Overview
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Jazz Drummer Max Roach Dies
-- Maxwell Roach, a founder
of Modern Jazz—born on 10 January 1924, in the small
town of New Land, N.C., grew up in the
Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn—died 16
August 2007 in Manhattan. . . . "It all comes down
to originality," Roach told jazz critic Leonard
Feather some years ago. . . . “There was one
unforgettable night when I worked with Pres [Lester
Young] at Birdland. Because I was with Pres, and
because he and Papa Jo Jones were so close in the
Basie band, I played all of Papa Jo's old licks. At
the end of the evening, after I said good night to
Pres, he gave me one of those succinct lessons in
that personal language of his. He said, 'You can't
join the throng until you write your own song. . .
.That's a great lesson, something that stays with
you the rest of your life; this music allows you,
prefers you to be an individual, to do your own
thing."
Revolutionary Black Music: Max Roach and Abbey
Lincoln /
We Insist! Max Roach's Freedom Now Suite
Funeral -- Friday, August 24th at
Riverside Church in Manhattan. Viewing will be
at 9 AM. Services at 11 AM |
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Since returning to New Orleans from a brief
wartime stint working the shipyards of Richmond and Oakland
between 1943 and 1947, Montana has been sewing a new Mardi Gras
suit each year and is the undisputed master of the craft.
Because of his unique three-dimensional
innovations and his elaborate beadwork he stood out among other
Mardi Gras Indians, and was known as "The Prettiest."
So pretty that one of his suits was purchased by the
Smithsonian.
The Mardi Gras Indian culture from its very
beginnings more than 130 years ago was an expression of Black
resistance to a white supremacist environment in New Orleans.
Big
Chief Allison "Tootie" Montana
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Coretta
was still a young woman when her husband died. There were
moments when I wondered whether it might not have been better
for her personally if she had remarried. One friend sent me a
note in which she wrote, “I once read a statement by
Alice Walker in which she mentioned how some women live with the
legends of their men (instead of choosing a life of their own.)
I'm glad that Coretta held Martin in her heart all these
years.” Another friend wrote, “what a shame that she lived
40 years of her life without a man's arms around her, unloved
and passionless. To me, that's a great loss.”
Coretta Scott King
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Remembering Eartha Kitt—17
January, 1927 – 25 December, 2008)—When
I think of Eartha Kitt, I think of the
complete artist. She was supremely
accomplished, audacious, vocal, and
creative. She remained beautiful and
physically fit. When I was coming into
manhood, how I fantasized about Ms. Kitt,
whom I thought was just the most
sensuous woman on the planet! Yet, as a
Black American female, she spoke out of
an experience of racist-induced pain,
anguish, and despair that gnawed at her
existence, which could produce a good
amount of anger and clear thinking about
the meaning of America.—Floyd
Hayes
I
Want to Be Evil /
Just An Old Fashioned Girl /
Santa Baby
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Death and
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A Funeral
Sermon Virginia-Style
Playing
Policy, One Sumptuous Meal
Passed
On Press
Release Other Reviews Memorial
to Family Business
Response to
Questions
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Sundiata Memorials—A special
Memorial for Sekou Sundiata takes place on Wednesday, August
22, 2007 (his birth date), at Tishman Auditorium, New
School University, 66 West 12th Street, exactly from 6pm
to 8pm, with poets, musicians, family and friends. . . .
African Voices
africanvoices@aol.com is looking for poems and short comments
from friends and fellow artists who were influenced and
inspired by Sekou Sundiata. Publisher Carolyn Butts and
Editor Layding Kaliba are looking to publish as many
dedications to him as possible; therefore, no
submission should be longer than 500 words. African
Voices also wants to include photographs to
accompany the dedications
Sekou Sundiata
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For many
years, this author of poems, songs and slogans, among them the
book, America On Our Minds in Harlem (co-authored with
Jamel Carma), and the song, "Harlem Heartbeat," would
ride the 'D' train from the Bronx to Brooklyn, taking his poetry
directly to the people. He'd recite anywhere, convincing folks
that poetry indeed belonged to all of us -- selling pamphlets and
chapbooks while rewarding us with stickers that read: MORE
HUGGING, LESS MUGGING!, his most famous slogan, or those little
cards with mirrors in them. And when you'd open the card, the
inside would read to the effect that you are to love the person
you see in that little mirror...
He was
born in Florida, and had come to Harlem from Syracuse, in which
city he had been a policeman until he refused to join in to
brutalize a young Black prisoner and actually intervened on the
young man's behalf. For this, he was hounded, harassed, jailed and
fired for insubordination. That's what they call it when you
refuse to do like the rest of us on that job.
Rich Bartee
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"Shani was the best of us all," her older brother, Ras
Baraka, an alumnus of Howard University, said in a loving,
deeply passionate, and moving speech he gave just before his
father, Amiri. "She had the most courage. And if you knew
our family, you knew she would fight first. She had more fights
than all of us put together. That's why we couldn't protect her,
because she was too busy protecting us."
Through tears, which began to stream down his cheeks, Ras asked:
"Then why is she dead? And her friend too? Why couldn't we
save her in all of our Blackness, prayers, our revolution talk,
or [healing] conferences? Why couldn't we keep her alive? How
can we shape a community and let our little sister die?"
Shani Baraka
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St.Clair Bourne,
Filmmaker, Dies at 64—St.Clair
Bourne (1943-2007), a documentary
filmmaker who recorded American black
culture, produced portraits of eminent
African-Americans and, in one stark
film, drew a parallel between the civil
rights movement and the “troubles” in
Northern Ireland, died on Saturday (15
December) in Manhattan. He was 64 and
lived in Brooklyn. I am proud to say
that I know this brother and am sadden
by news of his untimely transition. We
met each other, I believe in New York
City in the late sixties or early
seventies, when we were beginning our
“media” related lives. I’m not sure who
introduced us, but from the beginning I
knew I was in the presence of a really
“special” human being. Somewhat self
assured, St.Clair went on to create a
significant body of work what will
connect our people with their mighty
history and greatness for generations to
come. An
article in the New York Times
published Tuesday, December 18, 2007
providing greater detail includes a nice
video short by photographer Chester
Higgins, Jr. Now, St.Clair is beginning
his journey amongst many of the
ancestors whose lives he presented in
his films. May they and the Creator
treat him well.
vernard r gray |
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New
York opens African burial site—New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and poet Maya Angelou attended a
dedication ceremony for a monument at the site. The late 17th
Century burial site was gradually built over as New York expanded,
but was rediscovered during an excavation in 1991. Some 400
remains, many of children, were found during excavations. Half of
the remains found at the burial site were of children under the age
of 12. The entire project has cost more than $50 million (£24
million) to complete. The burial site in Manhattan was rediscovered
during excavations for a federal building. . . . Now a 25ft (7.6
metre) granite monument marks the site. It was designed by Rodney
Leon and is made out of stone from South Africa and from North
America to symbolise the two worlds coming together. The entry to
the monument is called The Door of Return - a nod to the name given
to the departure points from which slaves were shipped from Africa
to North America. They worked in the docks and as labourers building
the fortification known as Wall Street, which protected the city
against attack from Native Americans.
BBC |
The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward
Death, 1799-1883
Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the
Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America
African American Grief (Death, Dying and Bereavement)
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posted 11 November
2007
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