decision to scale back her duties as VP of community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals and hit the presidential campaign trail with her husband, Barack, has put the spotlight back on the professional and personal choices career women must often make.

The press coverage of Mrs. Obama also reveals the newfound role political spouses play in modern-day elections. Two of the presidential contenders wives — Elizabeth Edwards and Ann Romney — are respectively battling cancer and multiple sclerosis, and another spouse — Bill Clinton — is a former president.

“I think she’s constantly surprised at what people chose to make news,” Katie McCormick Lelyveld, communications director for Michelle Obama, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. Lelyveld said a recent front-page Washington Post story, which first announced Obama’s decision, had initially misreported Mrs. Obama’s intention to leave her job.

“As of May 1st, she reduced her hours to 20 percent and, as we all know in the age of Blackberries, is very hard to quantify exactly how much she is working,” explained Lelyveld. “She still goes to meetings, manages her administrative responsibilities and stays on top of some of the projects that she’s been working on because her career has always been very important to her. Completely leaving it at this point is not something that she’s doing.”

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Neighbors stay in on rainy days. Good neighbors save up for them. Visit statefarm.com

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AP VideoA lot of attention is being paid as Michelle Obama publicly makes a transition from her status as a private citizen with a white-collar job to possibly become America’s first black First Lady. Last year, Essence magazine listed her among “25 of the World’s Most Inspiring Women” while Ebony anointed the Obamas one of “America’s 10 Hottest couples.”While Obama reportedly makes doubly her husband’s income, she is still the primary caretaker of the couple’s two young daughters. Like her husband, Obama attended Harvard Law School, and according to insiders, she is crucial to her husband’s success. As a Chicago native, Mrs. Obama as been credited with introducing her husband to mainstream America. He is now the junior senator from Illinois.

Last week, Mrs. Obama made her first visit to New Hampshire, one of about a dozen solo campaign stops she has made. Since Barack Obama’s formal announcement in February, she has made 16 joint appearances with him.

“Barack has given people that hope, but he’s going to get tired. This is a long campaign,” Michelle Obama told Democrats gathered for a house party in Windham, New Hampshire. “I joke he’s not going to be able to bring people to tears with every speech that he makes. He’s going to make stumbles.”

She told those gathered of the sacrifices her parents made to put put her and her brother through Princeton University on a working class salary. She said that dream of supporting a family and putting children through college seems to be getting further away, even with loans.

Obama says she believes as president, her husband could change things for the better, and that if she didn’t believe that, she’d tell him to do something else.

Obama told the Washington Post that she grappled with her decision to work after the birth of her daughters.

“Every other month [since] I’ve had children I’ve struggled with the notion of ‘Am I being a good parent? Can I stay home? Should I stay home? How do I balance it all?’” she said. “I have gone back and forth every year about whether I should work.”

Obama does not fit into the neat definition of either stay-at-home or working mom. While she is a vivid example of a full-time executive mother who is supportive of her spouse, her decision to scale back in her job duties is ultimately very personal.

“I believe you should let women decide what they’re going to do, as long as they have all the options, they should do what they want,” Martha Leslie Allen, Web editor for Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “Part of the problem that pushes women out of most jobs is it is hard to have all the responsibilities of a career with children when there isn’t good child care, and it isn’t equally divided. And those responsibilities fall onto women.”

Lelyveld speculates the reason Obama’s decision is front-page news is “perhaps it’s because she’s a woman whose maintained her own career. I don’t know why that’s news, but people think it is.”

The more than 280 comments in the Post’s “On Balance” blog late Monday reflected a variety of viewpoints on both Mrs. Obama’s decision and the media’s coverage of it.

“The day I read about the aspiring first husband quitting his job to support his aspiring president wife will be a great day,” opined a poster named Meesh. “I think the media report on this type of stuff because our country is very partisan, and news like this is potential fodder for either side. The media thrive on controversy. Issues like these evoke strong emotions, and people want to read about it.”

“I think it’s clear that in America, we’ve come to expect the two parent household, and women are clearly in the workforce,” according to Kari, who offered that “when you note that women’s work is still not valued as highly as men’s work in real dollars, and then take into account the backlash against strong working political figures like Hillary Clinton and the backlash against the strength the 41st First Lady Bush endured, you could see why Mrs. Obama made her decision … Being smart and funny and articulate is wonderful, if you’re a smart, funny, and articulate woman working to further her husband and family. Following your own ambitions comes at a political price.”

Another comment, from Common Sense, read, “Personally, I’d like Michelle Obama to be First Lady in 2008, but politics is pressure, even for political families. It’s no surprise that she has left her job. I’m certain she’ll be a benefit to her husband in the campaign. Even so, she will have a high profile, and I doubt this will damage her career. By the way, I don’t equate being outspoken with being ’strong.’ A leader doesn’t simply give orders; a leader is defined by who will follow based on personality, character and principles. Hillary Clinton is not ’strong’ by that measure. Hillary is a divider, not a uniter. I’m sick and tired of dividers. That’s reason enough to support Obama. I couldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton at gunpoint.”

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Associated Press contributed to this story.

20 People Who Changed Black Music: Wild Child George Clinton, Funk’s Fearless Godfather

 

In commemoration of June as Black Music Month, BlackAmericaWeb.com will examine 20 inspirational creative and business visionaries whose contributions to black American music and culture have made an immeasurable impact all over the world.

Originally posted on Thursday, June 21, 2007

By Bobbi Booker for BlackAmericaWeb.com

When you hear MC Hammer’s “Turn This Mutha Out,” Tone Loc’s “Funky Cold Medina” or Heavy D’s “The Overweight Lover’s In The House,” you are actually listening to hit tunes that were heavily dependent on samples (from “Give Up The Funk,” “Knee Deep,” and “Pass The Peas,” respectively) of songs of music pioneer George Clinton. And as you go through a litany of hits from the 1980’s until today, many dance classics have the unmistakable mark of Clinton to credit for their success, or – at the very least – their listenability. The credit due to Clinton comes from his 50 years as a music innovator who has redefined one of the tenets of soul music: funk.

“Funk is a basic soul with a lot of rhythm, and it’s the structure of that rhythm that makes it funk,” music expert Fred Sutton told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “It’s just soul music with a heavy rhythm that involves drums and bass. You listen to jazz in its pure form, you know its jazz, but if you blend in another type of rhythm, it’s called fusion. Therefore, you have jazz/fusion, and you have soul/funk.”

In the beginning, Clinton (born in 1940 in Kannapolis, North Carolina) was influenced like many of the youth of his era by the melodic sounds of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. After founding the Parliaments as a doo-wop group in the 1950’s, the group finally hit pay dirt with their Number One R&B hit “(I Just Wanna) Testify” in 1967.

For some time in the ’60s, Clinton served on the songwriting staff at Motown Records, and in 1968, Clinton formed Funkadelic, a visionary band that combined acid rock with primal funk. By 1972, Clinton renamed the band Parliament and signed them to Casablanca Records, while Funkadelic signed with Warner Brothers in 1976. The brilliance behind the move was that the same personnel housed both powerhouse bands.

“Parliament was more orchestrated with horns and complicated vocal arrangements,” explained Clinton on his website, “while Funkadelic was more a straight-up rock band with a heavy rhythm section.”

“The interesting thing about George Clinton is the evolution from his initial roots from the Funkadelic to going into the whole Funkadelic-Parliament transition,” said Sutton. “They started out on more of a soul kind of thing and went into a soul/rock type of thing which eventually metamophasized into a whole funk situation. Basically, that separated him from a lot of groups in that his music was a lot more syncopated and, of course, the way that they combined the story telling. The lyrical content separated George from other acts as well.”

Clinton and his crew got on a roll, as his bands each had successive chart-busting jams like “Tear the Roof Off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk)” in 1976; and “Flashlight” and “Bop Gun” in 1977. They also hit hard with anthemic funk jams like 1978’s “One Nation Under A Groove” and “(Not Just) Knee Deep” and “Aqua Boogie” a year later.

Clinton also employed The P-Funk mythology in a series of concept albums and live shows. One of Clinton’s more popular characters was set in a lyrical story that spun the tale of Sir Nose, Devoid of Funk, an alien creature who would initially not engage in the funk rhythms he was encountering and, by song’s end, would reluctantly admit to feeling the rhythms. Parliament-Funkadelic concerts would follow the Sir Nose tale, while additionally staging some of the most outrageous concert stunts – from futuristic costumes and on-stage spacehips to grown men beating out tunes in cloth diapers while Clinton and his trademark colorful braids spurred the band on to funkier rhythmic heights.

“He had a major coup in getting Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, Bootsy Collins,” noted Sutton. “Many of the rhythm aspects of the group at that point where former musicians who’d played for James Brown. It was just a fabulous, rhythmically, syncopated soul-oriented type of group that at that point was playing strictly funk. The musicianship was outrageous because most of these players had actually worked with James Brown for many, many years.”

By 1981, Clinton had dissolved both bands (but held on to the members) and reemerged as a solo act and leader of the P-Funk All-Stars with his biggest solo hit, “Atomic Dog,” in 1983. From 1986 to 1989, Clinton became embroiled in legal difficulties that stemmed from the litany of royalty problems from the ’70s with recordings of over 40 musicians for four labels under three names. However, a generation of rappers who had been reared on Clinton’s music began to sample his tunes, thus making him the most second most sampled artist after James Brown. As always, Clinton retooled himself, and in 1989 signed on with Prince’s Paisley Park label for the release of his fifth solo project, “The Cinderella Theory.” Clinton next signed with Sony 550 for his 1996 release, “T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M.”(“the awesome power of a fully operational mothership”), which reunited the funk pioneer with several of his Parliament/Funkadelic comrades from the ’70s.

Today, Clinton is head of his own label, The C Kunspyruhzy, that will release his first studio album in 10 years, followed by solo recordings by individual members of the P-Funk empire.

“We got four generations of fans out there who keep bugging me to get these live shows out there, and now’s the time,” says Clinton. “I’ve seen what the Grateful Dead have been doing with their archives, as well as bands like Pearl Jam, and I figured it was time to show the world what the funk is all about.” Clinton also plans to release a collection of Parliament-Funkadelic and P-Funk All Stars live recordings gleaned from board tapes. Called the “Uncut Funk Series,” the live CDs will incorporate some of the best shows over the past 30 years and will be augmented with superior graphics and extensive liner notes.

“George Clinton always made the transition from the beginning all the way up until today with film and television score,” notes Sutton. “His ability to write and bridge each segment of each decade has been there from the beginning. Although there is a comparison between George and James Brown, they distinctly have carved out their own niche in music. James Brown has a larger and broader legacy because he started it. From James Brown, you got the best, and George Clinton is one of the best that came from that legacy.”

In commemoration of June as Black Music Month, BlackAmericaWeb.com will examine 20 inspirational creative and business visionaries whose contributions to black American music and culture have made an immeasurable impact all over the world.

For Visionary Black Artists Selling Their Music Online, Every Day is Independents’ Day

 

 

Originally published on Friday, June 08, 2007
By Bobbi Booker, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com

R&B singer Eric Roberson has had over 137,000 MySpace.com profile views, and over 5,000 visitors have listened to or downloaded the several tunes he posts at the site from his CD, “Left.” As vocalist N’dambi prepares for her third album release, over 8,600 guests have listened to her song, “If We Were Alone.” You might not be able to score eight-time ASCAP winner Gordon Chambers at your local record store, yet he is a heralded star on CDBaby.com. And while the soulful sounds of Lady Alma have been in the air for years, hearing her on the air is quite another matter.

All of the above independent artists are bonafide stars in their own right, often selling out venues as they tour the nation or world. Their success stems from their affiliation with online music distribution, which has given independent artists new prospects for production, marketing and circulation on a global level, in an instantaneous fashion.

“When people hear of Lady Alma and a lot of other artists who have created a buzz nationally and internationally, the first thing they do is go to the Internet and find more history and music on these people. And if you’ve got music for sale online, that’s the fastest way people can get a hold of the music,” according to Tony Allen, Alma’s former manager. “It’s faster selling online, as far as reaching out to the masses internationally. People all over the world can buy your music, and you don’t have to worry about going to a retail store in Berlin trying to meet a storeowner and educate him on the artist. The community is right there on the Web.”

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AP VideoThroughout the history of recorded music, independent artists were at a disadvantage to their mainstream music colleagues, who could count on financial and commercial backing from record labels that were often affiliated with large conglomerates that controlled many subsidiary record companies. Today, the Internet has opened up new distribution channels for digital music, and this has leveled the playing field for music artists and performers. The rise of new media technologies, such as digital music and the Internet, has created new opportunities for independent musicians to self-produce and distribute their work on a global scale, both easily and affordably.A decade ago, James Collins, founder of the popular Baltimore-based band, Fertile Ground, created his own label, Blackout Studios, surrounded himself with like-minded musicians and began releasing his own music. To date, Blackout Studios has independently sold 300,000 units.”Each release that we have produced or marketed has a different strategy and doesn’t really follow a blueprint,” said Collins. “We don’t necessarily pump records to a formula. For instance, Fertile Ground, the biggest seller that we have, is a band that stays on the road. The records really support the tour, as opposed to modern black music that creates the inverse — where people only tour to support their new record. Fertile Ground really lives onstage; they have records that capture that light, and that is one of the strongest ways. The band sells about 60 percent of those records touring the 75 to 80 dates they do per year.”The Okayplayer.com form of Internet promotion inspired Collins, he says. In 1999, The Roots’ co-founder and drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson established Okayplayer as the official website for the innovative Philadelphia-based hip-hop band. Okayplayer has since evolved into an influential online community that not only nurtures its artists and encourages fan interaction, but also hosts an independent record label and sponsors a series of concert tours. Collins also credits his label’s success to online independent retailers, such as Dusty Grooves and CDBaby, which offer artists 75 percent of sales on a consignment basis, as well as additional promotion.”Everyone and anyone can do it,” said CDBaby spokesperson Sean Croughon from its Portland, Oregon headquarters. “The world’s changed a lot. It used to be that you used have to jump through the hoops of a few people in order to have your music made available. Before that, there were tons of tiny little labels all over the country that would put out records, but that was destroyed in the 50s and 60s, and now we are kind of returning to that. Everyone can be their own label.”

Online music distribution has given independent artists new prospects for production, marketing and circulation. The Internet has allowed individuals the ability to call their own shots by bypassing “the middleman,” taking control from both record companies and management. Technology has eased the chore of music production and CD duplication. Additionally, online record stores help artists tailor their tunes for music download entities like iTunes and Rhapsody.

“So now, those independent artists can be on the Web site alongside all other major label artists,” explained Croughon. “You can find music from any part of the world online, whether it’s through CDBaby, iTunes or any of the hundreds of independent record labels that sell online. It’s great. It’s just a golden age.”

New York hip-hop artist Count Coolout (born James Minor) recalls the initial street buzz that propelled his 1980 hit, “Rhythm Rap Rock.” Minor, now a music marketing consultant, runs his business online via JaThom Records.

