Commentary by Black Kos Editor Deoliver47
Music on my Mind
Martha and the Vandellas
With temperatures hitting the 100 degree mark here in New York and more heat on the way, I tried to figure out a way to cool off, so I headed for my shady back porch, kicked my shoes off, downed copious glasses of iced tea and retreated into a world of music. Lyrics from Martha and the Vandellas "Heat Wave", echoing in my head. Was also trying to push real world problems away... my musician husband just landed in Mexico day-before-yesterday, for a week long gig – in the midst of gubernatorial elections, and related violence in Mazatlán, Sinaloa State, and I am worried.
So I cure myself with melody and rhythm, and sit here remembering summers past. A time when certain pieces of music were almost ubiquitous – blasting from boom boxes, barber shops, gypsy cabs and tenement windows. Some became anthems of a sort, or representative of an entire generation. Others were probably more local in effect.
I have spent my life surrounded by music – jazz, blues, folk, rock, do-wop, r&b, salsa, disco, funk, calypso, reggae, samba....spanning genres and cultures. My musings today have no rhyme or rhythm – this is not a collection of political songs, nor a "my greatest hits" list but simply a trip down memory lane.
The first 45 record I ever bought was by a "girl group", The Chantels,led by Arlene Smith in 1958. Though do-wop was dominated by young males harmonizing on street corners I was drawn to the "girl" singers (this is pre-feminism) and soon had a collection of The Shirelles, The Chiffons, and The Ronettes. But Arlene Smith would remain my favorite.
As the 50’s ended and the 60’s rolled in by that time I was in High School and Motown began to dominate the music scene. I danced to it all, and bought stacks of 45’s making trips to Philly to learn all the newest dances – because even though Motown was in Detroit, the dances were generated out of Philadelphia. I continued to be fascinated by female singers and worked briefly for r&b songtress, Maxine Brown,getting to hang out backstage at the Apollo and other black venues where she had gigs.
That led later to the opportunity to join my own "girl group", "The Concepts" managed by DJ Frankie Crocker, and soon to become head of Motown, Suzanne DePasse. Our lead singer was the step daughter of Tony Williams of The Platters, and we got a few gigs but the effort was abandoned when she was murdered.
Though discussions of Motown divas now seem to only reference The Supremes, for me it would always be Martha and the Vandellas who had me Dancin’ in the Street in 1964.
As the 60’s rolled on another female voice rose to pre-eminence nationally and she sent me back to the exploration of gospel. In 1967 she covered Otis Redding's Respect. She became known as "the Queen of Soul".
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Growing up in New York City meant exposure to a cross section of cultures and so I had a foot in multiple communites – but the two that predominated were African-American and Puerto Rican.
I was reading my favorite music blog, Breath of Life one day and they were covering a particular genre from New York – the development of "Latin Boogalu", highlighting Joe Bataan.
Bataan was Afro-Filipino, who grew up in the projects where my cousin Jean lived, and was a member of the local street gang "The Dragons" who in many ways resembled the "Sharks" of West Side Story fame.
Joe Bataan "What Good is a Castle"
After reading the discussion I made this comment:
Latin Boogalu was the product of young Puerto Ricans and African-Americans – many of whom lived in East Harlem (El Barrio aka Spanish Harlem), where the imaginary dividing line to "black" Harlem was 5th Avenue. The projects and tenements where many of us lived were a mixture of young Blacks and Puerto Ricans. Bataan, who had an African-American mother and Filipino father, used to sit on a bench in front of the Carver projects, jamming late into the night till parents would open the window and shout for him to go to bed – in English and Spanish.
We all went to – not the Palm Gardens – an error in one of the previous posts (must mean the Colgate Gardens) and to other clubs like the Latin Gallery, Tropicoro and the Corso, to discos like the Cheetah, and the first black owned dance clubs for young folks like Lucifer’s, Othello’s and Liquid Smoke.
There were white folks hanging out too – first time I heard Bobby Caldwell he was an unknown singing in an after-hours joint in the Barrio.
We were the product of a mix of cultures. Remember that Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers and his brother Louie and the Teenchords from the earlier do-wop period were a mixed black and PR group. We danced together, partied together, married each other, and shared music’s and rhythms.
I beg to differ with the piece you cited.
