Al Young title

DANIEL SCHORR (1916-2010) — In Memoriam

July 23rd, 2010

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“It was Daniel Schorr’s lucidity that regularly made me crank up the volume when I heard his voice at NPR. Not only were his commentaries caringly researched and clearly thought-out, his news analyses often clashed with NPR’s smooth pro-Pentagon line. Schorr was one of the last broadcast journalists who consider facts and evidence in filing a report or voicing an opinion. He was and remains a treasure.” — Al Young

Daniel Schorr

KALW banner

‱ Journalism Legend Daniel Schorr Dies At 93
by Alan Greenblatt

Dear Listeners:

Here at KALW, we’ve just received the news that longtime NPR News analyst Daniel Schorr died peacefully this morning in the company of his family, at age 93.

Daniel Schorr was not only a well-known voice to public radio listeners, he was an important figure in the history of
American journalism.  In the words of NPR CEO Vivian Schiller:

“It’s impossible to overestimate Dan’s impact on journalism – from his early days working with Edward R. Murrow, to the founding of CNN, to the last 25 years as NPR’s news analyst, a familiar and beloved voice to millions of listeners. Every one of us who happened to see Dan coming in to work — walking a little more slowly with time but with a razor-sharp wit and warmth that never dimmed – learned a lesson in the dedication, determination, and integrity that it takes to be the best. He was.”

KALW will broadcast NPR’s memorial special on the life and career of Daniel Schorr this evening at 6pm.  And tomorrow morning on Weekend Edition, Scott Simon will give his remembrances of Schorr.

You can learn more about Schorr’s career and post your recollections of his work at the Daniel Schorr tribute page at NPR.org.

Matt Martin
General Manager, KALW

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‱ Daniel Schorr at Wikipedia

FaceTile1 Daniel Schorr’s Facebook page

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Ishmael Reed: BARACK OBAMA AND THE JIM CROW MEDIA

July 22nd, 2010

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Check the Facebook page for this event

Ish in Montréal April 2010

Barack-Ishmael Click to enlarge image

ISHMAEL REED to speak at the African American Center of the San Francisco Public Library – Sunday, July 25, 2010

Produced by Justin Desmangles

SF Main LibKoret Aud clickable images
San Francisco Public Library | Koret Auditorium

Main Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
MAP

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Photo courtesy Baraka Books | Montréal, Québec

BARACK OBAMA AND THE JIM CROW MEDIA

Ishmael Reed will read from and discuss his latest book, BARACK OBAMA AND THE JIM CROW MEDIA: The Return of the Nigger Breakers, on Sunday, July 25, 2010 at the African American Center of the San Francisco Public Library starting at 2 p.m.

Under slavery, “nigger breakers” had the job of destroying the spirits of tough black men by whatever means necessary. At age 15, Frederick Douglass was sold to Edward Covey who had the mandate to break him. Ishmael Reed makes the case that President Barack Obama is being assailed by 20th-Century descendants of Covey. In a series of essays written during the 2008 primaries and after Obama’s election, Reed describes how Obama’s opponents and some supposed allies use modern reincarnations of those same ugly demons to break him. What’s more, statements and alliances he made during the campaign and in office have made him easy prey. A book sale will follow the reading.

Sunday, July 25, 2010; 2-4 pm

Koret Auditorium, Main Library, Lower Level. 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA
MAP

spkr-icon Listen to Ishmael Reed’s conversation with Aimee Allison on KPFA’s The Morning Show

‱ Jill Nelson talks to Ishmael Reed in THE DEFENDERS ONLINE, organ of the NAACP’s legal defense fund

Ish in Montréal April 2010
Photo © Vicenzo D’Alto/MontrĂ©al Gazette

‱ “Taking on the Jim Crow Media” – MontrĂ©al Gazette

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baraka books logo

Baraka Books

Baraka Books is a Québec-based English-language book publisher specializing in creative and political non-fiction, history and historical fiction, and fiction. Our belief is that books are a haven of freedom and that they remain the foremost vector for change.
The word baraka is used in many languages and cultures and, depending on the language, can mean blessing, wisdom, luck, and more.