“In the old days, (the major labels) didn’t want to touch us because we weren’t what they considered to be music at one point. A lot of guys were selling on independent labels,” said Minor. “It might be the neighborhood number man, the dealer who lent the money to actually make a label to put a record out. When the labels started to see how this music was being sold, they decided to start signing us and start giving distribution deals as well. Now, it’s come full circle.”

Today, major labels are even more reluctant to accept unsolicited material, forcing potential acts to rely on high-end intermediaries such as entertainment lawyers. Those artists who are signed are often submitted to a formulaic process that leads to similarity in the tunes that do receive airplay.

“What happens today, as opposed to yesteryear when I first started out, is there was no Internet. Back then, if the ‘net existed, there probably never would have been a brother on a major label,” explained Minor. “Today’s artists are selling the CDs from the Internet. They’re on the underground, but they’re still getting fame. The money coming from the ‘net may not be as great as if they were on a major label, but how much of that major money do they keep?”

On average, an artist signed to a major label deals gets about 8 percent of the wholesale selling price of the CD single (about $5) or CD album (approximately $7-$8 each). Depending on the deal the artist signed, they could receive mere pennies on a chart-topping hit song. It was this kind of formula that led to the financial downfall of such artists such as TLC and spurred other artists like Prince to trendsetting online music dominance.

“If a major outfit sells 100,000 CDs, it’s considered a total flop. If an independent person or label sells 10,000 CDs, they’re breaking out the champagne,” says Minor. “Do the math: 10,000 at $10 a pop is $100,000. So the majors, being who they are and doing business the way they’ve been taught to do it, have pushed themselves to the side. And people are just going forward.”

… Rebecca Walker’s emotional and intellectual transformation through birth

Originally published in The Philadelphia Tribune, Sunday, March 25, 2007

The generation of child bearing women who are now in their twenties and thirties are faced with a myriad of choices as they contemplate pregnancy. Many young women are faced with uncertainty as they juggle the demand of their personal and professional lives. Like other women in her generation, bestselling author Rebecca Walker’s was at a crossroads when making her life altering decision to experience pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood and she share her concerns in her latest memoir, “Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence” (Riverhead Books, $24.95).

For fifteen years Walker recognized a persistent yearning to have a baby but feared actually choosing to do it. As a result, she almost missed what she now knows to be the single most meaningful experience of her life. “When I was writing the book I was thinking a lot about how important it is for young women to strategize and prioritize having a child if its something they want to do and not to let the very finite period of their fertility get past them because of their ambivalence, or because of fear or because of different relationships in their lives that haven’t been resolved. It is such a powerful experience that if you miss it, you miss. It’s a message I really diidn’t get when I was younger, and I wish I had, so I feel like it’s my responsibility having to come into that awareness to just put it out there.”

In Baby Love, Rebecca Walker tells the story of her pregnancy: not just the physical evolution, but also the emotional and intellectual transformation from ambivalence to certainty to unconditional love. It’s the story of the birth of her son, Tenzin, the development of her relationship with her partner, Glen, and the demise of her relationship with her mother and fellow author, Alice Walker.

This older Walker opposes her daughter’s decision to have a baby and challenges Rebecca’s account of their relationship in the memoir “Black, White and Jewish.” Alice ends their relationship and removes Rebecca from her will, and Rebecca endures a tumultuous pregnancy, estranged from her mother as she prepares to become one herself. Tenzin, now 2, has yet to meet his grandmother.

“I think it’s the best thing for everyone’s mental and emotional health,” Walker says. “I support the decisions that I have made to make a better life for my child. I’ve always been open to reconciliation and I always will be, but it has to be in such a way that healing will take place and not harm.”

Like her mother, Walker has received numerous awards and accolades for her writing and activism. The elder Walker is one of the most prolific and important writers of our times, known for her literary fiction, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Color Purple (now a major Broadway play).

Walker acknowledges the sacrifice that her mother made to become one of America’s most recognized African American authors. “In many ways, it’s much easier for me than it was my mother,” explained Walker. “There are some differences in terms of the pressures and the arduousness of the task of being an African American woman writer at that time. She had to break ground that I don’t have to. The pressures and the resistance were tremendous in a lot of ways and so the impact on our home life was more intense. I clearly have obstacles that I have to negotiate, but it’s a different time so I think the extreme of the experience won’t be the same for Tenzin.”

As we speak, the sound of birds chirping emanate in the background of the Hawaiian home she’s made with her son and partner. Walker says she has found a secure place, within her self, to enjoy her life and her decisions. Today, Walker draws strength and serenity from the realization that her unconditional love for her son is vastly different from her mother’s love for her.

“I think (motherhood) makes me more appreciative of this journey to have realized that I could have missed it allows to embrace it even more every day,” reflects Walker. “I could just stare at my son for hours. I have to stop myself because I’m just so in awe of the experience. I definitely think that coming close to missing it has made it a more precious experience for me.”

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“We live in a world where the main sexual position is called the missionary…”

Zane is a one-name publishing phenomena who through erotic novels and millions of fans has become a brand name unto her self. The acclaimed author, publisher, bookseller and producer joins Toni Morrison and Terry McMillan as one of only three African-American women to make the New York Times fiction bestseller “print list” in this century. For years, she kept her identity secret, and still refuses to tell her name, choosing instead Zane, a moniker she picked up while visiting Internet chat rooms. She’ll tell you she’s the divorced mother of three sons and spends her days in suburban Maryland tending them. Yet for Zane, writing erotica is akin to sliding into a sexy negligee. And when readers come away from her salacious books, like “Addicted,” “The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth,” “Gettin’ Buck Wild: The Sex Chronicles 2,” ” Shame on it All, and “The Heat Seekers,” they almost feel like peeling back the sheets and taking a long drag from a cigarette.

Zane, 40, looks very much the suburban mother she is. But she is much deeper. She recalls becoming a speed-reader at age 10 and polishing off several books a day by middle school. Writing came naturally to her, but she chose to follow another career after graduating from Howard University. It wasn’t until age 30 that she started her writing hard-edged erotic stories for her own enjoyment. After developing a cult following through Internet circulation, Zane turned down several deals with publishers who sought to tone down her work’s hard-core sexuality. She self-published her first three titles in 2000, selling over 250,000 copies through word-of-mouth alone. She has since sold over 6 million books.

Recently, the prolific author was in Philadelphia to promote “Love Is Never Painless: Three Novellas” ($22.95, Atria Books) by herself and two other authors, Eileen M. Johnson and V. Anthony Rivers. Next year, Zane will hit the big screen with the release of the erotically charged thriller, “Addicted.” In her partnership with Suzanne de Passe, de Passe/Zane Entertainment, she will produce at least six film projects yearly as well as television series and straight-to-DVD projects.

“Suzanne de Passe and I teamed up almost two years ago and we were going to put ‘Addicted’ straight to DVD, but then Lion’s Gate approached me about doing it as a theatrical release, which made it all the better,” explained Zane. “I mean really, situations just kind of find me. I don’t really go looking for them. It’s kind of strange actually. I didn’t go looking for a movie deal like that but I got one and that all that matters. “

The deal, which will pair Lionsgate’s targeting of specific market segments with Zane’s passionate fan base of predominantly African-American women, continues Lionsgate’s commitment to bringing cultural sensations in large niches to a broader North American filmed entertainment audience.

“‘Addicted’ does for women what “Fatal Attraction” did for men,” said de Passe. “It will make women think twice before risking it all!”
Like many of Zane’s novels, “Addicted”, has been translated into several foreign languages.

“My novels have allowed me to encourage cultural conversation about the taboo topic of women’s sexual desire, and by turning ‘Addicted’ into a feature film with Lionsgate, that conversation will be expanded,” Zane said. “I know from communication with my fans that when women liberate themselves sexually, it improves all other aspects of their lives, so getting my first film made is a personal and political triumph for me.”

Zane has built a fervent following through her explicit, erotic depictions of female desire as told from an African-American perspective. She is also the publisher of Strebor Books International, an imprint of ATRIA/Simon and Schuster. Under Strebor, she acquires 15 to 25 titles a year and currently has nearly 50 authors under her imprint. Next year, she will launch a Christian Fiction Line and a Youth Fiction line, as well as a body product line this summer and clothing and adult toy lines in the fall. 2007 will also mark the release of “Dear G Spot,” Zane’s first non-fiction book.

“It’s really a collection of many of the advice mail I’ve gotten throughout the years, as well as my commentaries on different subjects,” said Zane. “I think it will show people how confused they really are about relationships and their sexuality and also reemphasizes why I do what I do: because there is a need for it and that is the reason why it works and women crave it.”

Although women are Zane’s primary book fans, men have taken to viewing her advice on line at Zaneland where her blog has become quite popular because of her sexual candor.

“We live in a world where the main sexual position is called the missionary position and as far as I’m concerned that says it all: Men think that we are vessels for their pleasure,” asserts Zane. “My whole point is if women are going to have sex in their lifetime—and the majority of us do—there’s no reason we should walk away from the experience any less satisfied than the man.”

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“What I can do is give whatever I have got to another African American business person,” said Dehlia Winder. “Which I feel could help them.”

Restaurateur Dahlia Winder traded in her life of corporate comfort in 1984 for a chance to explore her culinary creativity and taste buds across the country have applauded her decision ever since. The road to Winder’s success began when she open her one-woman food stand in Philadelphia’s historic Reading Terminal Market. Today, she employs more than 60 people who work in six Delilah’s Southern Cuisine stands. But it wasn’t until Oprah Winfrey tasted Winder’s Mac and cheese that the nation and world were alerted to one of Philly’s longtime treats. Winder’s debut cookbook, “Everyday Soul: Southern Cooking With Style” (Running Press Book, $29.95) documents her lifelong love affair with food.

“Everyday Soul” is much more than a book of recipes as it reflects the duel identity Winder had growing up in both the South and the North. It reads almost like a biography, as it is interspersed with color photographs recalling Winder’s life from childhood summers in Richmond, VA to entrepreneurial success in Philadelphia. From the book’s opening image of Miss Delilah Winder sassily strutting through Old City Philadelphia to the delectable photos of her signature recipes, each image portrays the passion that Winder’s hip and colorful spirit brings to life and food. Delilah’s food has received numerous accolades, including 100 Favorite Foods by Saveur Magazine and Best of Philly, but it was the Best Mac & Cheese declaration by Oprah Winfrey that brought Winder national recognition.

An entire chapter in Everyday Soulis devoted to Winder’s Oprah appearance and describes everything from the initial call from the Harpo headquarters to Winfrey’s final pronouncement. Winder’s signature hands on approach were pivotal in her recipe being personally delivered to Chicago for Winfrey literally hot out the oven. “The experience catapulted me from a local to a national stage,” noted Winder. “And my life as a cook and restaurateur was forever changed.”

The recipes in Delilah’s Everyday Soul are arranged by occasion and accented with special memories, tips, and suggestions for preparing and serving. They feature traditional soul food like Delilah’s delectable fried chicken and strawberry lemonade, and also include more modern renditions of the fare, plus alternative ingredients for those who want to try healthier versions of the spectacular recipes.

“I eat everything,” says Winder. “I don’t exclude anything from my diet. I eat all types of food. I love all different ethnic, because, you see, I’m a people person and I believe everybody has something to offer.” She also maintains an active lifestyle which also keeps her in shape and supplements her workouts. “It’s all about being active and eating a well balance diet,” explained Winder. “I’m up. I’m cleaning my house. I’m cooking. I’m going grocery shopping. I’m in movement.”

Winder’s was appointed earlier this year as chairwoman of the African-American Chamber of Commerce, succeeding A. Bruce Crawley as the point person in representing African-American business interests in the city. She says she intends to share what she’s learned as a successful business person with others like herself. “What I can do is give whatever I have got, or whatever I have experienced, to another African American business person which I feel could help them.”

When asked what lies ahead for her professionally, Winder coyly suggests the “possibility” of a television show. What she’s really planning for is a long overdue expansion of Bluezette’s current offerings. When she opened Bluezette in Philadelphia’s Old City district in 2000, her Latin, Caribbean, and soul food restaurant become an instant hit as the go-to cocktail destination for the after work business set. Now, Winder says, it’s time for an update.

“Bluezette is going to become a restaurant just like every thing else I have. We’re going to have lunch and dinner and on the weekends we’re going to have lunch and brunch. I’ll probably make a few changes interior wise,” explained Winder. “And I need all of Philadelphia to put their arms around that for Bluezette to continue to be what I wanted it to be: A restaurant.”
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Lifestyle/Leisure/Literature

<a href=”http://technorati.com/tag/black-folk-who-matter” rel=”tag”>black-folk-who-matter</a>

“We use to sing for the white folk…,” said James B. Davis, 91. “I told ‘em that singing was what we knew.”

The Dixie Hummingbirds have been called the Iron Men of Gospel for their durability as a performance group and their adaptability as musical legends. Led by Ira Tucker, Sr.—who is now 80—the group has continued to thrive for over 77 years. This week, the Dixie Hummingbirds musical ministry was celebrated with the ceremonial renaming of Poplar Street from broad to 21st Street to Dixie Hummingbirds Way.

Gospel fans, supporters and government dignitaries joined an audience of over 300 to honor the group’s efforts. Musical legends that were unable to attend sent messages of congratulations that were read by Ira Tucker, Jr.

“You’ve earned this honor and I love you like a rock,” wrote Paul Simon referring to the 70’s hit song “Love Me Like A Rock” the ‘Birds accompanied him on.

“Now I can drive my Christian automobile up Dixie Hummingbirds Way. Watch out!” read the message from Stevie Wonder that drew laughs from onlookers.

“Even though they started in the South Carolina, they’ve been Philadelphians for seven decades and that make this very special for Philadelphia and the state,” said Gov. Ed Rendell who recently bestowed the group with the Governor’s Award.

The Hummingbird relocated to Philadelphia in the 1940s and have called the region home ever since.

“When we first got out here we use to sing for the white folk and some of ‘em asked me why did we started singing,” said the group’s founder James B. Davis, 91. “I told ‘em that singing was what we knew.”

Actor Rev. Clifton Davis said the group helped formed his musical career. “I want to thank you,” preached Davis, “for going to those towns where you had to go to the colored outhouse, for going on the Chiltlin’ Circuit to sing the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to thank you for struggling through segregation. I want to thank you for taking all of that discrimination and taking it in stride and praising god anyhow. I want to thank you for living long enough so that all of us could stop here today and thank you for what you’ve done for us.”

After the street naming, the audience was lead by the Heavenly Horns for their first walk up Dixie Hummingbird Way alongside the historic Metropolitan Opera House, or The Met, at Broad and Poplar Street. For many years the Met served as the gospel venue of choice for many artists and groups. Over the years, the Met has fallen into disrepair and is currently undergoing reconstruction.

“I think the met should be designated as a historical landmark because Same Cooke, Soul Stirrers, Dixie Hummingbirds, Clara Ward—everybody who was anybody in gospel sang at the Met and it should be just sitting there like it is,” lamented occasional Hummingbirds’ vocalist Rev. Joe Williams.

Other members of the Birds recalled fond memories of their days with the group. “It’s an honor that I never had any dream that I had any dream that I would accomplish one day,” said the group former guitarist Howard Carrol. “It proved to me that hard work does pay off.”