"Boogalu resonated particularly with African-American audiences. Performers such as Jimmy Sabater and Joe Cuba clearly state that Boogalu was inspired by the interaction between African-American dancers and Latin musicians in New York at nightclubs such as Palm Gardens Ballroom. They recount stories of how the structure and tone of Boogalu songs such as "Bang, Bang" were developed in an effort to appeal to African-American dancers who were not responding to their traditional mambos and cha cha chas."
I have always disagreed with Juan Flores analysis:
"As neighbors and coworkers, African Americans and Puerto Ricans in New York had been partying together for many years. For decades they had been frequenting the same clubs, with Black and Latin bands often sharing the billing ... African American audiences generally appreciated and enjoyed Latin music styles, yet those who fully understood the intricacies of Afro-Cuban rhythms and came to master the challenging dance movements remained the exception rather than the rule... Popular Latin bands found themselves creating a musical common ground by introducing the trappings of Black American culture into their performances and thus getting the Black audiences involved and onto the dance floor. "Bang Bang" by the Joe Cuba sextet and Latin boogaloo music in general was intended to constitute this meeting place between Puerto Ricans and Blacks and by extension, between Latin music and the music culture of the United States." (Flores 2000)
They didn’t introduce "trappings" of Black American culture, there was a new culture being created. Nuyorrican culture was black and ‘rican – and Latin Boogalu was a product of culture contact – not a marketing appeal. The same young musicians who were making the scene were a part of the scene.
Latin Boogalu was not a reaction to young blacks’ inability to deal with dancing salsa. Some of the best dancers in the salsa clubs were African-American, and one of the best black disco dancers was a 6 foot tall Puerto Rican named Moses. Though America thinks the hustle was a dance style straight out of Saturday Night fever with John Revolta er, Travolta, no way in hell he and his partner would have won a dance contest in NY. The Latin Hustle was invented in a small club on 116th street in the Barrio called The Nest, and diffused out from there.
Latin Boogalu was a natural outgrowth of us all listening to the same black radio stations, dancing the bop, the slop, the monkey, as well as dancing mambos, cha-chas, boleros and salsa.
The first group in New York to hire Eddie Palmieri for a big gig (he was relatively unknown - his brother Charlie was the star) was a black social club from Hollis, Queens called the Kingsmen, which held Latin dances at the St. Albans Plaza. He was a big success and was re-booked for the next gig and the rest is history.
We’d all go downtown on Monday’s and dance to Latin bands at the Village Gate (better known for jazz) and the place was packed. One of the in-spots was a club called the Cellar, over on the west side, managed by Betty Mabry who would become Betty Davis, funk queen and wife for a brief time of Miles Davis, whose influence on his musical transformation is still not acknowledged by his biographers. The sounds of Latin Boogalu would rock the house, with segues from R&B into pure salsa.
Bataan was not the only name we knew – though his "Ordinary Guy" was a classic, and "What Good is a Castle" was an anthem for those who lived in the hood. "What good is a castle way high on a hill, when your chained down and your crippled and you’re six stories high..." had deep meaning for those trapped in the tenements of East Harlem and the way out at the time for many was sniffing a bag of dope.
That same neighborhood produced Felipe Luciano, who was a founding member of The Last Poets (precursors of rap along with Gil Scott) and later Chairman of the Young Lords Party – the group whose ideology introduced the concept of Afro-Boriqua revolutionary nationalism, which I was a part of. We held our biggest fund-raiser at the Apollo theatre – bringing together both sides of Harlem.
I realize I’m getting long winded here (still upset by Flores comments). Want to mention a few other favorites from that period - Ralfi Pagan and also the LeBron Brothers, and Ricardo "Ricky" Ray.
When the Young Lords Party did a benefit at the Apollo Theater, the first musical event bringing black and Puerto Rican artists and activists together on that historic stage, the line-up included one non afro or latino group - The Young Rascals. They had contacted us about wanting to be part of the event.
Their "Groovin" still reminds me of summer.
By 1970 The Black Panther Party, the Young Lords and other militant groups preached revolution in the streets and young people picked up those themes, epitomized by the classic Gil Scott-Heron song-poem:
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
By 1971 the song that probably had the greatest impact in the black community was "What's Going On", by Marvin Gaye, bringing together civil rights and anti-war themes along with those of the urban community.
But lesser known, except in artist’s circles – was the epic poetry album by Gylan Kain, founder of the original Last Poets.