Inspired by this multilingual and cross-cultural word, Baraka Books is committed to providing English-speaking readers in Canada and elsewhere with ideas, points of view, and creative works that might otherwise be overlooked because of cultural or linguistic barriers.

Baraka Books
6977, rue Lacroix
Montréal, Québec H4E 2V4
Telephone: 514.808.8504
Contact us

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HAITI UPDATES

July 22nd, 2010

update

Wanda Sabir’s Appeal

wanda sabir Courtesy sfbayview.com

San Francisco Bay View arts editor and poet Wanda Sabir

Greetings, Everyone:

I went to Haiti over the Spring Break this year. I visited many grassroots organizations in Delmas, CitĂ© Soliel and Port-au-Prince. I would like to return in August for two weeks, before fall semester starts, to see the areas I missed in my six-day visit in April, like the Aristide Foundation. I would also like to take cameras for Jean Ristil, Jean Baptiste’s kids, and money for the other organizations like the orphanage supported by Equator Faith Church in Oakland. I’d like to take funds to So Anne to buy food for the meals she serves, and to Rea Dol, who is rebuilding her school and taking care of so many people.

I’d like to raise about $4000 (I have raised $300 as of July 22), which will cover my airfare ($820 ) and transport/boarding ($400-500) with money left over to give between $300-400 dollars to all these organizations. These are the people doing the work without government and NGO/non-profit assistance. When I was there last, I left everything: tent, sleeping bag, bug spray, medicines, school supplies with my host Rea Dol. I’d like to leave money, too, this time. I need another tent and a sleeping bag (smile). I don’t know who I’ll meet when I go to Jacmel, Les Cayes and, hopefully, Port-de-Paix — with an overnight stop in Cap Haitien to see friends at SOIL — and the island of La Gonaive, but I know I will return with another list. The cost also includes my escort’s travel and lodging expenses. So dig deep and give generously.

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Send the donations to me at
P.O. Box 30756
Oakland, CA 94604.
Checks can be made out to Wanda Sabir.

You can call me: 510.712.4015 — mobile.

I plan to have another report back in October during Maafa Awareness Month.

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July 22, 2010

IMF cancels $268 million Haiti debt

dollar roll

The Associated Press
Thursday, July 22, 2010; 5:24 AM

PARIS — The IMF says it has canceled Haiti’s $268 million debt and will lend the earthquake-devastated country another $60 million to help it with reconstruction plans.

The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday the decision is part of a plan for long-term reconstruction after the Jan. 12 magnitude-7 quake, which killed as many as 300,000 people.

To read this story in its entirety, go to the Washington Post original

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Suffering and struggle: Six months after the Haitian earthquake

By Patrick Martin
10 July 2010
World Socialist Web Site

haiti jan 2010 © 2010 WSWS.org

Port-au-Prince shortly after the January 2010 earthquake

Six months after an earthquake destroyed much of Haiti and killed more than 300,000 people, little has been done for the survivors. The promises by the United Nations and the major powers, particularly the United States, have produced only a trickle of aid. Of the billions promised at a series of conferences, amid much media publicity, only 2 percent has actually been delivered.

The scale of the devastation produced by the worst natural disaster of the twenty-first century still staggers the imagination. The death toll was at least 300,000, and by some estimates nearly 500,000, out of a total population of 8 million—the worst disaster, in terms of the proportion of the population, in modern history. The equivalent in a country the size of the United States would be a death toll of 10 to 20 million.

Virtually all the deaths were caused by the collapse of homes and other buildings in Haiti’s urban centers, particularly the overcrowded slums of Port-au-Prince, the capital city. Some 188,000 homes were damaged, according to one survey, of which 105,000 were completely destroyed, along with 1,300 schools, 50 hospitals, the presidential palace, the parliament building and the port of Port-au-Prince.