“It sort of transcends time,” said the group’s youngest vocalist Edwin Cornell McKnight, 21. “It’s more so like a time machine because you can hear the tunes of the past and the present day and a lot of people who were around when Mr. Tucker was around are no longer around. I came in knowing nothing about music and now Ii know so much, and I owe it all to him.”

The last living Ward Sister, Willa Ward, 85, practically hopped on stage and declared the group “the greatest quartet that ever lived.”

The naming of Dixie Hummingbirds Way also coincides with the group’s latest CD, “Keeping It Real…The Last Man Standing.” The title refers to the elder Tucker’s 60-plus years as the group’s lead vocalist.

“I really don’t know what to say,” said Tucker from the podium. “It really doesn’t get any better than this. I believe I voice the sentiment of everybody when I say God is good.”

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…“I don’t write necessarily for today,” states Colin Channer. “I write for the days to come.”

As the author of the national best-selling novels “Waiting in Vain” and “Satisfy My Soul,” and the novella “I’m Still Waiting,” Colin Channer believes the best is yet to come for Black writers around the world. Through his Calabash International Literary Festival, Channer wants the literary world to appreciate the quality of work that is coming from authors of color. Founded in 2001, the Calabash Festival has proven to one of the most pivotal annual events for Black writers.

“There were two things that I wanted to accomplish with Calabash,” explains Channer. “One of them was to connect with Jamaica. The other thing however was to create a space where a diverse range of writers, including writers of color, who were writing quality fiction, could showcase their work every year. Literary fiction and non-fiction from African Americans doesn’t have many spaces in America where it can be recognized. Calabash is a space for that work. I think that in the age of globalism, we’re beyond thinking of literature belonging within geographic borders.”

In 1998, Channer’s debut novel “Waiting in Vain” was selected as a Critic’s Choice by the Washington Post Book World, which described it as a “clear redefinition of the Caribbean novel.” Subsequent positive reviews and reprints ultimately placed Channer in the company of writers such as Russell Banks, E. L. Doctorow, Don DeLillo, and David Foster Wallace. In January, Channer was appointed as an assistant professor of English and coordinator of the creative writing program at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, NY. Today, Channer wants to use his name recognition to pass the torch to still yet-acknowledged writers in the latest book he edited (and contributed to) entitled “Iron Balloons: Fiction from Jamaica’s Calabash Writer’s Workshop” ($14.95, Akashic Books).

“The Calabash workshops are a kind of a communal experience,” said Channer. “And so the tutors are changed by the experience as much as the students are. So that’s why I wanted to have an anthology of work that conveyed the sprit of Calabash.”

The book has already spurred controversy in the story by Channer that tells of a 68-year-old Jamaican woman attending a New York City college. On the day she is to give a speech to her class, she intervenes an argument between a mother and daughter and recounts the incident to her class in a speech called “How To Beat a Child The Right and Proper Way.”

“She then tells the story of an incident that happened in 1972 when she stilled lived in Jamaica when she and her daughter got into an argument, explains Channer. “Essentially, she had to put her daughter down with an electric cord. But, all that being said, it’s a comedy.”

Channer says he understands the some of the outrage the story has sparked, but implores readers to look at both sides of this tale.

“I think most stories of children being beaten are sad stories of victimization where the reader is inclined to agree with the child,” said Channer. “This is comedic because you really want the daughter to get it, because you see how teenagers can push parents to the limit without realizing that parents can be crazy and can go off.”

The rest of the stories in the compilation span a diverse range of moods and genres from the hotel maid who gets a sexual offer that she can’t refuse to the schizophrenic singer who thinks he’s Bob Marley.

Marley is common reference in any interview with Channer, who was once described as “Bob Marley with a pen instead of Gibson guitar” by award-winning poet and critic Kwame Dawes. Channer who was born in Jamaica and lives in New York, acknowledges the influence Marley has had on his literary and artistic life as a bassist with his reggae band Pipecock Jaxxon.

“Bob Marley never had a top ten hit in the States during his lifetime. That happened after he was dead. The legacy of his work and his life is tremendous,” said Channer. “I don’t write necessarily for today. I write for the days to come.”

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Juan Williams has had ENOUGH!

When Bill Cosby took to the stage of the NAACP’s 50th anniversary gala celebrating the of the Brown v. Board of Education  decision integrating schools, little did he know his comments on the current state of Black America would create a firestorm of controversy. During that speech, he admonished Blacks for not assisting or concerning themselves with the individuals who are involved with crime or have counter-productive aspirations. He further described those who needed attention as “Blacks (who) had forgotten the sacrifices of those in the Civil Rights Movement.”

Cosby criticism of what he sees as the African-American community’s acceptance of fatherless single parent households, high crime rates, and high illiteracy rates was met with a scathing critique of his personal political views. While he encouraged a more proactive effort from African-Americans to reduce those problems his comments provoked a great deal of anger from some African Americans.

The aftermath of Cosby’s comments have elicited statements and even books denouncing him as bourgeois, anti-Black and hypocritical. Through it all, Cosby reminded firmly unapologetic for his stance and instead took his message across the country in a series of town hall meetings that garnered large media attention. Cosby chastised Blacks to stop blaming whites, but to instead look to themselves for solutions. “It’s not what they’re doing to us. It’s what we’re not doing,” the entertainer told the audience of nearly 2,000 people in Detroit.

This episode in Black history spurred journalist Juan Williams to wonder why the attacks, especially from fellow African Americans, where so venomous in their delivery. He expands on this theory in his latest book “Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—and What We Can Do About It”($25, Crown).

Through the lens of history, Williams concludes that Cosby was a “flawed messenger” who hit upon a real issue that no prominent Black American had dared to seriously address: the destructive elements of contemporary Black culture.

In “Enough,” Williams calls Cosby a genius while taking particular aim at prominent Black leaders—from Al Sharpton to Jesse Jackson to Marion Barry.

“You don’t after somebody like that unless they got something to say that you find truly threatening. The idea in my mind was that it was important to pick up this argument by doing reporting to substantiate or contradict what Cosby had to say—to really look into it—and then to try to advance the conversation so that people don’t stop talking about this, so that we don’t turn away from what are the key issues of our day.”

In his address last week during the Annual Meeting of the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, an audience of 175 GPUAC board members, staff and supporters cheered Williams’ comments.

“I thought it’s really important to put some historical context around this because again it’s such an important message at such an important moment,” explained Williams. “In my mind, you go back to the start of the last century and if you had gone to a speech by W.E.B. DuBois, you would have heard DuBois talking about the challenge of the 20th Century being the challenge of the color line in American society. It really was the introduction to the Civil Rights movement of the 20th century. But I think if you heard Bill Cosby with open ears, you would have heard something similar for the start of the 21st century, because what Cosby was doing was setting down a line saying the challenge of the 21st century in so many ways is going to be the class line. Those who are now able to step through the doors of opportunity in an America that’s increasingly divided by class are going to do just fine. But those who get left behind at this moment are going to be left in a very deep ditch.”

Williams also charged that too many Black Americans are in crisis—caught in a twisted hip-hop culture, dropping out of school, ending up in jail, having babies when they are not ready to be parents, and falling to the bottom in twenty-first-century global economic competition.

“We see so many of these social problems repeating in a generational context,” said Williams. “We see these problems as a downward spiral. Somebody at this moment has to be about helping people up so they don’t get left behind. That’s the importance of this moment and I think this is what Cosby was talking about in much the same way as Dubois was talking about racial struggle across the color barrier in the 20th century.”

Unlike the other books written in response to Cosby’s comments, Williams went to the source, Cosby himself, and the ensuing several hours of interviews are interspersed throughout “Enough.” Williams, like Cosby, has had his share of praises and criticism and says he is surprised that the book is a current bestsellers now in its seventh printing.

Although Williams may have suffered from limited media appearances since the release of “Enough,” his position as one of America’s leading political writers and thinkers is firmly ensconced. Williams is a senior correspondent for National Public Radio, a political analyst for Fox News and the author of six books including “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965”. Prior to writing bestsellers, he worked for 21 years at The Washington Post.

Williams condemns the “Stop Snitching” campaign as nothing more than a surrender to criminals; and he decries the glorification of materialism, misogyny, and murder as a corruption of a rich Black culture, a tragic turn into pornographic excess that is hurting young Black minds, especially among the poor.

“You might say, ‘Cosby and Juan Williams are up there moralizing,’” said Williams mock response to his critics. “But forget that for a minute and go to the numbers: 7 out of 10 (Black kids are being born to single mothers) has real consequence in terms of that child’s likely success in school. We know that a child born out of wedlock to a single mom has less of a chance to succeed in school. We know that that child is more likely to get involved with crime. We know that child is less likely to graduate from high school. We know that child is less likely to ever hold a job. So why aren’t we saying this? Why aren’t we screaming this? Why aren’t we in a panic in announcing this everyday? To our community this is not a good idea to have a child out of wedlock. Why aren’t people saying this?”

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Tavis Smiley weeps…

By Bobbi Booker

Over 300 Tavis Smiley fans braved the rain on Tuesday evening to hear Smiley speak about his latest book, a memoir entitled “What I Know for Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America” (Doubleday, $23.95) at the National Constitution Center. Among the guest present where other members of the Black intelligenzia, including poet Sonia Sanchez and Dr. Cornell West, both of whom introduced the author. The audience, however, needed no introduction to Smiley who has authored ten books and appears on both his self-titled PBS talk show and Tom Joyner morning radio chat fest. Although Smiley relayed a harrowing story of his impoverished childhood, he inspired the audience with his message of hope and forgiveness.

“This is without question the defining moment of my life, even though it happened when I was just in the 7th grade, 12 years old,” said Smiley as he prepared to read the chapter, “Shame on the Smileys.” Smiley’s Pentecostal roots were evident when he instructed those in the audience to read along with him in a style reminiscent of a church revival. As he lead the audience through an episode of abuse levied on him by his father after he and his sister were falsely charged with acting up in church, the memory caused him to pause silently for 20 seconds. As members of the audience intoned, “It’s going to be alright, Tavis!” the author steeled himself against the podium, wipe away a tear and continued to speak.

“After six months I went back to spend the rest of my formative years with my family. It’s a strong word, but it’s accurate for what I felt at the time: I hated my parents. I hated my father for what he had done; I hated my mother for what she hadn’t done to stop it. Phyllis on the other hand, never came back. My beloved sister essentially disappeared from our family in the 7th grade. A few years later, because her sprit was broken by that incident, Phyllis became a crack addict, had five babies out of wedlock, and while we are less than a year apart in age, she has lived primarily a life of pain, and poverty and pathology. I determined that I did not want my life to be defined by that moment and have spent everyday of my life since then trying to put as much distance me and that incident as I possible can. What I do not know for sure is how and why Phyllis’ sprit was broken, and I was able to move by turning the fear into energy. There is not a day of my life that my work is not informed by what I do. There are too many children of this city, of this country, who are traumatized too soon.”

Despite the obstacles he faced, Smiley spoke about his faith and his ability to channel his negative feeling into positive energy. “I believe that these defining moments cast a light on our lives: either a long dark shadow or a long bright sunbeam,” said Smiley. “In many regards we determine what that is.”

He reported to the audience that today his sister, Phyllis, has recovered and is scheduled to graduate from nursing school next year. Smiley’s message of encouragement was met with several standing ovations.

“If you were to ask me what it is I know for sure, I would tell you in two words: Love wins.”

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Lifestyle/Leisure/Literature

“Pluto makes no sense as a planet…” A Conversation with Astronomer Derrick Pitts

By Bobbi Booker
The Book Report II

From Galileo versus Pope Urban VIII to today’s current battle over the
planetary status of Pluto, the path to scientific understanding is not
always rosy. On Friday, more than 300 scientists around the globe
signed a petition protesting against the definition of “planet”
decided by the International Astronomical Union last week (IAU), a
regulating body for information and research in astronomy. That
definition demoted Pluto, leaving the solar system with eight planets.

“What astronomers did this summer really doesn’t have anything to do
with Pluto,” said Derek Pitts, Chief Astronomer and Director of the
Fels Planetarium. “What they did was develop a classification system
for objects that are in our solar system that makes sense. The fall
out is that Pluto’s designation has changed from planet to dwarf
plant.”

Pluto’s controversial redefinition as a “dwarf planet” by the (IAU) is
based on the fact that Pluto’s orbital path overlaps with other
objects such as asteroids and the planet Neptune.

Arguments over Pluto have raged on since the planet’s 1930 discovery.
Limited information on the distant planet delayed a realistic
understanding of its characteristics. Even with telescopic aid, the
planet is virtually impossible to see. “When I say small and I say
dim, I mean dust speck small and invisible dim,” explained Pitts. “The
only way Pluto is visible is through photography.”

In January, NASA launched its New Horizons spacecraft, the first probe
ever destined for the planet Pluto, its moons and the Kuiper Belt
beyond. The historic mission, traveling at 36,250 miles per hour, will
take more than nine years to reach Pluto in July 2015.

Last year’s discovery of UB313 or “Xena” also put Pluto’s planetary
status on the line. With a diameter of about 1800 miles, UB313 is larger than Pluto (1400 miles) and occupies an orbit well beyond that of Pluto. More objects
like UB313 are expected to be discovered in the future and many in the
astronomical community do not wish to call these bodies planets.

“We start to discover objects beyond Pluto that are bigger than Pluto.
If they should be planets, what do we do about Pluto? Pluto is way out
at the end of the solar system. It’s made of ice, not rock. It’s orbit
is tilted relative to all the other orbits of the solar system and
scientist have agree for at least the last 25 years that it wasn’t
really an original member of the solar system, but a passing object
that was grabbed by the gravitational pull of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus
and Neptune. So it wasn’t really part of the original planets to begin
with.”

In addition to orbiting the sun and being rounded by its own
gravitational field, the IAU definition of a “classical planet”
requires an object to be the sole occupant of its orbit. A dwarf
planet must only meet the first two criteria and cannot be a
satellite. All other bodies in the solar system are referred to as
“small solar system bodies”.

“If we say our solar system is made up of classic planets, then these
other objects that are smaller than planets can be called dwarf
planets. That covers all of those things that are Pluto-sized or
smaller that are round and orbit the Sun.”

The disagreeing scientists have issued a petition that states: “We, as
planetary scientists and astronomers, do not agree with the IAU’s
definition of a planet, nor will we use it. A better definition is
needed.”

The signers of the petition included NASA scientists, astronomers at
major observatories, university professors and graduate students. The
astronomical union allowed only scientists attending a conference last week in Prague, Czech Republic, to vote.

The group’s definition for a planet specifies three conditions: the
object orbits the sun; it is large enough for its gravity to pull it
into a round shape; and it “has cleared the neighborhood around its
orbit”. The last condition excludes Pluto, because it is located among
many other icy bodies in a ring of debris known as the Kuiper Belt.

“According to a separately developed theory, all the planets in the
solar system are currently placed in their correct order,” said Pitts.
“Pluto is outside of that order. Pluto makes no sense, no matter how
you look at, as a planet.”

According to the IAU’s guidelines we may have lost a planet but gained
a big family of dwarf planets. In other words, our solar system has
just gotten bigger.