1971 The Blue Guerilla
"Look Out for the Blue Guerrilla" by Kain
That year was also one I remember well for a tune we played over and over in the Black Panther Party office:
"Slippin Into Darkness" by War
By 1973, a year marked by national scandals like Watergate, the airwaves in the black community were dominated by Stevie Wonder.
Living for the City
When I moved from NY to DC in the mid seventies the music scene was dominated by Howard University radio station WHUR – and though I built jazz station WPFW, and jazz was my primary musical interest, when it was time for romance, everyone listened to DJ Melvin Lindsey’s The Quiet Storm, named for and themed with Smokey’s classic:
1975 A Quiet Storm
Smokey Robinson
By the early 80’s I had left Washington DC and was back in NY. I had married a black film maker who was fascinated with NY street culture, and we watched break dancing crews in the Bronx (dubbing it "City Capoeira"), rode subway cars "tagged" with graffiti which was becoming elevated to an art form in some ‘hoods, and listened to mix masters with dueling turntables, scratching vinyl and doing lengthy spoken word epics with a linguistic skill inherited from Gil Scott and the Last Poets, substituting a beat box for conga drums to provide the rhythm.
As I would stand dangerously close to the edge of elevated train platforms, in decimated inner city neighborhoods the sound of Grand Master Flash would accompany the roar of a train swooshing into the station. A new musical genre had been born.
1982
The Message
But young rappers and hip-hop dancers did not completely dominate the music scene and old icons of earlier days got a fresh new overhaul and one woman's music and sassy strut achieved crossover success among the youth and those of us old enough to remember her duets with her husband Ike.
In 1984 Diva Tina Turner scored a major success with "What's Love Got to Do with It"
I could continue on into the 90’s and beyond but will stop here.
My musings on musical memory are personal...we each have life histories marked by melody and so I invite you to bring music to the porch today, and talk about it in the context of your journey.
Spin it!
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*** SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS ***
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Black Kos editors Deoliver47 and dopper0189 will be participating in the panel, Promoting People of Color in the Progressive Blogosphere at Netroots Nation 2010. Along with Black Kos family member shanikka. Rounding out the group will be TexMex and navajo of the Native American Netroots. We will be on at 4:30 PM on Friday July 23rd. We hope to meet everyone who is going there.
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HAITIAN FUNDRAISER
Monday 7-12-2010 will mark the 6 month anniversary of the Haitian earthquake disaster. With the current disaster in the gulf of Mexico many people have place Haiti into the back of their minds. But we must not forget the situation there! Black Kos family member allie123 will once again be spearheading a fundraiser. Last time Daily Kos did a fundraiser for Haiti we raised $3200 (including $700 in matching funds). This time we are limiting the NGO's to the ones that we have learned are doing good work on the ground in Haiti. allie123 has a numbered Vote poster of Obama that she will auction off. We are asking everyone who can contribute, to please do so. Those who are unable to please participate and rec the diary when in comes out on 7-12.
Thank You,
Black Kos editors
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Jackie Selebi, a former Interpol president, was charged with taking payments and luxury goods from Glenn Agliotti, a convicted drug dealer. LA Times: South Africa: Ex-national police chief convicted of corruption
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South Africa's former national police chief Jackie Selebi was convicted Friday of corruption in a case that exposed the politicization and organized-crime ties of the highest-ranking security official in the crime-ridden nation.
Selebi, who has close links to the ruling African National Congress and is an ally of former President Thabo Mbeki, was charged with taking payments from Glenn Agliotti, a convicted drug dealer with ties to organized crime.
Agliotti bought Selebi expensive clothes and luxury items, and paid him at least $130,000 in cash and gifts over the years, the court found.
Agliotti, who is due to go on trial for murder in the 2005 death of an ANC financier, was the main state witness against Selebi, although the judge found him unreliable. Agliotti spoke to Selebi by phone on the night that the financier and mining magnate, Brett Kebble, was shot to death in his car.
Agliotti was pleaded not guilty, claiming Kebble's death was an assisted suicide.
Selebi, who once served as president of Interpol, faces up to 15 years behind bars and is due to be sentenced July 14.
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The capture of a notorious drug lord creates an opportunity to attack the link between crime and politics and narrow the alienation between the island nation's middle classes and its desperately poor urban residents. The Root: New Hope for Jamaica.