MORE ~ To read the story in its entirety, go to the WSWS.org original
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ISLAND BENEATH THE SEA, Isabel Allende’s new novel, breathes life into the history and spirituality of Saint Domingue (pre-revolutionary Haiti) and New OrlĂ©ans. From her extensive research into the back-story of colonialism, slavery and human bondage, master storyteller Allende moves in close to dramatize in heartbreaking detail the story of one slave woman’s fate. The revered author’s April 27, 2010 interview with KQED Forum’s Michael Krasny is one sound, moving eye-opener.

island beneath the sea

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APTOPIX Haiti Michelle Obama AP Photo

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden visit Haiti

  • “Haiti, Haiti, Tortured Lady” — a poem by Al Young
  • Three Poems for the Terremoto — Lorna Dee Cervantes
  • Poetry Friday: Edwidge Danticat Voices Haiti, Always
  • Haitianalysis.com ~ Writing Off Sovereignty: QuĂ©bec Media on Haiti Since the Earthquake
  • adjabel Courtesy Calabash Music

    ADJABEL

    Button-Play-32x32 ADJABEL dans l’metro reportage RFO Ă©tĂ© 2009

    spkr-icon Origines [Racines 3] ~ MONDOMIX 1998

  • Music of Haiti ~ National Geographic World Music Site
  • flagofhaiti haitiflag haiti

    Frequently updated since the earliest posting of January 12th, 2010

    Read the rest of this entry »

    OSCAR GRANT MURDER JUDGED ‘INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER’

    July 8th, 2010

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    Button-Play-32x32 View live courtroom reaction to the verdict

    bart shoot ish on bart
    Button-Play-32x32Ishmael Reed in 2009 on the fatal BART shooting

    Officer Found Guilty in Deadly BART Shooting

    KTLA News
    4:58 PM PDT, July 8, 2010
    © KTLA

    LOS ANGELES — A former transit officers has been convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of an unarmed black man on an Oakland train platform.Johannes Mehserle was found guilty on Thursday in the New Year’s Day 2009 killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant.

    Involuntary manslaughter carries a sentence of two to four years.

    To read the rest of this dispatch, go to the KTLA original

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    Thursday, July 2, 2010
    © 2010 Bay City News

    Closing Arguments Conclude in Oscar Grant Murder Trial, Jurors Might Begin Deliberations This Afternoon

    bartpolice_generic

    Prosecutor David Stein and defense attorney Michael Rains completed their closing arguments today in the trial of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle on a murder charge for the fatal shooting of unarmed passenger Oscar Grant III.

    A Los Angeles County Superior Court spokeswoman said Judge Robert Perry began giving jurors legal instructions before their lunch break and will continue giving instructions when they come back to court.The spokeswoman said deliberations in the closely-watched trial could begin later today, depending on how long it takes Perry to complete presenting the instructions. Jurors are scheduled to leave at 4 p.m. today and come back to court at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

    >>> Read the whole story at SFAppeal.com >>>

    oscar grant-thumb-150x225 Photo via Flickr | Thomas Hawk

    The Shooting Death of Oscar Grant: What You Need to Know

    By Tom Head | About.com Guide

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    Photo courtesy of KTVU

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    Oscar Grant III and daughter

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    220px-Mehserle-mugshot Police mugshot

    Johannes Mehserle, the ex-BART police officer who shot and killed Oscar Grant III on New Year’s Day 2009

    Button-Play-32x32 010609-bart-shooting_448x336 KNTV Videos

    Lori Preuitt: The Wait Is Over, Mehserle Trial Begins This Week

    © 2010 MSNBC.com
    June 7, 2010

    Go to the original

    The highly anticipated and long awaited trial of a former BART police officer accused of killing an unarmed passenger on New Year’s Eve night a year and a half ago is scheduled to begin late this week in Los Angeles.

    Last week, hundreds of potential jurors reported to court for hours and hours of screening to see if they would make the cut and sit on the jury.

    The timing appears to be on track for opening statements to begin this Thursday.

    >>> MORE >>>


    Julianne Hing: Oscar Grant Murder Trial Kicks Off in L.A.