“I believe that furor and outcry this summer over Pluto has to do more
with the cultural icon (Pluto, the Disney character) than it has to do
with the planet itself,” mused Pitts.

“You know what, Pluto has no idea. The planet doesn’t care.

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The Spiders are loose…\<a href=”http://www.technorati.com/claim/nnzqiymvip” rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>

“We’ve had a lack of color at the senior level, so this is a good step in the right direction…”

By Bobbi Booker
The Book Report

Just three months after Natalye Paquin came to the Kimmel Center as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer she’s been tapped to replace Janice Price, who served as the Kimmel Center’s President and CEO since February of 2002, shortly after the complex opened. This appointment, effective September 10, marks the first time an African American has lead the helm of the Kimmel Center, Inc.

“Absolutely, I’m proud to be an African American and proud to be in a leadership position here at the Kimmel Center,” said Paquin. “But if you recall, the Kimmel Center was designed to be center for all people and a center for the community and I think my leadership here and my joining the team is really about that. Our goal is to serve diverse audiences and my joining the team is really an extension of that vision.”

At the same time, the center announced the formation of a search committee, chaired by Paul Tufano, to recruit a permanent replacement for Price, who has returned to her hometown of Toronto to head a new arts festival, “Luminato,” which opens in June of 2007.

Paquin emphasized her appointment is temporary, and is something she’s neither wants nor sought out. “It is an acting appointment, which is really just an extension of my permanent appointment,” explained Paquin who has requested the search committee not to consider her. “Being the top person is not a position that I am interested in. I was asked to serve in this capacity based on my skills and experience and I accepted the position, but it’s just an extension of my already complex position.”

Paquin’s association with the Kimmel Center begin in earnest three years ago when she was tapped by Mervon Mehta, Vice President for Programming and Education, to serve on the Education Audience Outreach Committee. Prior to joining the Kimmel Center, Paquin was the Chief Operating Officer of the School District of Philadelphia and oversaw a $400 million organization with over 4,700 employees. Before coming to Philadelphia, she held several senior positions with the City of Chicago’s school district and transportation department.

“Natalye comes to us with great experience in running large institutions, or large school districts, with complex budgeting and structure,” said Mehta. “She’s use to dealing with large pictures.”

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Kimmel Center, Inc, the umbrella non-profit organization that owns, manages, supports and maintains the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts as well as the Academy of Music, which is owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association. This summer the organization witnessed a number of changes, including the appointment James Undercofler, the new president and chief executive officer of The Philadelphia Orchestra Association. Also, for the first time, the organization, which employs about 100 people, ended its 2005-06 performance season with an operating surplus of $1.2 million.

“Maybe we have a five-year-itch instead of a seven-year-itch,” laughed Mehta in reflection.

The Kimmel Center, which includes Verizon Hall as its major performance stage, has become one of the more prestigious venues for world-class performers. However, many Philadelphia residents have yet to visit the venue based on the perception that programming is not targeted to their taste with some of the more serious charges alleging class or racial bias in the acts chosen for performance. Paquin is aware of the complaints and has pledged that the organization will become more community oriented.

“I think that what you’ll see in the coming months and over the next few years are several members of our leadership being active in the community, being on more boards and going out speaking and meeting and listening to the communities to find out what more can we offer to be a better center,” said Paquin. “I think that the Kimmel Center is still young and audiences throughout the region, especially in the Philadelphia community, are still learning who we are and what we offer. I think that our programming is becoming more diverse. We have some additional work to do in terms of letting all communities know who we are and what type of programming we offer, and also helping all communities feel invited to the Kimmel Center and helping communities understand that we are a center for them.”

Paquin said she would encourage more residents to visit the Kimmel Center in person, or virtually on the web, so that they can see the venue as more than a performance center and start to utilize it for meetings or personal events, like weddings. “We have a very large facility that serves multiple purposes and should be used by all people in all communities,” said Paquin.

“She’s so connected to the city,” added Mehta. “And I think she’s going to be a great leader and spokesperson for us. It doesn’t hurt that our second president since we’ve been open is a person of color in a city that’s over 50 percent people of color. If you look at our staff overall, we’ve had a lack of color at the senior level, so this is a good step in the right direction. It sends a message. George Burrell is on our board, along with Kenny Gamble, and we’re actively looking for more diversity on the board. That’s something that’s constant conversation here.”

Paquin has been immersed in the artistic and community life of Philadelphia and serves on numerous boards and committees including the education committees of the Kimmel Center and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, the Philadelphia Boys Choir, and the Center for Emerging Visual Artists. She is also active with the Girl Scouts of South Eastern Pennsylvania, Project Home and City Year.

“I am a champion for the arts,” said Paquin. “If more of our communities really just experience the arts and cultures that are so abundant here in Philadelphia I think that it’s just something that will improve the quality of life.”

For more information visit www.kimmelcenter.com

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“Racism has gone uncheck in this company…”

By Bobbi Booker
The Book Report

Civil rights groups across the nation have blasted the decision by CBS Television to support the producers of the Survivor reality show contest that will set contestants against each other according to race. The announcement of the segregated edition of Survivor comes on the eve of a $1 million racial discrimination trail of a former CBS Radio employee who was forced to resign from WIP-AM sports radio.

According to Duane Lucas, the plaintiff in the upcoming trail against WIP, the announcement about the new season of Survivor is an example of “the consistent arrogance of the company.”

“Racism has gone uncheck in this company for years and nobody challenges them,” said Lucas. “One of the things that happens in this business is that you can’t jump up and scream, ‘racism,’ because where are you going to get a job at next. So you have to be really professional and sure of what’s going on. Racism is what domestic violence was 40 years ago: you didn’t talk about it.”

Lucas started his career at WIP radio as an account executive in 1994 and in a year was promoted to Director of Sport Sales. He was responsible for the station’s base of advertisers and sponsors and for developing new business in support of the station’s programming for the Philadelphia Eagles, 76er’s and Flyers. According to court papers filed in the United States District court, Lucas was the target of a racially motivated campaign to discredit him and his fellow black colleagues, including talk show hosts Gary Cobb and Carlos Beck, both of whom filed discrimination charges against WIP’s parent company, CBS radio. In 2002, Lucas resigned after receiving a nearly 50% reduction in his salary.

WIP-AM management was unavailable for comments when called on Friday. Earlier in the week, CBS Networks officials issued a statement of support for producers’ decision to pit Blacks, whites, Asians and Hispanics against each other during the early rounds of the show.

“CBS fully recognizes the controversial nature of this format but has full confidence in the producers and their ability to produce the program in a responsible manner,” the network said in a statement. “Survivor is a program that is no stranger to controversy and has always answered its critics on the screen.”

Last season, Survivor registered a franchise-low average of 16.8 million viewers. In announcing this season contestants, show host Jeff Probst insisted the stunt was the next logical step in a series that made its name on exploring social politics.

“If this didn’t say Jeff Probst, I would think that this was something that was produced by David Duke,” said Lucas who charges that CBS’s decision to support the Survivor show proposal is indicative of the corporate culture of the network.

“How long have we been experimenting with this?” wondered Lucas. “Through hangings, through church bombings, through hate crimes, through cross burnings? How much more do we need to experiment with separation of the races?”

On Friday, a group of New York City officials blasted CBS’ announcement that it has split the contestants on Survivor: Cook Islands into tribes by race.

“This idea is so ill-conceived that it would be funny–but for the fact that racism does still sometimes rear its ugly head,” New York city councilman John Liu said at a press conference.” This show has the potential to set back our nation’s race relations by 50 years.”

“CBS has demonstrated great lapse in judgment. As a society, we need to hold corporations responsible for their actions,” New York City councilwoman Melissa Mark Viverito said.

“I think that in Survivor they should have the strongest teams that they can,” said Lucas. “Why divide this by race? Why send us back another 200 years? This is just world-class ugly.”

The spread of negative racial stereotypes based on CBS’ decision has already begun on the nation’s airwaves. Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has already uttered racially insensitive comments on his national syndicated broadcast.

Hispanics, he said, “have shown a remarkable ability to cross borders” and “will do things other people won’t do.” Asians, according to Limbaugh, are “the best at espionage, keeping secrets.” Blacks, he said, “lack buoyancy” and are “more likely to drown,” while the white man’s burden will weigh down the last team with “guilt over the fact that they run things.”

Survivor: Cook Island is scheduled to air starting September 14, 2006

Lifestyle/Leisure/Literature

Frederick Douglass Lives…

By Bobbi Booker

The Book Report

During the 1850s, the famed abolitionist, orator, editor, statesman, author, suffragist and publisher, Frederick Douglass usually spent about half of the year traveling extensively and giving lectures.

On July 5, 1852, Douglass gave a speech at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, held at Rochester’s Corinthian Hall.
Antebellum audiences enjoyed patriotic speeches on Independence Day, but the mostly white audience found that instead of the expected platitudes to the founding of the U.S., Douglass delivered a scorching denunciation of the preservation of slavery.

It was biting oratory, in which the speaker told his audience, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.” And he asked them, “Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?”

That now-famous address will be recited again on this upcoming Independence Day by Douglass’ great-great grandson and namesake, Frederick Douglass IV.
Much like the man he calls “Granddaddy,” Douglass IV travels throughout America to continue the legacy of his famed ancestor by lecturing about him, depicting his speeches and reenacting key episodes of his ancestor’s life.

The most memorable element in the Rochester speech was Douglass’ use of the second person to illustrate the chasm between your freedoms as whites under the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and slavery. “He comes down as being barbarous, but he ends (the speech) on a note of optimism because he believes that ultimately all these things were going to be righted, maybe not within his lifetime, but he really felt that the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 14th Amendment and other things would lead to equality. To read these things it not only recalls the time in which they were living in which slavery was in America, but the scary part is so much of it is relevant to today.”

“The speech remains contemporary, and in my view, with all respect due to Frederick Douglass, understated,” says radio talk show host Reggie Bryant. “He employs rhetoric and appeals to the conscious and the ethical morality of persons to note what he says. I think he presented them with more credit than they were due. It is clear to me that the context today of (Independence Day) is a vicious and callous and fraudulent exercise when it comes to descendents of those Africans who where kidnapped and brought here against their will and continue too suffer ant the hands of bigots and racist who pretty much dominate the so called government here. There was no reason on that original date, and there is no reason today, for Blacks to celebrate anything. When this so-called declaration was penned, Africans were to face another 100-plus years of slavery.”

Douglass IV travels with his wife of 30 years and co-reenactor, B.J, who similarly portrays Douglass’ wife Anna Murray Douglass. The elder Douglass’ had five children with Douglass IV being the descendent of Frederick Douglass, Jr. The current Douglass’ are founders of The Frederick Douglass Organization, developed to promote education, financial literacy, economic development and bridging the digital divide—all issues that Douglass IV believes his grandfather would embrace.

Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland 1818, but in 1838, at age 20, he escaped to freedom in New York. Eloquent, smart and determined, Douglass gained fame as a speaker, began his own anti-slavery publications and in 1845 published his memoir “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.” In later years he became a personal friend of President Abraham Lincoln and helped persuade Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. He died at age 76 in 1895.

Douglass possessed a commanding presence that was enhanced by his rich and powerful baritone voice. His command of the English language has put him in league with some of the greatest orators of all time. In other words, when Douglass spoke, people listened.

“He wanted to broaden his ability to communicate about the need to end slavery,” explained Douglass IV of his ancestor’s desire to start his own antislavery newspaper, the North Star, after living in exile in England. “He decided when he got back to American he was going to purchase a printing press. So in 1845, a Black man with a printing press was on the cutting edge of technology. That’s how he began broadening his reach. So, if he were here today, he would have a podcast, a website, and DVD’s as communication mechanisms. There are lot of things that need to be done in contemporary America, and I think he would be following his premise.”

Dressing as middle class free Blacks of the 1800’s, the Douglass’ work hard to correct misconceptions such as the belief that all Blacks were slaves and that few Blacks, especially women, were involved in the abolitionist movement. For instance, Douglass IV’s great-great grandmother, Anne, was a free woman who encouraged her husband to eventually buy his freedom.

“Part of our overall mission is to let people know that not everybody during the 1800’s was a slave,” says Douglass IV. “There were those who were born free and there were those who purchased their freedom and became professionals. We want to dispel that kind of mythology so when we go out we dress in finery. My wife dresses in the latest fashions of the 1800’s, which women would have done, and I wear a tuxedo and top hat.”

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey Douglass was a dashing man who was
very conscious of his overall representation to both Blacks and whites. For example, although photography was in its infancy during the height of Douglass fame, he was aware of the influence of photos and was cautious to never smile in any pictures of himself because he did not want his likeness abused.

“He was very conscious of the presentation of Black folks was, in that day it was generally buffooness, and so he did not smile because he did not want his image misused in anyway. He felt that if he did smile than someone could put captions or in some way make a joke out of it,” said Douglass IV, a professional photographer, as well.

“This was really at the beginning of the use of photography. He had a printing press, but he was also very conscious of the image, so he allowed his photograph to be taken and distributed so that Black people an image of a Black person that was positive in the home. He was right in on it and he saw the power of it and he used it effectively. “

Today, Douglass’ role as the father of the Civil Rights Movement is sadly overlooked said Bryant. “I applaud and share with my audiences the content of Fredrick Douglass’ speech and wish only that he were alive today to revise and to perhaps make even more strident the content in his magnificent ability for oration.”

Likewise, Douglass IV recalled an incident “when a young man asked him what he could do to help change society. (Douglass) responded with three words: ‘Agitate, agitate, agitate.’”

Lifestyle/Leisure/Literature

…So “Beautifully Human”

By Bobbi Booker

It was four years ago this summer when poet Jill Scott quietly released her debut collection, “Who is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol.1” In the time that’s passed since the North Philadelphia posed that question to the world, Scott has proven to be a musical force to be reckoned with.

“Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol.2” is her third release and the follow-up to her smash debut, which sold over 2 million copies—and is still selling strong. Scott took time off to settle in with her beloved husband, Lyzell Williams, fix up her new home and play with her pet cat. Although a lot of press has been given to Scott’s two-year absence, she was still quietly getting busy in the studio and was featured on several cd’s, including The Roots’ “Phrenology,” saxophonist Jeff Bradshaw’s “Bone Deep” and Kindred the Family soul’s debut.

Scott also took the time necessary to nurture the seeds to what will be hailed as one of the best albums of 2004. Human focuses on the woman that Scott has become. The reflections that she offers in this collection will strike close to the hearts of listeners, as was already demonstrated on her recent 9-city “Buzz Tour.”

Scott has proven that she is not the average girl when it comes to her artistic talent. First of all, she described herself as a poet and that is fully demonstrated in Human’s 17-song offering. From the intro, which begins were Scott ended in 2000 with the closing notes of “He Loves Me (Lyzell In E Flat),” she welcomes the audience into her world. The first single, “Golden,” is a high-stepping affirmation of self-determination that already has women, young and old alike, singing along with a smile.

This collection is chockfull of gems, some of which will be deemed instant classics. “Family Reunion” will be rocked at family gatherings for the next couple of decades because of Scott’s dead-on observations of the different personalities that make everyone’s families unique. Family unity is a major part of Scott’s message throughout this collection and Scott reaches out to her universal Black family to embrace African American men young and old on “The Fact Is (I Need You)” and “Rasool.”