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Many in Jamaica are rejoicing at the capture of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, the drug lord who has been extradited to the United States on charges of drug trafficking and gun running. Coke is reputed to be the head of the murderous Shower Posse, which was responsible for more than 1,000 killings in the United States during the 1980s and still holds sway in Kingston.
Despite the jubilation in some quarters, many naysayers--including some in the international press--argue that the loss of more than 70 lives in the hunt for Dudus in Kingston last month was in vain. They say that his capture and the surrender of dozens of other reputed drug "dons" in Kingston will merely lead to a new round of internecine murder to fill the power vacuum. But such a deterministic attitude seems unwise in assessing the situation in Kingston. There are reasons to believe that the events surrounding Coke's capture create a significant opportunity for change on the island.
The violence in Jamaica is the result of patronage politics run amok and magnified to horrifying proportions by the corrupting power of drug money. The drug dons have become more powerful in the handful of so-called garrison constituencies they control than the prime minister himself. The global drug trade has led to the creation of Jamaican posses in key U.S. markets, facilitating the flow of guns and money back to Kingston. Politicians who once controlled and provisioned the dons now depend on them for campaign funds, as well as political violence.
Coke's capture was preceded by an audacious challenge to the state, as residents of his West Kingston stronghold barricaded the road against security forces and demonstrated in the streets in his defense. There is evidence that gunmen from other volatile areas on the island were summoned to the area. A pitched battle with the security forces was launched, including attacks on an anti-terrorist police garrison and 14 police stations, one of which was burned to the ground. The Jamaican security forces prevailed, demonstrating a reassuring ability to crush the deeply troubling violence, which fell just short of an insurgency in the capital city.
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New mining in Zimbabwe has quickly yielded millions of carats of diamonds and could help catapult the nation into the ranks of the world’s top diamond producers, but Mugabe decent from hero to arch-villian continues. New York Times: Diamond Find Could Aid Zimbabwe, and Mugabe
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But the new wealth has provoked fears that the riches will be used to subvert attempts to bring democracy to a country that has long suffered under authoritarian rule, and also to finance conflicts.
"This is a world-class deposit, no doubt about it," said the expert, Mark Van Bockstael. He described the concentrations of diamonds in the Marange fields in eastern Zimbabwe as among the highest in the world: "The deposit is a freak of nature."
Other experts agree it is an important find, while awaiting more data to gauge its full magnitude. But the steady accumulation of stones has already emboldened President Robert Mugabe, 86, to consolidate control over the Marange fields to prolong his 30-year grip on power, members of his inner circle said.
Though Mr. Mugabe now officially governs under a tenuous power-sharing agreement with his longstanding rivals, the diamond fields are overseen by a ministry run by his party, ZANU-PF, and guarded by an army that reports to him and gives him and his allies lopsided control over a desperately needed economic boon.
"This is ZANU-PF’s salvation," said one of Mr. Mugabe’s closest confidants, on the condition of anonymity because his conversations with the president were supposed to be confidential. Diamonds are being sold on the black market for partisan and personal gain, he said, with some party leaders gaining and others being cut out: "The looting has intensified over the past six months."
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Demand for game meat takes toll on Central African forests. MSN: In Congo forest, bushmeat trade threatens Pygmies.
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They emerge from the stillness of the rainforest like a lost tribe of prehistoric warriors forgotten by time — a barefoot band of Mbuti Pygmies wielding iron-tipped spears.
The men come first, cloaked head to toe in coiled hunting nets shaved from the liana vine. Then the women, lugging hand-woven baskets filled with the same bloodstained antelope their ancestors survived on for thousands of years.
And waiting anxiously in the middle of their smoke-filled hunting camp: a horde of village traders who've come to buy as much bushmeat as the Mbuti can bring.
Time has long stood still in the innermost reaches of northeast Congo's Ituri Forest — a remote and crepuscular world without electricity or cell phones that's so isolated, the Pygmies living here have never heard of Barack Obama or the Internet or the war in Afghanistan. But the future is coming, on a tidal wave of demand for game meat that's pushing an army of tall Bantu traders ever deeper into Africa's primordial vine-slung jungles.
It's a demand so voracious, experts warn it could drive some of Africa's last hunter-gatherers to eradicate the very wildlife that sustains them, and with it, their own forest-dwelling existence.
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New York Times: The Rhapsody of Port-au-Prince’s Streets.