    © 2010 Racewire ~ The Colorlines Blog
    June 1, 2010
    Go to the original

    It’s been exactly a year and a half since Oscar Grant was shot in the back while he lay face down on a train platform by former BART cop Johannes Mehserle. Today, Mehserle faces his last pre-trial hearing before his trial gets underway with jury selection this week.Mehserle’s been charged with second-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty. Michael Rains, Mehserle’s attorney, is expected to make the claim that Mehserle mistakenly pulled out his gun when he meant to reach for his Taser when he shot Grant on New Year’s Day 2009.

    >>> MORE >>>

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    AlYoung.org coverage of the Oscar Grant III murder

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    BP BUYS GOOGLE, YAHOO SEARCH WORDS TO KEEP PEOPLE AWAY FROM REAL NEWS ON GULF OIL SPILL DISASTER

    June 6th, 2010

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    hayward(1)
    Photo: Courtesy Political Spin Examiner.com

    British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward

    BP buys Google, Yahoo search words to keep people away from real news on Gulf oil spill disaster

    In their most tenacious effort to control the ‘spin’ on the worst oil spill disaster in the history, BP has purchased top internet search engine words so they can re-direct people away from real news on the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

    >>> Read Maryann Tobin’s Examiner.com article in its entirety >>>

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    Conyus: THE GREAT SANTA BARBARA OIL DISASTER

    May 26th, 2010
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  • To skip the run-up and go straight to the poem, scroll arrow-down-seagreen_benj_01.svg.thumb
  • The oil spill and the food web

    By Dan Brennan
    30 June 2010
    © World Socialist Web Site

    The ecological destruction of the oil disaster in the Gulf is perhaps most aptly embodied in the pictures of brown pelicans made lifeless by a thick coating of toxic sludge. However, the true toll may spread far beyond these dreadful images. Scientists warn that the gravest threat, including possible ecosystem collapse, is posed by the poisoning of organisms at the base of the food chain.
    Read the rest

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    Lessons learned from the Santa Barbara Oil Spill of January 1969

    spkr2 Listen

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    Ripples of the Santa Barbara Oil Spill

    L.A. Times | September 7, 2008

    oil-spill-latimes-7sept2008 © L.A. Times

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    © 1969 Associated Press

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    The Great Santa Barbara Oil Disaster, Or: A Diary

    a poem by Conyus

    Day one

    We ride down the coast hwy

    through the heavy rain

    to a beach that sits in a rocky cove

    hidden from the eye.

    I sit in the rear of the bus

    where the shadows pass

    over cold metal walls

    & window screens,

    looking through dirty glass

    at the somber scenery.

    A young Mexican girl stands in the muddy debris

    of her home, rummaging through the mud.

    The river flooded suddenly two days ago

    after a torrential rain & shifted the terrain.

    Overhead the clouds mount menacingly

    in small squalls, prostituting themselves again

    against the sky, & we turn left off the freeway

    into the spent community of Carpinteria

    like a funeral procession on a grey Saturday,

    heading to the bone yard in tandem.

    Beyond the border of thin sidewalks,

    sit bleached out houses on paper stilts

    with tattered venetian blinds & curtains

    barely moving on the stiff ocean breeze.

    We walk beneath the bleeding sky

    single file to the oily beach in perfect silence;

    everything around us is a chemical foundry.

    Day two

    The 1st. night

    we arrived,

    the college girls

    in the dormitory

    across from us

    paraded before

    their window in

    bras & panties,

    being friendly.

    The people

    came to watch us work,

    in hip boots & work gloves,

    cleaning oil & shoveling straw.

    Some said, “my! don’t they look almost human?”

    Others said, “a convict is a crime. don’t forget that!”

    Sometimes the children’s ball

    bounded in our area,

    & the Spanish inmates

    soccer kicked it back lightly.

    We all laughed

    & smiled a lot

    the first day.

    The sunset & the night

    came on slowly.

    From out of the night

    came gargoyles

    with church fathers

    & concerned parents

    to tell the children

    not to play

    within the border of red flags

    & the fence of thick cane around us.

    Because,

    the sky would fall

    & hell would follow,

    if they instilled

    licentious ambitions

    in our minds.

    & so

    we didn’t laugh

    anymore, or smile

    at all the second day.