Although marriage is paramount throughout “Human” and there are several standouts that are unique in their reflection of Scott’s prior relationships. In “Bedda at Home,” Scott toys with the idea of a fine man that makes her “want to pull single dollars out my pocketbook,” but she declines because her man is so much more. Scott also makes an unusual move for a female artist on “Can’t Explain” when she admits she was wrong in treating her lover badly and apologizes for her transgressions.

Scott strikes gold with “talk to Me,” a tune about a woman trying to get her man to discuss their problems. The words are simple, but the adventure Scott’s band takes as the song goes from one end of the jazz spectrum to the other, finally exploding with a big band flurry of sound, is incredible.

Although Scott has a Grammy for her work as co-writer for The Root’s “You Got Me,” she was merely nominated for her debut collection. In February, watch for Scott’s

“Beautifully Human” to collect a bevy of awards for this groundbreaking artist.

Originally published 8.31.04

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“Queen Cleopatra had a pool table in her abode…”

By Bobbi Booker

The Book Report
Edward ‘Chick’ Davis played pool in his native South Philadelphia
during an era when America’s most roguish sport earned legitimacy and
popularity via its successful stars, including Minnesota Fats and
Willie Mosconi—both of whom played against Chick during his formidable
years. Playing in pool halls across the country Davis frequently
encountered discrimination and had to fight for his right to play as
an equal. This experience motivated him to invest his winnings into
opening three of his own pool halls on South Street in Philadelphia.

Recently, the 98-year-old pool hall marvel joined family and friends
in witnessing the dedication of the “Tribute to Edward ‘Chick’ Davis”
mural next to the site of one of his pool hall sites at 1418 South
Street. Painted by John Lewis, the mural celebrates Davis’ legacy as a
pioneering business leader, entrepreneur, and community activist.
Davis started playing billiards at the Christian Street Y and went on
to become a national championship caliber player.

“This was a man who was multi-talented, but this was where he kind of
made a renowned mark because he played people like Minnesota Fats,
Willie Mosconi, who were legends who got a lot of recognition,” said
son Edward Davis, III. “Here’s a man who played Ralph Greenleaf for
the national championship just before Jackie Robinson broke into the
national league. So, he was a first.”

The dedication featured a special performance by the CAPA Dance
Company, under the direction of LaDeva M. Davis, Chair of the Dance
Department and Chick Davis’ daughter. Davis, one of the legends two
children, spearheaded the efforts to recognize her father’s
contributions to the sport of billiards and his hometown. Chick was
instrumental in keeping clean a sport that was usually played in smoky
bars and on late nights where a win was just as dangerous as a loss.

“Until people discovered that Queen Cleopatra had a pool table in her
abode, they thought that pool was a dirty sport,” said Davis. “And my
father did a lot to clean it up. He made sure that there were no
drugs, alcohol or anything illicit in his pool halls. Women were
welcome to come and partake of the sport. He gave lessons. He would
sit and impart his knowledge of all that he’d went through in his
lifetime.”

Davis explained that her father was a basketball player, but turned to
pool to support his growing family. In addition to his contribution to
the sport of billiards, Davis spent most of his lifetime with his
south Philly childhood sweetheart, LaDeva Davis, who died at age 93 in
2004 after 75 years of marriage. “The big deal is that there are
people here that love my Dad and who have known my Dad for years, or
who love my Dad because of what he stands for and have only just met
him in the last 2, 3, 5 years.”

Amos Florence “Process” Junior, who owns a South Street barbershop of
the same name, was among the 100 guests gathered for the dedication.
In addition to sharing a longtime friendship with Davis, Florence has been
similarly honored with a mural in West Philly. “We go back to the days
where his grandfather taught me how to be a barber,” said Florence.
“I learned to cut hair in the ’40s and I’ve owned a shop since then.”

The Mural Arts Program director Jane Golden excitedly announced that
the Davis wall painting was number 2,659 in a series indoor and
outdoor murals in Philadelphia, more than any other city in the world.
“Everyone, I have to say, was universally thrilled and enthused about
this project,” said Golden. “I know I’m biased, but standing here
today and looking at this beautiful image I want to say to you that
murals have a distinct kind of power. It’s their size; it’s their
scale; it’s the way they surprise us when we’re coming up the street.
But more important than that, it’s a way of holding on to our stories
(and) to our history. Murals are about our dreams and our aspirations;
our struggles and our heroes, (and about) the people who meant
something to us.”

The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP) started 25 years ago as part
of the Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN), a citywide initiative to
eradicate destructive graffiti and address neighborhood blight. Today,
Philadelphia is nationally and internationally recognized as America’s
“City of Murals.”

“I feel very honored to be part of the tradition of bringing art to
all the citizens in this city,” said Golden. “Art is not a luxury: it
is a necessity. And the fact that so many people in this city can walk
by, drive by, run by mural of this scale and complexity is wonderful.”

With a sparkle in his eye, the senior Davis kissed the hands of ladies
he was introduced to, but said little as his friends moved him around
gingerly to keep him cool during the dedication.

“Thank you,” he said as he gazed at the mural. “I like it very much.”

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“Philadelphia is important – it’s my hometown…”

http://www.phila-tribune.com/channel/images/082506/EdBradley82506.gif

By Bobbi Booker

Ed Bradley is among the Philadelphia natives returning home to promote the regional arts and culture scene in an initiative to boost support of Philadelphia art and artists with a series of ads scheduled to begin airing next month.

The advertising campaign is the brainchild of philanthropist H. F. “Gerry” Lenfest and will feature Bradley along with fellow Philadelphians Peter Boyle, David Brenner, Blythe Danner, Kevin Eubanks, Jack Klugman, Al Martino, Cheri Oteri and Parker Stevenson.

“I’m very grateful to the Philadelphia celebrities who came forward to support Philadelphia arts in this effort,” said Lenfest. “Their contribution of time and talent will help bring more attention to the arts.”

The year-long television campaign supports eleven major arts organizations: American Theatre Arts for Youth, Broadway at the Academy, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Kimmel Center Presents, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Ballet, Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Philadanco.

“We all could not afford the kind of coverage we get,” said Joan Myers Brown, artistic director, Philadanco. “So having someone upfront it for us and make sure that it happens means a lot to Philadanco.”

The campaign, which began through a three-year commitment from Lenfest in 2002, has been extended through Spring 2008 and will air over $5 million in television airtime during the campaign’s tenure. The goal is to increase the attendance of a culturally diverse audience at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Academy of Music and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. In past years, the star-studded ads have featured vocalist Patti Labelle, dancer Judith Jamison and actor Kevin Bacon.

“The arts are important and Philadelphia is important – it’s my hometown,” says Bradley in one of the current commercials. “I’m always happy to support the arts in Philadelphia. This is a chance for me to say, ‘Hey, come out and watch what’s happening in Philly.’”

In another ad, actress Blythe Danner states that, “Growing up in Philadelphia and being surrounded by the arts was an extraordinary experience. Without the arts we are empty. The arts give us tremendous spirit and life force.”

Lenfest is a media entrepreneur who sold his media holdings to Comcast in 2000 for over $1 billion.

“We sold our company in 2000 and came into a lot of money and had to figure out what we were going to do with the money,” said Lenfest. “We decided to create a television and cable advertising campaign to promote not just the institutions, but to support people buying tickets to come to the event.”

Like each arts group featured, Philadanco has selected premier performances or events that will be highlighted in the ads during the 2006-2007 arts season.

“It’s really important that we get the kind of exposure that we wouldn’t ordinarily get, cause you know as an African-American organization we definitely couldn’t afford it,” said Myers Brown. “There’s a network much larger that we need to b e attracting to our performance, so it really works for us.”

“The media companies have all been great, the celebrities are great and it’s all coming together where they all work together to promote attendance to events in the Philadelphia region,” said Lenfest of the four-year-old campaign. “So it’s been a big success.”
The new series of television commercials were screened earlier this week at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and are scheduled to begin airing Sept. 5.

“…If we did that we would have Harlequin romances on the cover every week.”

By Bobbi Booker
The Book Report

“We don’t choose to review books based on the size of the book tour. If we did that we would have Harlequin romances on the cover every week.”

…NY Times’ reponse as to why it did not do a formal book review during Tavis Smiley’s historic 13 weeks as a Top Ten NYTimes best seller.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For more than a dozen weeks, Tavis Smiley’s “The Covenant for Black
America” has been firmly ensconced in the top five of the New York
Times’ list of nonfiction paperback books. The book has proven to be a
publishing phenomena since it is the first nonfiction book by an African
American publisher to reach and top the best-seller list. Yet, for all
its success, the New York Times has yet to do a formal review of the
text.

“The only mention of the book was in a sidebar,” said author and
Princeton professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. The “sidebar” Glaude referred
to is “Inside the list, ” written by Dwight Garner, senior of the New
York Times Book Review. The column, says Garner, “is an explanation
of books that are on the best seller list and how well they’re doing.”

Smiley spearheaded “The Covenant” project and edited the text that
essentially gathers six years’ worth of national symposiums in a
collection of essays that plot a course for African Americans. “The
Covenant” book is divided into 10 chapters outlining key issues and
primary concerns that affect Black Americans–from health to housing,
from crime to criminal justice, from education to economic parity. The text
features a collection of essays by contributors Dr. David Satcher,
former U.S. surgeon general; Wade Henderson, executive director of the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Angela Glover Blackwell,
founder of the research think tank PolicyLink; and Cornel West,
professor of Religion at Princeton University.

The popularity of the book, published by Third World Press, the
nation’s oldest independent African American book publisher, has been
spurred primarily by talk radio, church congregations and plain old
word-of-mouth. According to Smiley, the first stop of his national
tour drew over 5,000 people in Houston, TX. Since then upwards of
30,000 people have come out to support the book’s 10-point message.

“In the book review we don’t review phenomenas as much as we review
books,” said Garner explaining that “the process here is subjective
and we miss good books all the time.”

“Tavis Smiley is terrific at what he does,” said Garner. “He’s a very
smart man, but we don’t choose to review books based on the size of
the book tour. If we did that we would have Harlequin romances on the
cover every week.”

Gould charges that inadequate coverage of this book by the mainstream
media is another example of America poking its head in the sand in
regards to race relations. “It’s not just a phenomenon on the New York
Times best seller list,” charged Gould. “Mainstream America doesn’t
have a clue. I don’t know if mainstream white America has an idea that
a Black reading public is sitting around thinking and talking and
debating these issues and preparing themselves to engage in a much
more robust example of what it means to be a citizen.”

Smiley says this book explores the possibility of hope and strength
will help leaders and citizens keep Black America moving forward.

“Our impact has been widely felt,” said Smiley. “As best we can track
this, what we now see is that given the mainstream exposure the book
has received there are people outside of our community who are
embracing the text. (Others races) are embracing it because if you
took the word ‘Black’ out of this book, what you have is a
comprehensive, progressive agenda for making America better. That
should surprise any of us because that is what our history is and part
of our contribution to this country. Black folk have always been the
conscious of this country. The success of the civil rights movement
empowered all kinds of people. The strength that we had to love anyway
empowers and continues to empower all kinds of folk outside of our
community domestically and internationally.”

The African American community continues to experience devastating
social disparities, including the more than 8 million people who live
in poverty. “There are a lot of Black folk who believe that a piece of
Black America died on that balcony with Dr. King in Memphis 38 years
ago. There are many folk in our community since then who have been
wondering ‘Where is the game plan? The guidebook? Where’s the blue
print or the agenda for how we, in a post-King world, can make Black
America better.’ We don’t just live in a post-King world; we live in a
post- (hurricane) Katrina World. On the other side o this hurricane
there are many more people asking ‘how do we take control of our own
destiny?’ That’s where this text comes in. This is the first time that
we’ve had a blue print, a guide book if you will, for how we advance
our communities on any number of fronts. The book really lays out the
top 10 issues of importance to Black people and tries to provide a
framework for how we can advance our community.”

While the message contained within “The Covenant” is resounding
through the African American community, mainstream media may be forced
to eventually deal with it.

“I wanted to say to, that when books become this big we do sometimes take a second look at them and I think
this is the case where it’s possible where we’ll be doing that,” said
Garner in a return call clarifying his earlier statements. “I can’t
say for sure, but it does influence our decision sometimes where books
catch on with a larger public and I think it’s something we’ll think
hard about.”

“Tavis Smiley has a profound faith in the possibility of everyday,
ordinary Black folk and the Covenant with Black America demonstrates,
illustrates and exemplifies that faith in a way we’ve hardly ever seen
before,” said Glaude. “And what follows will only make our ancestors
smile.”

Originally appeared in the Philadelphia Tribune May 7, 2006

-30-

Recalling Black Men who fought in the Civil War…

by Bobbi Booker

The Book Report

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, free Blacks and runaway slaves in the North rushed to sign-up with Union armies. Many were told it was a white man’s war and turned away. Two years passed before African-American men got their chance to fight.The background for the formation of Camp William Penn in the present day LaMott section of Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County, dates back to July 17, 1862, when Congress amended The Militia Act of 1792. The amendment granted President Washington the autonomy “to employ as many persons of African descent as he may deem necessary for the suppression of the rebellion.” It further stated, “for this purpose, he may organize and use them in such manner as he may judge best for the public welfare.” Camp William Penn has the unique distinction of being the only military ground set up exclusively to train Black troops, drawing recruits from Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. The campsite was located near the present-day Cheltenham Mall and was the largest of 18 Civil War training facilities in the nation. Comprised of over 10,000 men, 11 regiments of U.S. Colored Troops were trained on the site. The regiments – 3rd, 6th, 8th, 22nd, 24th, 25th, 32nd, 41st, 43rd, and 127th – were the first of African descent, under the authorization for a two-tier compensation system, to receive a $10 monthly service and clothing allotment. Recruits arrived at the campsite June 26, 1863. Many went on to fight in Virginia, South Carolina, Florida and elsewhere. In recent years a missing page from history has revealed that Philadelphia, long known as the nation’s Cradle of Liberty, is also the starting point for the country’s oldest African-American holiday. Two years prior to Juneteenth, Philadelphia was the first city to host the first African in America Parade in the United States. This parade consisted of several hundred African Americans marching without arms or uniforms in file with drums, carrying inspiring banners as they headed towards the first training site for the troops. Camp William Penn’s mission was to train Black soldiers to save the Union, free the enslaved and reunite families. The army of Black men played a pivotal role in aiding the Union in its defeat of the Confederate Army. The unit tracked Cmdr. General Robert Lee and contributed to his surrender in Appomattox, Va. Soldiers from the camp’s 22nd Infantry located and captured President Lincoln’s assassin and conspirators on the Eastern shores of Maryland. After passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, the soldiers went from state to state to free Blacks who, unaware of the bill, were still being held as slaves. It was those troops that marched to the Alston Villa in Galveston, Texas, and surrounded the Alston Villa on Juneteenth – June 19, 1865. Gen. Gordon Granger took charge of the state of Texas and informed the nation’s last remaining slaves of their freedom, almost two and a half years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Celebrations of Juneteenth began the following year and continue to this day. The camp was recognized for its vital importance to the Union’s war effort and distinct mission. Lincoln’s decision to encourage African-American enlistment during the Civil War marked a great departure from prior administrations. About 180,000 African Americans served in the Union Army and more than 15,000 joined the Union Navy. The recruits who trained at Camp William Penn served in the Army. The camp was situated on land previously owned by the well-known Quaker abolitionist Lucretia Mott family, who noted, “The barracks make a show from our back window.” Many of Camp William Penn’s recruits were decorated for their bravery and valor. The camp closed Aug. 14, 1865.