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The gray Toyota Corolla edged closer to the center of the intersection, trying to sneak past the man with a limp, directing traffic in Jordanian Army fatigues, with a whistle and purple plastic wand.
But Du Du would have none of it. He pointed his baton behind him, then spun around to confront the violator. A sharp whistle. An angry stare. The threat of gridlock faded.
"I’m a professional," Du Du said. "If I want to make traffic go or stop, I do it."
That may not sound like much, but in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake, driving is a 10th ring of hell. Picture roads overrun with tents, rubble, pedestrians and peddlers; tap-tap taxis stopping suddenly, dump trucks coughing black exhaust, few stoplights, 99-degree heat, no air-conditioning, dust, beggars and angry drivers blaring horns.
Now imagine a symphony orchestra. Because that is exactly how Du Du (whose full name is Levy Azor) treats what the rest of us experience as chaos. No official entity has hired him. He is simply a freelancer with a passion for order. And at a time when Haiti’s government attracts mostly anger for its absence, Du Du — who works only for tips and refuses to join the police or military — has quickly become a symbol of hope; a whistle-blowing reminder of the creativity that blossoms in a stateless void.
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Hope he signs this into law. New York Times: Paterson Urged to Veto Limit on Stop-and-Frisk List
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To police officials, a computer database full of the names and addresses of people questioned by officers in millions of street stops in New York City is a core tool in their fight to keep reducing crime.
The officials argue that the files — which include information about people never actually arrested or charged — have fed detectives essential clues for making arrests, particularly in some high-profile bias and hate crimes.
But to an increasing array of lawmakers, the database represents an unconstitutional inventory of mostly young blacks and Hispanics, many of whom, although they are determined to have done nothing wrong, have their names and addresses in the hands of a powerful law enforcement agency. There have been roughly three million street stops in New York since 2004, and by one count, 9 in 10 of the people stopped by the police were not accused of any crime or violation.
Now the debate has shifted to whether Gov. David A. Paterson should sign or veto a legislative remedy.
The State Senate and the Assembly passed a bill that would prohibit the police from saving the personal data of people who are stopped but not arrested or fined.
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The Chronic Goes Mainstream. Color Lines: California NAACP Backs Legalization of Marijuana.
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In what drug policy reform advocates are calling a "landmark moment", the California NAACP announced its support yesterday for Proposition 19, a controversial ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana in the state.
The group stood with leaders from the California Black Chamber of Commerce and cited a recently released study (PDF) from the Drug Policy Alliance that showed that in nearly every California county, Black youth are arrested for marijuana-related offenses more often that white youth, even though they use marijuana less often.
Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP's California branch, called it a "civil rights issue" that's consistently stifled the upward mobility of young folks of color:
"This is not a war on the drug lords, this is a war against young men and women of color," she told the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday. "Once a young person is arrested and brought under the justice system, he or she is more likely to get caught in the criminal justice system again, further wasting tax dollars."
And the stats cited by the Drug Policy Alliance backed up her claims. On the whole, arrests for marijuana procession in California have increased over 100 percent over the past 20 years, while arrests for violent crime have dropped over 60 percent.
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While a few authors have made it into mainstream literature, many can't escape the publishing industry's narrow category of African-American literature. The Root: Why Can't Black Writers Escape the Literary Ghetto?
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Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help, published by a Penguin Books imprint, sold 1 million books within a year of publication. Her novel has gained accolades and awards, including the prestigious South African Boeke Prize. The Help is being adapted for the screen; at the helm of production is the Academy Award-winning director and producer Steven Spielberg.
Sue Monk Kidd's best-selling novel The Secret Life of Bees, also published by Penguin Books, is another story set in the South with African American characters. Kidd's novel garnered similar fame, fortune and recognition.
Kathryn Stockett and Sue Monk Kidd are living the dream of thousands of authors, myself included. But they are not the first white women to pen stories of the black American South and be lauded for their efforts. In 1928 Julia Peterkin wrote a novel, Scarlet Sister Mary, for which she received the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. Stockett's and Kidd's novels tackle racism and celebrate the power of friendship and acceptance. Both novels were given beautiful covers that did not reveal the race of the characters. Both books were marketed to black and white audiences.