    From that day forward,

    we just worked,

    hard & steady,

    with our heads

    low & our eyes

    to the ground,

    so the sky

    wouldn’t fall,

    & the people

    wouldn’t know,

    & the world

    wouldn’t burn.

    Day three

    All day we work behind the sea breaker

    in the black sand, shoveling straw

    & thick lumps of oil

    into the mouth of the skip loader,

    while the cat skinner rides high

    in the driver’s seat with a hole for his eye.

    On the beach,

    in the window

    of the Santa Barbara Yacht Club,

    Black servants watch us

    swing picks & shovels

    in the wet sand

    like machetes

    clearing a cane field

    on their small island

    in the Caribbean.

    On a concrete wall

    below this Diaspora

    i sit & swing my legs over the ice plants

    & puddles of oil where sand crabs,

    & small fish lie dead

    & stinking in the sun.

    Beneath my work jacket

    i touch the crushed sandwich

    of white bread & yellow cheese

    & think of the young Chinese girl

    in the pink hairnet with braces.

    After lunch we return with rakes & hip booths,

    wading through the constant tide

    of thick oil & grey foam,

    to gather balls of sticky oil

    stuck between rocks,

    & place them in yellow plastic bags.

    Along the beach

    the tide falls back out to sea,

    taking with it the trail of our feet

    that follows us like a shadow.

    I turn my back to the Santa Barbara Sound

    & pull the weather jacket tight

    to shield against the cold & damp air.

    Over my shoulder,

    past the far islands near the horizon,

    someone is singing a song,

    that i can barely hear,

    in a voice

    that i cannot recognize.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    HANK JONES: July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010 ~ In Memoriam

    May 17th, 2010
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    Thad Jones | Elvin Jones | Hank Jones

    © Ron Hudson Photography

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    Button-Play-32x32
    Click to watch Hank Jones’ music, conversation, and others’ stories about the magnificent pianist bring you back to life.

    HankJones3 Courtesy photo

    Henry ‘Hank’ Jones
    July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010

    Slick Licks and Lazy Clichés Got No Free Ride
    When He Soloed

    Still growing up in Detroit, still in my teens, it was my good fortune to have met and rubbed shoulders with each of “the Jones Boys” — pianist Hank, trumpeter Thad, and little brother Elvin, a fierce drummer. Technically, they were from Pontiac, close enough to Big D for them to qualify as Detroiters. At 15 I became a regular contributor of articles and poems to Idioms, the publication of the Motor City’s New Music Society. We held meetings and edited the tabloid-sized journal at the busy bohemian home of Harold and Jodi Neal. During the day Harold climbed telephone poles for Michigan Bell, but at night and on weekends he was a serious, imaginative painter. It wasn’t unusual for musicians and other artists to attend the Sunday afternoon-into-evening meetings the Neals hosted at 824 Atkinson Street, where they were also raising their daughter Chinyere (a.k.a. Jan) and her little brother Harold, Jr. (a.k.a. Sule).

    What a heady time. Even then, a non-stop reader, listener and observer of life, I seemed to understand fully how valuable this period in my development would become. Monday nights I made it to World Stage in closeby Highland Park, a theater-in-the round venue, where local and touring musicians would gather and jam on the only night that most clubs sat dark. Barry Harris, Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan, Dorothy Ashby, Pepper Adams, Yusef Lateef, Donald Byrd, Doug Watkins, Earl Williams, Kirk Lightsey, Louis Hayes, Curtis Fuller, Roy Haynes, Frank Wess, Paul Chambers, Roy Brooks, Harold and Bernard McKinney, Charles McPherson, Lonnie Hillyer, Alice McLeod (the future Mrs. Coltrane), Terry Gibbs, Doug Watkins, Joe Henderson, and the Jones Boys — these are some of the musicians who showed up at World Stage or in the Neals’ diningroom, where we argued, planned and laid out Idioms.