“…I love my ‘ladies’”

By Bobbi Booker The Book Report

James Stanley is not your ordinary gardener. Whether he’s cleaning up and beautifying vacant lots in West Philadelphia or planting flowers throughout the Mann Center’s 13-acre property, Stanley gives more than 100 percent to his passion. As a result, his gardens flourish along with the community around them. Stanley owns S-Kids Auto Body in West Philadelphia, but more than anything he’s committed to his community. Having grown up on a farm in Macon, Ga., he says working in the soil makes him most comfortable. “That has escalated into what it is now,” he explained. “I started with a little lot beside my shop, and in doing this little lot it sort of got to the point that every time I see a little space I wanted to beatify it.” In 1991, Stanley moved to his new home in the Parkside community. Although he sought to maintain his business as an auto body professional, he encountered resistance from the neighborhood. “When moving to Parkside I had made some promises of the things that I would do to win the people over, because they did not want a body shop in here,” he said. “So I had to fight for it.” In the course of his battles he met and befriended Ella Francis, then the founding president of the Parkside Association. Stanley committed to a beautification plan for the neighborhood. The plan literally blossomed into a series of formerly blighted lots that Stanley transformed into magnificent gardens. In addition to landscaping the Mann Center, Stanley has two other standout gardens. The Ella Francis Garden at 5200 Parkside is semi-private, while another plot at 52 nd and Jefferson is open at all times. Stanley started on the Jefferson Street garden first in 1993, but when a neighboring building collapsed and partially destroyed it he started working on the Parkside location. Both locations have won first-place awards from the Horticultural Society, and Stanley is proud to note that one of the three gardens he created on Parkside Avenue is featured on a city tour list. “I call him ‘The Father of Parkside,’” said the garden’s namesake, Ella Francis. As a community activist Francis spent years helping the residents of Parkside renovate their neighborhood. She also served as a board member of Philadelphia Green, the nation’s largest urban greening program, supporting community gardens, urban parks and public landscapes. The vacant lot that was converted into the Ella Francis Garden in the 1980s initially was a senior citizen vegetable garden and sitting area. When Stanley agreed to take over its care, Frances said she was delighted. “Since then it has been out of sight, because his imagination and creativity have made it most outstanding,” said Francis. “It is now a place we can proudly say to people who come in the area to go by and take a look at it. It was the garden’s outstanding beauty that caught the eye of a Parkside area businessman five years ago. When Peter B. Lane, president and CEO of The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, met Stanley at a West Parkside Culture and Opportunity Center board meeting, he shared with him the needs at The Mann. Stanley responded immediately by walking the grounds of the Mann Center and making a landscape proposal. Lane was so impressed, he hired him immediately and has been singing his praises ever since. “We are so lucky to have Mr. Stanley as part of our team at the Mann. He has made a tremendous impact on the center by adding so much beauty to our grounds,” said Lane. “His passion for horticulture has been shared with thousands of visitors, and his contribution to the West Philadelphia community is invaluable.” Stanley formed another company – Urban Scapes Inc. in West Philadelphia – and hired a crew to assist him as the sole landscaper at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Fairmount Park for the last five years. He and his crew maintain the center’s sprawling lawns; he designs and plants flower beds and places large flowerpots along the walkways and dreams about the lushness he can maintain on this vast property. It’s a year-round job for Stanley, too. In the winter he plows snow and even helps out doing handyman’s work. It is apparent that gardening is his first love. “I would buy something to plant, before I would buy food,” Stanley said. And as proof of his dedication, he has been known to stay at the Mann Center past midnight on many occasions to water his greenery. “I love my plants. And water is the life of them!” he said. Stanley’s passion for gardening is matched only by his commitment to the community. Over the last 15 years, he has taken it upon himself to beautify several vacant lots in his Parkside neighborhood. He also has mentored many youngsters, who have worked for him by keeping the neighborhood clean –picking up trash and planting in the empty lots – to earn a few extra dollars. “A lot of the kids were not used to the beauty here,” said Stanley. “For me, giving something back to the neighborhood, bringing the kids in here to work with this beauty, gives them something else to do besides walking back and forth to the store.” Stanley, 59, is no stranger to hard work. In Georgia he and his family grew corn, peanuts, potatoes and other crops, and raised pigs, chickens and other animals. In 1967, he followed his sweetheart to Philadelphia, where they were married. Although now divorced, he’s a dedicated father to six children. At his body shop at 52 nd and Heston streets in West Philadelphia, Stanley specializes in custom paint jobs. When he’s not juggling the work of two businesses, he travels to Georgia, where he helps care for his elderly mother. “As I was thinking about this, I figured it was coming out of me in my late age,” mused Stanley. “But the love of gardening has always been there; the love of flowers and the beauty of flowers.” Today, to step into the Ella Francis Garden is like a stepping into a wonderful picture book. There are colors and fragrant blossoms everywhere as yellow and white butterflies flutter about. Two ponds full of lily pads and frogs sits at the garden edge and are home to dozens of goldfish and koi – as well as ally cats which, if they can avoid the traps, like to fish there. A peach tree bearing dozens of the fruits is also home to a gaggle of Junebugs suckling on its sweet nectar. The formerly uprooted weeping willow has been restored, offering cool shaded comfort to visitors. “It’s a beautiful sanctuary and it’s transformed our community,” said longtime resident Yvette Smalls. “As you go by you get this sense of peace and feel in touch with nature. I’m impressed with it. I’m in awe every time I see it. Stanley’s gardens are home not only to the usual annuals and perennials, but exotic plants as well, including 12-foot-high elephant’s ear plants that have been recognized as the city’s tallest. “There’s a lot of hidden beauty that people don’t even know is here,” said Stanley. The gardens give him comfort from the stress of his regular workdays. “I need something to play around with and let off my frustrations,” said Stanley, who has nicknamed the flowers his “ladies “I love my ‘ladies,’” says Stanley as his stands amid the flowers. “I try to be good to them and they’re good to me.”

Remembering Rufus Harley: The Chief Musician

Musicians remember one-of-a-kind colleague

By BOBBI BOOKER

Tribune Staff Writer

The haunting drones of bagpipes were silenced on August 1st, 2006 when pioneering jazz artist Rufus Harley, 70, died of complications from prostate cancer. Regionally, residents recognized him for the countless funerals and parades he led as the world’s first jazz bagpiper. Globally, he is known for his skills as a world-class musician and tireless ambassador for his city and country. Harley was on a lifelong spiritually quest that often manifested itself in his presentations of miniature Liberty Bell replicas to dignitaries and blasting his gospel of unity through the international language of music. “I could hear the sound of the bagpipe through my soul,” said Harley to an earlier interviewer. Born May 20, 1936 in Raleigh, NC, of African-American and Cherokee descent, Harley was a unique man and longtime Germantown resident.. Harley’s career as a promising young jazz saxophonist and flutist was transformed during the November 1963 funeral of President John F. Kennedy when he heard the solemn sounds of regimental bagpipers of the Black Watch, a Scottish infantry division of the British Army. The continuous sustained and haunting sounds of the instrument intrigued him and he went looking for bagpipes, and finally found a set in a New York pawnshop for $120. His initial performances on the traditionally Scottish instrument brought a mixed reaction from jazz lovers who had watched him blossom under the tutelage of Dennis Sandole, who also taught several other Philadelphia jazz musicians. “The bagpipe was sort of a novelty thing that brought him to the attention of the public, but he was a master musician on the other instruments also,” WRTI-FM’s Bob Perkins. “I really appreciated him as a musician,” said the longtime jazz radio host. “He played the saxophone and the flute fabulously.” “Not only was he a great bagpiper, he was a great musician,” said Lovett Hines, Director of Education Program at the Clef Club. “Rufus could have gone anyplace and he elected to stay here in Philadelphia. Harley fathered 10 children, including his protégé, trumpeter Messiah Harley 31. “He was a true soldier in terms of making people happy and traveling the world,” recalled Messiah. “He never cried or complained about his situation. He always did the gigs on time.” The younger Harley recalled how his father prepared him to be a musician at age twelve, when he first started playing trumpet with his father. “The one thing that impressed me with Rufus was his relationship with Messiah, his son,” recalled Hines. During Harley’s last two weeks, father and son spoke every day. From 1965 to 1970 Harley released several recordings as leader on the Atlantic label, also recording as a sideman with Herbie Mann, Sonny Stitt, and Sonny Rollins in the 1960s and 1970s. During the height of Harley’s career in the late 1960s and early 70s, he traveled the world performing and was a frequent guest on the poplar talk and games shows of the time, including “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” “The Mike Douglas Show and “What’s My Line. 30 years later, Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson of The Roots saw Harley’s appearance on television and told MOJO magazine he was stunned. “I was watching the Arsenio Hall Show one night. He had Rufus up against a juggler, treating him like a freak. The next day we were recording and I mentioned it. My manager said, ‘Rufus is probably in the phone book.’ I called, and an hour later he was in the studio. Hearing the pipes played in person was damn near religious.” It is the evocative drone of Harley’s bagpipe that is recorded as the opening notes to the title track of The Roots 1994 hit album “Do You Want More?!!!??!”. Harley’s innovation use and playing of the bagpipe has been heralded universally for both its technique and simultaneous merging if disparate cultures. “Rufus was a mystic. He was our brother and our ancestor at the same time while he was here,” explains international saxophonist Foster Child. “To play an instrument like the bagpipes you have you had definitely had to come from a different time. I believe he was incarnated to bring bagpipes into modern day times. For instance, he extended the language of the bagpipe by trick fingering–creating different fingering–to come up with different notes that normally would not be played on the bagpipes.” Harley had become visibly thinner in recent months, but still maintained a busy playing schedule. The jazz bagpiper played until last Monday afternoon, just mere hours before his death the next day from a cancer he had disclosed to no one–not even his son. Until the end, Harley was only concerned about the next gig, even instructing his son to pick him up from the hospital on time. “He never tuned down a gig or a show for anybody,” said Messiah. “He was American icon,” said Kenneth Gamble, co-founder of Philadelphia International Records. “He’ll be missed all over the world, and especially in Philadelphia. When you think about him you can hear those bagpipes playing.”

Former gang member reaches teens through sports

Oxford Street reunion ignites team spirit

Former gang member reaches teens through sports

By Bobbi Booker

Tribune Staff Writer

The street gangs that proliferated in North Central Philadelphia in the ’70s had a huge impact on residents and left a mammoth legacy. Many of these gangs were enormous and meticulously organized. Today, as political leaders and residents tackle the murder epidemic, one former gang member says the solution is easy: sports. “We may be able to stop some of the violence that is going on in the city if we focus on a lot of physical things like baseball, basketball boxing and all the sports where there’s physical contact with our youth,” said Fred “Herk” Jenkins. Jenkins and some of his fellow former gang members organize an annual reunion in what was formally enemy territory. Tomorrow, the highlight of their community picnic will be the baseball games featuring “Old Heads vs. The Young Bucks.” Although the longtime Oxford Street area resident has only recently learned the sport of baseball, he sees its overall benefit to the neighborhood youth he counsels at the Athletic Recreation Center. “Baseball is a way to build neighborhood unity and decrease violence among the youth,” said Jenkins, 50. “I’ve come to find out it is one of the best sport you can have when dealing with kids personality-wise because they have to be patient; they got to hold their frustration in and they got to perform and deal with the ups and downs of the game without lashing out.” As a young teen, Jenkins was a member of the Oxford Street gang, one of nearly a dozen area gangs surrounding the Athletic Recreation Center at 26th and Master streets. Eventually, the sports programs at the center appealed to Jenkins more than his gang clique. “I started in the recreation center first as a gang member causing trouble, then as a student of amateur boxing,” recalled Jenkins. Jenkins went on to coach a couple of world boxing champions including Olympian David Reed, Zahir Rahim, Charlie “Choo Choo” Brown and “Rockin’” Rodney Moore. “I basically raised all these guys and a whole lot of other kids who come out of this recreation center,” Jenkins said. Jenkins says many of the former gang members have mellowed over the years and have all committed to a sense of personal and community responsibility. “When you read the newspaper you only read what’s negative that’s going on in that area. For one negative thing in our area, there’s a hundred good things that’s going on,” said Jenkins. “There’s a whole lot of champions in our community that nobody talks about. “