My debut novel, Sugar, was also published by a Penguin imprint. Set in the 1950s South, the story line deals with racism and celebrates the power of friendship and acceptance. The original cover depicted a beautiful black woman standing behind a screen door. Sugar was marketed solely to African American readers. This type of marginalization has come to be known among African-American writers as "seg-book-gation." This practice is not only demeaning but also financially crippling. When I looked into why works by African-American writers were packaged and marketed so differently than those by their white counterparts, I did not have to search far for my answer.
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African and Afro-Caribbean music are edging their way into the American consciousness. The Root: America's Slow Embrace of World Music
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The cult of Michael Jackson in Japan, jazz quartets in Sweden, and rappers from Russia to the Gaza Strip. Black artists from the United States shape the music the rest of the world listens to and makes. But black musicians from other parts of the world, especially Africa, still have a hard time breaking out of their niches and into our broader culture and playlists.
African and Afro-Caribbean music have sent some shoots through the American scene. Nightclubs pulse to dancehall and reggaeton. The Broadway musical Fela! spotlighted the Nigerian music giant and political activist Fela Kuti and the prowess of the production's backup band, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Afrobeat group Antibalas. The Malian Tuareg band Tinariwen shook Coachella last year. These days, fans of the all-white quartet Vampire Weekend can hear the Congolese dance music soukous weave through the band's maddeningly catchy song Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.
Across the Atlantic, black world music is a vital part of the mainstream scene. In France, music from Africa and the African diaspora regularly shows up on the hit parade. In the United Kingdom, African musicians sell out major concert halls in London almost every week, said Simon Broughton, co-editor of The Rough Guide to World Music and editor of the magazine Songlines. In the United States, African music has left its imprint on American artists who collaborate with and borrow from Africans, but "we don't have our African Bob Marley yet," said Georges Collinet, the longtime host of the weekly public radio show Afro-pop Worldwide.
African music is the foundation of much of the world's popular music, according to Dan Storper, founder and CEO of the record label Putumayo World Music. American music influences global pop music, and American hip-hop, rock, jazz, R&B can trace their tangled roots back to gospel, which in turn goes back to slave spirituals and the griot tradition. But contemporary African musicians have been listening to American musical exports, too, and they have appropriated them, recast and embellished them, fused them with the music they grew up with. The music from Africa went to the New World, came back again in a different form and goes out again over CDs and the Internet, creating a musical loop.
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Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Tuesday's Chile, Poetry Editor
Pulitzer Prize winning Yusef Komunyakaa's poetry is celebrated for its short lines and simple vernacular, rooted in his experience of the black of the American South; and as a decorated veteran of the Viet Nam War.
Our current military endeavors are argued as vastly different than what happened during Viet Nam; that a desert war is much different than a jungle war, so the two cannot be compared. Yet similarities exist. This week's poem wonders at the hooded prisoners of Da Nang, though seems little different than photos of the hooded prisoners of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo; and no matter where war is waged, whether the desert, the mountain, the jungle or the sea; war is truly Hell.
Prisoners
Usually at the helipad
I see them stumble-dance
across the hot asphalt
with crokersacks over their heads,
moving toward the interrogation huts,
thin-framed as box kites
of sticks & black silk
anticipating a hard wind
that'll tug & snatch them
out into space. I think
some must be laughing
under their dust-colored hoods,
knowing rockets are aimed
at Chu Lai—that the water's
evaporating & soon the nail
will make contact with metal.
How can anyone anywhere love
these half-broken figures
bent under the sky's brightness?
The weight they carry
is the soil we tread night & day.
Who can cry for them?
I've heard the old ones
are the hardest to break.
An arm twist, a combat boot
against the skull, a .45
jabbed into the mouth, nothing
works. When they start talking
with ancestors faint as camphor
smoke in pagodas, you know
you'll have to kill them
to get an answer.
Sunlight throws
scythes against the afternoon.
Everything's a heat mirage; a river
tugs at their slow feet.
I stand alone & amazed,
with a pill-happy door gunner
signaling for me to board the Cobra.
I remember how one day
I almost bowed to such figures
walking toward me, under
a corporal's ironclad stare.
I can't say why.
From a half-mile away
trees huddle together,
& the prisoners look like
marionettes hooked to strings of light.
-- Yusef Komunyakaa
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The Front Porch is now open. Welcome to all newcomers. Glad you could join us. Cool drinks are on the table and try a "piragua de tamarindo" (tamarind syrup over crushed ice)
Front porch music today will be supplied by community members. Look forward to listening to your selections.