    Like saxophonist Yusef Lateef, whom I practically worshiped as a model artist, Hank Jones held a high place at my jazz altar. Born the same year as my father and the eldest of the family’s musical threesome (in all there were 10 Jones children), he had long ago emigrated from Michigan to New York, where he made a shining name for himself. But of course he would gig from time to time in the old adopted hometown. It was the strong yet gentle way did everything that stuck with me. My earliest concept of what it meant to be sophisticated flowed into me from his speaking and playing presence. His technical mastery of the keyboard, his savvy, sassy lyricism , his love and respect for the bebop repertoire as well as straight standards and popular song wasn’t wasted on me, either. Hank Jones knew what to play, what to skip, and to skip and what to leave unstated unstated. Slick licks and lazy clichĂ©s got no free ride when he soloed. Taste and class were always his signature. For me, way back then, in another troubled century, Hank Jones’ playing personified the virtues of eloquence and poise in the presence of passion. The adjective we favored was hip.

    – Al Young

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    groovin high hank jones cvr

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    Link courtesy of Muse Records’ producer Fred Seibert and ‘Kathleen Loves Music’ at Frederator Blogs: Cartoon Central of the Internet, a genuinely original site

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    Peter Keepnews: Hank Jones, Versatile Jazz Pianist, Is Dead at 91 | The New York Times, May 17, 2010

    Culture Obituaries: Hank Jones | Telegraph.co.uk, 17 May 2010

    atc75x75 NPR’s All Things Considered: Legendary Pianist Hank Jones Dies at 91 | May 17, 2010

    spkr-icon Listen

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    hankjonesweb banner

    The Official Website of Hank Jones

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    LENA HORNE | June 30, 1917-May 9, 2010 | In Memoriam

    May 10th, 2010
    38px-Speaker_Icon.svg Listen

    Lena: A Sound Portrait of a Multifaceted Lady — her impassioned interview with Gene Dealessi at Pacifica Radio in 1966 — perfectly demonstrates the scope and conviction of this extraordinary artist and global citizen.


    lena_horne_02
    Courtesy photo
    CabCalloway LenaHorne Courtesy photo

    Cab Calloway and Lena Horne, circa 1943, in a 20th Century-Fox publicity still for the musical Stormy Weather.


    lena tuskegee airmen

    Courtesy of the Noel Parrish Collection/Library of Congress

    Lena Horne with the Tuskegee Airmen and Gen. Noel F. Parrish, their white commander, 1944

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    “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”
    — Lena Horne

    lena3

    Lena Horne 1941 Photo: Carl Van Vechten

    Lena Horne in 1941


    Lena AP Photo 1995
    © Associated Press

    Lena Horne in 1995


    A POEM FOR LENA HORNE

    And when it came down to Negro nights,
    those Colored Only slices in time,
    you took the cake, Lena, & ran
    & danced with it, O! You were so gorgeous
    they didn’t know what to do with you,
    those not so gentle men at MGM & elsewhere.
    Where else but in the USA’s of the world
    would it go on record that you & Ava
    Gardner
    used to knock back a few
    in the palmy hours, laughing over how
    the studio would darken her up from head
    to toe to lip-synch & mouth the sound
    of your voice for Showboat. Hurray
    for Hollywood! The jewel blue you
    will never be seen, only heard in the role
    of Miss Julie, the octoroon swooning
    under the June-jazzed Dixiemental moon.

    You can laugh about it now & soften the sting.
    You can smile & even do a step or two & sing
    & I suppose you haven’t done bad, given
    your class & origins & given the almighty odds
    & the gods of showbiz heaven who own, control
    & chart the color of beauty & its stars.
    Tell me again about the time your numbers
    banker daddy told Samuel Goldwyn he’d be happy
    to pay for your maids & upkeep since
    you didn’t have sense enough to understand
    the movies didn’t have much use for people
    of your hue. They stashed you in some doozies
    too—Panama Hattie, As Thousands Cheer,
    I Dood It, Swing Fever, Two Girls & a Sailor,
    but the trick was to tailor you for the South.
    How did they do it? Well, wasn’t much to it.
    They’d log you in, then chop you out (like
    lumber) for the slumbering southern houses.

    I knew your son Ted, a fledgling writer, dead
    to you these many years. You outlived him,
    your husband and your dad who all moved out
    in the very same year. I can almost hear—
    sometimes when you sing—the strong & lasting
    side of you that once told Billie Holiday
    she had to learn to be tough, that these hucksters
    didn’t mean no man no good, let alone womanhood.