Jack Franklin passes the torch…

By BOBBI BOOKER

Tribune Staff Writer

Born in North Philadelphia in 1922, Jack Franklin began taking photographs at age 10 at his sister’s suggestion. “In 1932, my sister (Eloise) went to the Chicago World’s Fair and brought me back a camera,” he said, “and I been stuck with a camera ever since.” His sister was not pleased with Franklin’s first job. “My sister never liked the idea of me being a junkman,” Franklin recalled. “But I was a good junkman. I was making money. And I learned through knowing how to pick out junk what was good and what was bad. “I knew how to sort stuff in my head, so when I started shooting pictures I knew what was good and what was bad. So it segued from that to being a photographer.” The half-million photos and negatives Franklin has donated to the African American Museum in Philadelphia document national celebrities as well as ordinary folks. He photographed key moments during the Civil Rights movement, including the activities of Martin Luther King, Sidney Poitier, Julie and Harry Belafonte, James Baldwin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Andy Williams and the Rev. Leon Sullivan; the March on Washington in 1963, the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965 and the Girard College protests in Philadelphia that led to its desegregation. He took photos for periodicals such as Sepia, Nite Life and The Philadelphia Tribune, where he documented the region’s Black social life and its lively music scene. Franklin developed what he calls a “third eye,” and was lauded for his photographic work from the start of his career. “The way I treat photography is different from how other people treat it,” he explained. “Most of the time people go and get up in their faces and take pictures of them. The idea is to photograph what they’re doing. “The atmosphere of the surroundings is very important because that’s telling you what year, so when you see a picture you can say, ‘Oh that was taken in the ’30s.’ That’s the purpose of photography: the main reason is to identify. “ And that’s why instead of being a writer I chose to be a photographer. ’Cause you can write anything you want, but sometimes we flavor things to set our feelings at that particular time. With the camera, you can make it lie, but you can tell the truth with it too.” Today, Franklin is recognized as one of America’s greatest living photographers. He continues to be known for his vast body of work now housed at the African American Museum of Philadelphia, Currently the museum is presenting an exhibit of 14 young photographers entitled “Shootout: Reverberating the Sprit and Legacy of Jack T. Franklin”. These photographers had eight-weeks to follow in Franklin’s footsteps by capturing images from their communities. “It is through his sprit and legacy that these young people shoot, and they document what’s going on, not just in the African American community as it relates to Philadelphia, but the African Diaspora community,” explains exhibit curator Shantrelle Lewis. At the exhibit’s preview, the 84-year-old Franklin proved that he still had a sharp eye. As hr reviewed each of the images on the wall, he offered gentle advice and guidance to each of the young exhibitors. One of the first images he praised belonged to first-time exhibitor (and Tribune staff photographer) Marissa Weekes. “I think we can credit Jack with breaking down barriers,” said Weekes, 27. “Barriers is race and barriers is also gender and the fact the that 12 of the 14 photographers in this exhibit are female speaks to the struggle that Jack made so that we could be here.” Freelance photographer Sarah Stefana Smith, 24, was drawn to photography by “a desire to articulate what I couldn’t say in words.” Smith studied sociology at Spellman University and applies her study to her craft of photography. “A lot of my interest lies in doing social documentation and that would be using photography as a means to document what’s going on,” she explained. “What people do, what we sort of take for granted and using that as a way to speak to different communities.” Ayana Jackson, 29, was just back in the U.S. after spending three years traveling the globe documenting the stories of African descendents, especially those in South America. “Since 2002, I’ve dedicated myself to looking at and discovering increasing visibility amongst Afro descedents in Latin America,” said Jackson, who usually pairs her exhibits with photography workshops. “I’m teaching photography to young Afro-descendent youths with the hopes of trying to get more photography coming from the first-person perspective as far as these communities are concerned. “You have photographers, like myself, who are always going to be an outsider, so I want to get some of these young people to start documenting their own culture.” Although the exhibit will not feature Franklin’s work, Lewis says the exhibit’s overall goal is to create intergenerational dialogue. “Oftentimes we hear about the accomplishments of so many people from past generations, so the question then is, What is your generation doing?” said Lewis. “It’s just very exciting to see young people documenting what’s happening in 2006 in our communities so it can serve as a living legacy for that are to follow.” When it comes to photography, Franklin may be sitting on the sidelines, but he’s not out of the game. During the course of his career he’s worked with various formats and is anxious to start shooting digital pictures. “I got to learn how to do digital. I understand it. I just don’t do it yet.” “Shootout: Reverberating the Sprit and Legacy of Jack T. Franklin” will be on exhibit at the African American Museum of Philadelphia, 701 Arch St. through Nov. 19. For more information, call (215) 574-0380

Ni**a, Pleeze!! Part III

Actor Tries to Trademark ‘N’ Word

By Rogers Cadenhead
AP/Reuters

The actor Damon Wayans has been engaged in a 14-month fight to trademark the term “Nigga” for a clothing line and retail store, a search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s online database reveals.

Wayans wants to dress customers in 14 kinds of attire from tops to bottoms, and use the controversial mark on “clothing, books, music and general merchandise,” as well as movies, TV and the internet, according to his applications.

But, so far, his applications have been unsuccessful. Trademark examiner Kelly Boulton rejected the registration dated Dec. 22, citing a law that prohibits marks that are “immoral or scandalous.” A previous attempt by Wayans was turned down on identical grounds six months earlier.

“While debate exists about in-group uses of the term, ‘nigga’ is almost universally understood to be derogatory,” Boulton wrote to Wayans’ attorney, William H. Cox, according to the application.

Cox and other representatives of the actor did not respond to interview requests about the registration.
Wayans can appeal the rejection, but experts in trademark law differ on his chances for success.
Lynda Zadra-Symes, a trademark lawyer in California, said Wayans may be successful. She compared “Nigga” to the successful registration of Dykes on Bikes. The San Francisco Women’s Motorcycle Contingent fought the Trademark Office for three years to overturn an initial rejection of a Dykes on Bikes trademark. The mark was published Jan. 24.

“Because the application was by a group of lesbians it was eventually allowed to publish,” Zadra-Symes said.

“This is a great victory,” the group proclaimed on its website. “It affirms our right to determine who we are and how we present ourselves to the world.”

However, Tawnya Wojciechowski, another trademark attorney practicing in California, compared Wayans’ application to the ongoing legal case where Washington Redskins trademarks have been challenged by seven Native Americans. “They’re going to have a really tough time,” Wojciechowski predicted.

The word “nigga” is ubiquitous in hip-hop music, where it provides half of a rhyming couplet radio listeners never get to hear in the Grammy-winning song “Gold Digger” by Kanye West. Ol’ Dirty Bastard used the term 76 times in the 1999 album Nigga Please, not counting repetitions in a chorus. In January, an episode of the late-night Cartoon Network series Boondocks was criticized for putting the word in the mouth of a fictionalized Martin Luther King Jr.

The effort to commercialize “nigga” drew a sharp response from a black school official who participated in a forum about the word earlier this month at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

“I don’t care for it in any form,” said Dr. Lonnie Williams, associate vice chancellor for student affairs. “Either way you pronounce it, spell it, anything associated with it — I find it offensive.”

If Wayans succeeds in persuading the Trademark Office to permit the mark, he may have to deal with Keon Rhodan, a 29-year-old entrepreneur in Charleston, South Carolina, who has been using “Nigga” on a line of T-shirts, hoodies and other attire for six years in a part-time, trunk-of-his-car business. Rhodan attempted to register “Nigga’Clothing” as a trademark in 2001 and was denied by the Trademark Office.

“They said it was disparaging,” he said.

Rhodan, who is Black, said that he’s sold around 2,000 of the shirts at events. When he began selling the shirts, emblazoned with the term “Nigga,” he thought he would take criticism, especially from older people.

“I was in the mall with one of the shirts on, and an old lady said, ‘Where did you get that shirt from?’” he said, expecting the worst. “She followed me to the car and bought five shirts for her grandchildren.”

Rhodan believes that affectionate use of the term within the Black community should make it an acceptable mark, but the Trademark Office has thus far has not been persuaded by that argument.

“The very fact that debate is ongoing regarding in-group usage, shows that a substantial composite of African-Americans find the term ‘nigga’ to be offensive,” Boulton wrote in rejecting Wayans.

Though attempts to commercialize “Nigga” coincide with a generational shift in how the word is perceived, the clothing is still likely to test some boundaries, as Rhodan demonstrated in a phone interview.

“You couldn’t wear it,” he said.

Ni**a, Pleeze!! Part III

Actor Tries to Trademark ‘N’ Word

By Rogers Cadenhead
AP/Reuters

The actor Damon Wayans has been engaged in a 14-month fight to trademark the term “Nigga” for a clothing line and retail store, a search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s online database reveals.

Wayans wants to dress customers in 14 kinds of attire from tops to bottoms, and use the controversial mark on “clothing, books, music and general merchandise,” as well as movies, TV and the internet, according to his applications.

But, so far, his applications have been unsuccessful. Trademark examiner Kelly Boulton rejected the registration dated Dec. 22, citing a law that prohibits marks that are “immoral or scandalous.” A previous attempt by Wayans was turned down on identical grounds six months earlier.

“While debate exists about in-group uses of the term, ‘nigga’ is almost universally understood to be derogatory,” Boulton wrote to Wayans’ attorney, William H. Cox, according to the application.

Cox and other representatives of the actor did not respond to interview requests about the registration.
Wayans can appeal the rejection, but experts in trademark law differ on his chances for success.
Lynda Zadra-Symes, a trademark lawyer in California, said Wayans may be successful. She compared “Nigga” to the successful registration of Dykes on Bikes. The San Francisco Women’s Motorcycle Contingent fought the Trademark Office for three years to overturn an initial rejection of a Dykes on Bikes trademark. The mark was published Jan. 24.

“Because the application was by a group of lesbians it was eventually allowed to publish,” Zadra-Symes said.

“This is a great victory,” the group proclaimed on its website. “It affirms our right to determine who we are and how we present ourselves to the world.”

However, Tawnya Wojciechowski, another trademark attorney practicing in California, compared Wayans’ application to the ongoing legal case where Washington Redskins trademarks have been challenged by seven Native Americans. “They’re going to have a really tough time,” Wojciechowski predicted.

The word “nigga” is ubiquitous in hip-hop music, where it provides half of a rhyming couplet radio listeners never get to hear in the Grammy-winning song “Gold Digger” by Kanye West. Ol’ Dirty Bastard used the term 76 times in the 1999 album Nigga Please, not counting repetitions in a chorus. In January, an episode of the late-night Cartoon Network series Boondocks was criticized for putting the word in the mouth of a fictionalized Martin Luther King Jr.

The effort to commercialize “nigga” drew a sharp response from a black school official who participated in a forum about the word earlier this month at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

“I don’t care for it in any form,” said Dr. Lonnie Williams, associate vice chancellor for student affairs. “Either way you pronounce it, spell it, anything associated with it — I find it offensive.”

If Wayans succeeds in persuading the Trademark Office to permit the mark, he may have to deal with Keon Rhodan, a 29-year-old entrepreneur in Charleston, South Carolina, who has been using “Nigga” on a line of T-shirts, hoodies and other attire for six years in a part-time, trunk-of-his-car business. Rhodan attempted to register “Nigga’Clothing” as a trademark in 2001 and was denied by the Trademark Office.

“They said it was disparaging,” he said.

Rhodan, who is Black, said that he’s sold around 2,000 of the shirts at events. When he began selling the shirts, emblazoned with the term “Nigga,” he thought he would take criticism, especially from older people.

“I was in the mall with one of the shirts on, and an old lady said, ‘Where did you get that shirt from?’” he said, expecting the worst. “She followed me to the car and bought five shirts for her grandchildren.”

Rhodan believes that affectionate use of the term within the Black community should make it an acceptable mark, but the Trademark Office has thus far has not been persuaded by that argument.

“The very fact that debate is ongoing regarding in-group usage, shows that a substantial composite of African-Americans find the term ‘nigga’ to be offensive,” Boulton wrote in rejecting Wayans.

Though attempts to commercialize “Nigga” coincide with a generational shift in how the word is perceived, the clothing is still likely to test some boundaries, as Rhodan demonstrated in a phone interview.

“You couldn’t wear it,” he said.

Here Comes the Good Sun…

By Bobbi Booker
Book Report II
As an artist, Rah Crawford’s combination of his love of pop imagery coupled with his keen intuitive insight has created a new form that required a new name to describe it. Using his trademarked style, Neoteric Pop-Iconic Clairvoyance, Crawford creates art for the high-speed information and multimedia culture by using inking techniques that date back to the ancients. Crawford, 33, says his work speaks the modern language of this generation in a way that great artists of the past have done for theirs.

“My goal as an artist is to define our modern generation through visual art. That sums up my mission as an artist on this planet. To define our modern generation you’re dealing with everything from technology, politics, pop commercials is what my goal is as an artist. We haven’t had an artist to do that since Andy Warhol. That’s the connection that I share with Warhol is that it was his goal to define the 70s and 80s period through his art. He pretty much captured many of those elements from the pop culture to the sexual tensions of the time to the politics to marketing. It’s been 20 years since we’ve had an artist to come from that angle and here I am 20 years later coming from that angle.”

Crawford is much akin Warhol’s approach in his approach to art and creativity. Like Warhol, Crawford has been an underground magazine publisher and has been involved in the multi-media aspects of music and video. He wants his unique visual approach to lead viewers deeper into the human psyche of life, love and culture. “Art isn’t limited to the gallery walls. I like to call art shows art experiences because people come to them and experience them and they leave with a little something.”

After last season’s “Deus Ex Machina” exhibition, Crawford destroyed several paintings that weren’t purchased and caused a strong reaction in both himself and the observing audience. “A couple of people were crying in the audience and I never experience anything like that in my life. As an artist I’m trying to go there, to that place, and reinvent what visual art is and as an artist, how we touch the public in general versus simply walking into a gallery and looking at paintings on the wall.”

Crawford, a Germantown native, credits his parents as the impetus to his art career. His mother exposed him o he arts at a very young age and his father was an illustrator. “I knew that (art) was my calling since I was very young. I was always drawing, had sketch books, always kept a journal, always painted, ever since I was very young.

Crawford’s fate as an artist was sealed when at age seven he saw his father do a quick sketch of his mother while she was cooking in the kitchen. “I was just blown away. I looked at her and I looked back at the paper and I couldn’t believe that he had captured her right in front of my face on paper. That’s when I knew I wanted to be an artist.”

After studying for two years at the Arts Institute, Crawford modeled for a few years before turning his attention to his craft fulltime. Over the course of a decade he would go on develop his signature style. “The one thing I knew with my artwork was that it had to be a unique look or style. So unique that when you saw it after a while I didn’t have to put my name on it.

Crawford creates powerful imagery like an ancient craftsman, primarily relying on ink and brush to develop his colorful, yet cryptic, work. Closer inspection of his work reveals coded messages and admonitions, words and phrases intertwined to form complex labyrinths of shape nestled within the figures delicate spaces. His work has inspired local fashion designer Belahshehu to create a men’s fashion collection based on his paintings. In addition to several galleries world-wide, his work also hangs on he walls on some noted celebrities, including Outkast’s Andre 3000, Jill Scott, and Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson.

“One of Warhol’s famous quotes is that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes,” says Crawford. “I’m not looking for fame. My goal is to define our modern generation through my visual art. I believe time will tell. I have a strong work ethic and I believe it’s about putting in the time and doing the work. I’m going be here for a while creating and looking to connect with people in unique and interesting ways.”

—
Lifestyle/Leisure/Literature

Leaving Saturn

By Bobbi Booker
(Originally published in The Philadelphia Tribune)

The ghetto: strong and determined, but sad in its struggle, has always suffered the agony of those who have viewed it as society’s wasteland. But the urban essence of Philadelphia is beaming in “Leaving Saturn” from The University of Georgia Press, a powerful piece of work by poet and Philadelphia native Major Jackson.

Through both formal and free verse, Jackson renders poetic justice to the mechanism of everyday living. Jackson cut his teeth in the gritty streets of North Philadelphia where he witnessed the underbelly of the urban society.
In “Hoops” and “Euphoria” Jackson is brutally honest in his depiction of his street buddies and family. Jackson reminisces about girlfriends and dance steps in the three-part exchange entitled “Rock The Body Body.” “Mr. Pate’s Barbershop” elicits the memory of Saturday’s spent in a barbershop waiting for a fresh do.

Jackson is now an English professor at Xavier University of Louisiana and was awarded the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for this ambitious and honest collection of verses. He has also earned degrees from Temple University and the University of Oregon.

A member of the Dark Room Collective, his poems have appeared in the American Poetry Review, Boulevard, Callaloo, and The New Yorker, among other journals. He is the recipient of many awards, including a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and commissions from the Chamber orchestra of Philadelphia.

The title of this collection is in honor of the deceased Sun Ra, an esoteric jazz performer who settled in Philadelphia to share his intergalactic view of the world. Music lovers are transported back in time to the pivotal performances of Sun Ra & Arkestra at Grendel’s Lair or Don Pullen jamming at Zanzibar Blue.
Jackson demonstrates that he has the literary sensibilities to make the images of his life dance in your head. His poems hauntingly reflect urban decay and violence, yet at the same time they rejoice in the sustaining power of music and the potency of community. “Leaving Saturn” is a return to the poetry form made famous by the likes of Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez. As only a poet has the ability to do with just a few words, the resiliency and determination of a community clearly seeps through in this must-read collection.