    You’re still lovely, Lena. Moms Mabley was wrong.
    The rubberbands she said were holding your face up
    are never going to snap. You are the song.

    – Al Young

    from SOMETHING ABOUT THE BLUES: An Unlikely Collection of Poetry

    © 1992 and  2007 by Al Young

    ___________________________________________________________

    Dennis McLellan: Lena Horne dies at 92; singer and civil rights activist who broke barriers | L.A. Times ~ May 10, 2010

    Aljean Harmetz: Lena Horne, Singer and Actress, Dies at 92 | New York Times ~ May 9, 2010

    Lena Horne ~ R.I.P. | A Picture Tribute | Black Voices.com

    Amy Goodman: Singing Lena Horne’s Praises | truthdig ~ May 11, 2010

    Singer and Civil Rights Activist Lena Horne Remembered: Amy Goodman interviews Horne biographer James Gavin | Democracy Now, May 11, 2010

    Joseph McNair: Stormy Weather (Lena Horne. 1917-2010) | Asili: The Journal of Multicultural Heartspeak ~ June-September 2010


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    20th Century Fox Stormy Weather ATT00001

    Button-Play-32x32 stormyweather thumbnail
    Lena Horne sings “Stormy Weather”


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    Lena lays down the ABC’s with the Muppets at Sesame Street


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    Lena Horne biographer James Gavin on News Hour in  conversation with Jeffrey Brown


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    LenaHornelabel RCA B&W LP cvr

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    lenahorne60 Courtesy photo

    Lena Horne the Lady, the Grand Diva | Jazz Roots Rhythms (Celebrating Jazz & Global Music)

    Lena Horne biography in timeline format at LenaHorne.com

    Lena & Sammy

    38px-Speaker_Icon.svg Listen

    Lena Horne & Sammy Davis, Jr sing “I Wish I’d Met You”
    — from the Lena Horne album, The Men in My Life

    __________________________________________________________


    HOLD THE LIGHT for HAITI, CHILE and CHINA

    April 29th, 2010

    Realistic_candle

    ____________________________________________

    Tenga la luz para Haiti, Chile y China
    Maintenez la lumiĂšre pour HaĂŻti, le Chili et la Chine

    A BENEFIT FOR
    DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS
    MÉDECINS SANS FRONTIÈRES

    Friday, 30th of April
    6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
    Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California
    (ICNCC.org)

    1433 Madison Street
    Oakland, CA 94605

    Donation: $5 to $10

    MapQuest

    Wanda_Sabir

    Host | Wanda Sabir

    For further information contact Kim McMillon ~ 510. 681.5652

    Hold_the_Light_Fundraiser_for_Haiti_and_Chile

    haiti+chile_01

    Sponsors
    Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California
    PEN Oakland
    Before Columbus Foundation
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    GOOGLE PUBLISHES FIGURES ON GOVERNMENT REQUESTS FOR DATA

    April 26th, 2010

    FAQ

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    google

    Google publishes figures on government requests for data

    By Mick Ingram
    26 April 2010
    © World Socialist Web Site

    Google has launched a new function called the Government Requests tool [http://www.google.com/governmentrequests] that allows users to see how many requests have been made by governments for the data Google routinely collects on users.

    The tool allows users to view either data requests or removal requests. The removal requests do not include the removal of child pornography or copyrighted material from YouTube as the company does this routinely. The data requests view does not give details beyond the raw number of requests received and gives no indication as to whether Google complied with the requests.

    The United States is recorded having made 3,580 requests for data between July 1 and December 31, 2009, second only to Brazil with 3,663. Third in the list is United States’ main ally in the “war on terror,” the UK, with 1,166.

    In an official company blog announcing the new service on Tuesday, April 20, Google cites Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which reads, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” The company says the 1948 Article “applies aptly to today’s Internet.” Google says it believes “greater transparency will lead to less censorship.”

    >>> To read this breaking story in its entirety, go to the WSWS.org original >>>

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