Dig it.

Live 8

By Bobbi I. Booker
The Birmingham Times

PHILADELPHIA–With over one million people jamming a one mile stretch of land that led to the site of the American Live 8 concert at the Museum of Art in Philadelphia, PA, questions where abound as to whether the event’s message would ring clear to the attendees. The mission of the Live 8 concerts was to raise awareness of the on-going poverty in Africa and to pressure the G8 leaders to take action by doubling aid, canceling debt, and delivering trade justice for Africa.
Backstage at Live 8 in Philadelphia, performers and presenters where on message, praising the concert’s global efforts to increase awareness of AIDS and hunger in Africa, the world’s largest continent. “I think its important for Africans and African American people to step up to the plate and support this effort.,” said Rev Ben Chavis, co-founder of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, a coalition of hip-hop artists and community leaders dedicated fighting the war on poverty and injustice. “Africa is long overdue to get world wide attention. Africa is long over due to get world wide support and we’re hoping that today is just not a one day event but it marks a renewal of those efforts.”
While rock & roll lead the day other Live 8 cities, including London, Tokyo, Berlin, Germany and Johannesburg, South Africa, hip hop and rap were king in America. The original Live Aid, held 20 years ago in both Philadelphia and London, featured no hip hop performances.
“Twenty years later, hip hop is no longer just an American phenomena; hip hop is a global culture,“ noted Chavis. “Geography transcends geo-political situations. [Live 8] today reflects the growth and expansion of hip hop all over the world.”
Calling hip hop “the best brand building in America,” media mogul and hip hop impresario Russell Simmons explained that Live 8 needed the hip hop community to support its message. “No idea carries in America without hip hop. You don’t sell no expensive cars ; you don’t sell no Coca Cola or Pepsi cola. None of that happens unless hip hop says so.”
In addition to requesting artists such as vocalist Alicia Keys and actor/comedian Chris Tucker to participate in Live 8, Simmons says his real support was in getting urban media to cover the event. “BET was not involved. Radio 1 was not involved. Clear Channel hip hop stations were not involved. They are all carrying this now.”
Stating that she felt “honored and proud” to participate in Live 8, Keys practically glowed after her performance. “I really feel extremely inspired when I walked on that stage and saw a million plus people–my reflection, our reflection–saying that we all wanted to stand and say to the global governments that we want to reduce the debt and we ant to end poverty ultimately.”
Tucker recalled that he was moved to activism after visiting nearly a dozen African countries recently. “6,000 people die a day in Africa and a lot of the disease can be prevented,” said Tucker. “I went to villages that didn’t have clean water. You couldn’t imagine in America not having clean water; that’s a necessity. I went to hospital full of babies, and there were only two nurses. That really affected me and just motivated me to do something.”
American-based performers with African roots, like actor Djimon Hounsou, hailed the efforts of Live 8 to bring awareness to their country‘s plight. “No matter how independent we are in Africa, we still depend on the West for our well-being,” said Hounsou of Benin. “The one thing we do need is to be able to trade with the rest of the world, and certainly with the developed world. Certainly the G8 leaders will need to find a solution for the corruption in Africa. The world is advancing so fast in order to survive, we need to keep up.”
Many of the fans gathered along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway where just happy to see some of their favorite performers, but some questioned the event’s potential political effectiveness.
“I think it’s much more of a commercial event than we’re making it out to be,“ said college student Ryan Neal, 21, of Oakland, CA as he left the day-long event. “I don’t understand where the dollars are going or how the money is going back to Africa. Who’s to say this is going to change anything?”

###

As seen on Black America Web…

Pundit Payola Scandal Costs Williams His Column, Show and More

Date: Monday, January 10, 2005
By: Bobbi Booker//BlackAmericaWeb.com

Black media and political veterans alike are still reeling from last week’s revelations that Black pundit Armstrong Williams was paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars by the Bush administration to push its controversial educational initiative, No Child Left Behind – a conflict of interest scandal that has cost the conservative commentator in more ways than one. When USA Today disclosed on Friday that the Education Department, through the Ketchum Inc. public relations company, paid Williams $241,000 to help promote President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” policy on his radio show, TV program and newspaper column, sparks began flying immediately in both media and political institutions. Congressional Democrats and Republicans have joined in calling for inquiries into the matter.Williams has since publicly apologized for his “bad judgment” and has called the criticism “legitimate.” “I made a business decision and did not consider the implication for me as a media pundit and commentator, so it’s come back to bite me,” Williams told BlackAmericaWeb.com. Although Tribune Media Services (TMS) has accepted his explanation that the monies were for his radio and television shows, they immediately cancelled Williams’ weekly syndicated column.“Accepting compensation in any form from an entity that serves as a subject of his weekly newspaper columns creates, at the very least, the appearance of a conflict of interest,” read a statement released by the TMS Friday. “Under these circumstances, readers may well ask themselves if the views expressed in his columns are his own, or whether they have been purchased by a third party.” Williams also made regular appearances on CNN, and the network has now launched an investigation into the commentator’s statements. “We will consider very seriously this issue before booking him as a guest again,” CNN spokeswoman Megan Mahoney told Associated Press.The Education Department defended its decision in an AP report as a “permissible use of taxpayer funds under legal government contracting procedures.” The point was to help parents, particularly in poor and minority communities, understand the benefits of the law, the department said.According to AP, a contract required Williams’ company, the Graham Williams Group, to produce radio and TV spots featuring one-minute “reads” by then-Education Secretary Rod Paige, and to allow Paige and other department officials to appear as studio guests with Williams. Paige and Williams appeared twice on “The Steve Harvey Morning Show,” which originates in Los Angeles and is syndicated in Dallas.“I was under so much pressure in the last two days, I haven’t spoken on that issue,” Williams told BlackAmericaWeb in response to questions about Harvey’s involvement. “The reason why the secretary ended up going on ‘The Steve Harvey Show [was to promote TV One]. In January 2004, TV One debuted, and because I had a show that debuted, they wanted me to set up interviews. “In the course of talking to Steve Harvey, he got into the fact that I was a Republican. And he said, ‘You know, right here in California, they don’t even have books in the classrooms.’ I said, ‘Well, I have a relationship with the Secretary of Education; maybe I can have him come on your show and talk about it.’” “Now that’s my fault,” Williams continued, “because it seems as though I used my influence to get this done, but that’s not what happened. It was in the course of an appearance for TV One that that came about.” TV One has dropped Williams’ show, “On Point,” pending an investigation. Williams said The Steve Harvey Morning Show and 100.3 The Beat in Los Angeles, the station carrying Harvey’s show, received no advertising revenue as a result of Paige’s appearances. Williams also was to use his influence with other Black journalists to get them to discuss No Child Left Behind, a centerpiece of President Bush’s domestic agenda, which aims to raise achievement among poor and minority children and penalizes schools that don’t make progress.The National Association of Black Journalists blasted Williams’ credibility on its website and urged all media outlets that carry his shows to cut their ties with him immediately. “I thought we in the media were supposed to be watchdogs, not lapdogs,” NABJ Vice President-Print Bryan Monroe, assistant vice president-news at Knight Ridder, is quoted as saying on the group’s homepage. “I thought we had an administration headed by a president who took an oath to uphold the First Amendment, not try to rent it.” Williams is not a NABJ member. In fact, prior to USA Today’s report, Williams said, he viewed himself as a solely as commentator and not a journalist. “Nobody listens to Black conservatives. They say we have no audience,” said Williams, “then all of a sudden they treat me as a major journalist in America. I was never invited to be a part of the clubs, to be a part of the membership because they don’t consider us journalists. But now they’ve changed that.”Nationally syndicated columnist Deborah Mathis, a BlackAmericaWeb contributor and regular on “America’s Black Forum” alongside Williams, disputed her colleague’s claim, calling him disingenuous. “I understand that he may not have been trained or practiced in journalism, but there are some things in this sophisticated game that you pick up, and someone should not have to tell anybody about conflicts of interests; they have that in every field,” said Mathis. “One thing this episode does is ratchet up the cynicism about any kind of pundit in the media, and it sure doesn’t help if you’re trying to break from the pack — as Black conservatives are. People already suspect that they’re already speaking for Mr. Charley. When Mr. Charley is paying them, people say, ‘I knew it.’ It hurts not only his credibility; it hurts the credibility of those who are trying to follow in his footsteps and those who are already in the business now.”Mathis feels that this episode has not necessarily marginalized Black journalists or pundits, but it will make Black news viewers even more skeptical of the media messages they receive. “What I despise ultimately is the cynicism of the administration,” Mathis said. “It’s bribery money, it’s walk-around money, it’s whatever else you want to call it, and — as usual — a complete misunderstanding in the reading of the Black community to think that you can go and throw money at one person, and not even understand Williams’ esteem in the Black community. They think he’s all that; we don’t. He doesn’t have the following in the Black community, but he’s been able to present himself as someone who does, and because they do not know us, they can fall for someone coming up to them saying, ‘I’m the spokesperson; I can deliver them,’ because they don’t bother to know us.” The sense is, experts attest, that there is a growing public distrust of the media, where the line of news and opinion have become so blurred, it is practically impossible to decipher the legitimate journalist from the talking head. On Sunday’s “Meet The Press,” host Tim Russert asked, “How do people know the difference between journalists, commentators, pundits, who’s on the take from the government and who is not? This is very confusing.” Even Renee Amoore, the first Black female to co-chair the Pennsylvania Republican Committee, was under the impression that Williams was a journalist. “I’ll be honest. Because I read his newsletter and some other things, I made the assumption that he was a journalist, too. I know Armstrong is on television and [has appeared on] several panels, and he has strong opinions on several things as a Black conservative.” But Amoore feels Williams has been unfairly targeted because of his political views. “The bottom line is that the press tends to hype things up around African-Americans in particular, and now it’s African-American Republicans,” she told BlackAmericaWeb. “I know that it’s happened to me as a Black woman who happens to be a Republican. I think people tend to sensationalize things when it’s a Black conservative, especially with President Bush in office right now.”Williams, 45, a former aide to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, first came to the public’s attention as a spokesperson during the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings when Professor Anita Hill charged Thomas with sexual harassment. Williams has since gone on to become one of the top Black conservative voices in the nation. In addition to his op-ed columns, he hosts “The Right Side” on TV and radio, while running his public relations firm.“No one can ever pay me for what I believe in,” Williams said. “In fact, when we cut the commercial reels for these ads, Ketchum called us back to tell us there were problems with the contract. It appeared as though it would not go forward, but we already had the ads running. I said, ‘It doesn’t matter; I believe in it.’ I was already advocating it before [Ketchum] ever approached us, and so we’ll do it for free. A little over a month later, Ketchum came back to us and said the glitches had been worked out.” Initially, the ads — which started running in December 2003 and continue through to the end of this month — were only scheduled to run for six months. Williams says a special website set up for his show’s viewers logged over 15 million visits, and the amount of traffic convinced the company to extend its contract with Graham Williams for another six months. “That’s why when people say to me, ‘Are you going to pay the money back?’ I say, ‘Are you crazy?’ We delivered. We did what was expected of us. Even the Department of Education issued a statement saying we did a terrific job, and we did. This is business! No one has ever said that [Graham Williams] did not honor its contractual obligation. They’re just saying I crossed the line being a media pundit and a corporate executive. “I’m glad that the market place has said to me, ‘You’ve done something wrong, and these are the consequences.’ I take responsibility; I’m not passing the buck. When you build something from your hand, from the ground up, you know how to build it better again. I am wiser. I understand what is expected of me. I understand that I’m not some shrill media person out here on the air. I am a part of the media elite. And you haven’t seen nothing yet.”But the questions have only just begun. Mathis speculates that Williams is just one of many journalists-as-pundits receiving some form of government payola. “A lot of us,” she said, “have suspected for a long time that Williams and a lot of other people have been taken care of for carrying the message.”

Author tackles why Black kids aren’t learning

Author and journalist Debra Dickerson investigated the racial disparities in Lower Marion High School as part of her latest article, ‘What if Bill Cosby is Right?’

By Bobbi Booker

Tribune Staff Writer

African-American students located in the Lower Marion school district are failing in one of the country’s richest, highest achieving school systems. Most of the district’s 500 Black students (out of a total 6,684) are failing, with an estimated one-in-four Black students enrolled in special education programs. Author and journalist Debra Dickerson investigated the racial disparities in Lower Marion High School when she spent a week there last May researching for her latest article, “What if Bill Cosby is Right?” which appeared in Philadelphia magazine as part of the “Tales of Two Cites” series. The series is an ongoing examination of race as it is lived in and around Philadelphia.

Even though NBA All Star Kobe Bryant is regaled as a shining example of what Lower Marion High School can produce, the results for other Black students looked grim and Dickerson was curious as to why.

Dickerson charged that instead of consulting with education specialists, the Black parent student advocacy organization brought in protest specialists whose biggest concern was race, not education. “So what is it that they’re really trying to do? Are they trying to educate their kids or are they just trying to beat white people up?”

Dickerson admitted that she had not witnessed a racial living situation as strained as the conditions of the Main Linewhere many of the Black residents are not as wealthy as their white neighbors, and in fact, were historically situated in the area for the convenience of serving the white households they worked for. Yet, Dickerson felt that many of the parents were misguided in the educational demands they made for their children.

“If you think this situation is so bad, why would you subject your own kids to it?” asked Dickerson. “There seems to be a wonderful vindication that’s going on. You get no argument from me that racism is a continuing problem. You can’t fix racism, but you can ensure that your child learns.

“This is a district where they spend $19,000 per student,” said Larry Platt, Editor, Philadelphia magazine. “What’s interesting about doing a piece about Lower Marion is it takes the issue of economic outlay – what the district is spending – off the table. A lot of times when you talk about the racial achievement gap in academics, the typical response is these kids are not getting their fair share of investment from the school district. Well, that’s not the case here.”

In May, comedian Bill Cosby upbraided some Blacks for their grammar and accused them of squandering opportunities the Civil Rights Movement gave them. Cosby also chastised certain members of the African-American community for their lack of commitment to education. His comments have drawn both praise and criticism, and Cosby has since taken on his detractors and their attempts, as he labeled them, to hide the Black community’s “dirty laundry.”

“Other people get it,” Cosby said earlier during a July radio interview. “Some of our people are sitting there in a trough blaming the white man and not getting up out of the trough. There are Black people coming from other countries, and they get it. They know that this is the land where you can get education for your children.”

Dickerson concurs, saying that being a non-resident has no bearings on her observations. “I don’t have a horse in this race, except for the education of all kids, and especially Black kids. I came (to Lower Marion High School) to report on why Black kids aren’t learning. I think that’s the point here and what’s going on in white people’s hearts and minds, that’s too hard. But what’s going on in the classroom, we can do something about. I wrote about what I saw.”

Author Debra Dickerson and editor Larry Platt will discuss the racial achievement gap in Philadelphia area schools as an ongoing part of the “Tale of Two Cities” series today at 6 p.m. at The African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, 6361 Lancaster Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. Dickerson will also sign copies of her new book, “The End of Blackness” after the forum.