Voices and Soul
by
Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
With the brutal killings of high schoolers and the outrage amplified by the victims and survivors themselves, an outrage that has mobilized a generation to turn the tables of the moneychangers and the gun merchants in their Temple of Doom and its five percent per annum return, it might be difficult to remember that the Student Movement that arose out of outrage over the senseless killings of their peers was begun by Black Lives Matter, in a much similar way as the Civil Rights Movement was, in many ways, a Student Movement itself, one that presaged the Student Movements that manifested into the Anti War Movement.
This current resurrection of the Student Movement is reminiscent of those equally brutal times. When the power of two becomes the actions of a community aligned against the inequities perpetuated by The Merchants of Death and Profit, as those movements proved in our past, the sleeping giant of America awakens to a powerful realization of itself.
It is always up to the youth to awaken the giant from it’s supine slumber. It is always up to the youth to carry on what we began in our youth, which heartened the elders, who in their youth, fought fascism in Spain with the Lincoln Brigade, had bones broken fighting for a 40 hour week, and had family and friends publicly lynched for merely deigning themselves equal in the Great Experiment.
It is up to the youth to remind the moribund among us, we can lend a hand, or get out of the way.
bijan been dead 11 months & my blue margin reduced to arterial, there’s a party at my house, a house held by legislation vocabulary & trill. but hell, it’s ours & it sparkle on the corner of view park, a channel of blk electric. danny wants to walk to the ledge up the block, & we an open river of flex: we know what time it is. on the ledge, folk give up neck & dismantle gray navigation for some slice of body. it’s june. it’s what we do.
walk down the middle of our road, & given view park, a lining of dubois’ 10th, a jack n jill feast, & good blk area, it be our road. we own it. I’m sayin’ with money. our milk neighbors, collaborate in the happy task of surveillance. they new. they pivot function. they call the khaki uniforms. i swift. review the architecture of desire spun clean, & I could see how we all look like ghosts.
3 squad cars roll up at my door & it’s a fucking joke cuz exactly no squad cars rolled up to the mcdonald’s bijan was shot at & exactly no squad cars rolled up to find the murders & exactly no one did what could be categorized as they “job,” depending on how you define time spent for money earned for property & it didn’t make me feel like I could see less of the gun in her holster because she was blk & short & a woman, too. she go,
this your house?
I say yeah. she go,
can you prove it?
It say it mine.
she go ID? I say it mine.
she go backup on the sly
& interview me going all what’s your address—don’t look!
& hugh say I feel wild disrespected.
& white go can you explain that?
& danny say how far the nearest precinct?
& christian say fuck that.
& white go can you explain that?
I cross my arms. I’m bored & headlights quit being interesting after I called 911 when I was 2 years old because it was the only phone number I knew by heart.
”my dad asks, ‘how come black people can’t just write about flowers?’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In 1868, the abolitionist and orator Anna E. Dickinson published What Answer?, a novel that explored, in a manner revolutionary for its time, the subject of interracial marriage. The Atlantic assigned its assistant editor, William Dean Howells, to review the book. Howells, who would later become the magazine’s editor in chief, was, in the years following the Civil War, something of a racial optimist. He opened his review by recounting a story told to him by one of The Atlantic’s most important contributors:
Mr. Frederick Douglass said the other day that times were when his color would secure him the advantage of a whole seat in a railroad car, but that since the war he was by no means safe from molestation. He told a good story of a citizen with conquered prejudices, who stirred him up out of his nap on the cars recently, and demanded a place beside him. “I’m a nigger,” said Mr. Douglass, showing his head from beneath the shawl in which it had been wrapped. “I don’t care what you are,” answered the liberal-minded intruder; “I want a seat.”
Howells seems to have derived too much hope from this story. He acknowledged that some whites—in particular “those low-down Democrats who spell negro with two g’s”—would not allow expediency or reality to mitigate their enmity for black people. But he nevertheless argued that “there is a great deal to be hoped from human selfishness, fortunately, and we shall not despair of mankind while we all continue so full of egotistical desires and interested ambitions. Pure cussedness is much rarer than would appear.”
Howell’s sanguinity, born of the recent Union victory and the seeming advances of Reconstruction, was premature. Whites would not, in sufficiently meaningful numbers, come to understand either the practical or the moral advantages of racial equality. Thirty-two years after Howell’s review, W. E. B. Du Bois would write in these pages that the “problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.” And 62 years after Du Bois made this prediction, The Atlanticwould publish Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” under the title “The Negro Is Your Brother.” The letter, one of the immortal documents of American history, could be read as a refutation of post-Reconstruction hopefulness, and as proof of the accuracy of Du Bois’s prediction:
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rural America is white and in love with Donald Trump, according to reports. Since 2016 it has been depicted as the nation’s one true bastion of Trump support. A 2016New Yorker piece announced that West Virginia, “the heart of Trump country,” had “practically no immigrants.” The state’s immigrant population actually increased at rates higher than the national average from 2010 to 2014, but media coverage of West Virginia and other Trump-friendly states typically did not include such details. In the hands of parachuting reporters, rural America became a frighteningly white place, devoid of people of color.
“I’ve never been to a place as white as Iowa,” Stephen Marche observed for The Guardian in 2016. “I heard a lot about how Obama has not been supportive enough of the police, of how white lives matter, too, and of how illegal—as in illegal immigrant—means illegal, just as robbing a bank is,” Roger Cohen wrote for The New York Times the same year. “For anyone used to New York chatter, or for that matter London or Paris chatter, Kentucky is a through-the-looking-glass experience.”
In December 2017, the Associated Press informed us that the town of Sandy Hook, Kentucky, still supported Donald Trump despite everything—but deep inside the usual Trump Country anecdotes there lurked a surprise. “I damn sure didn’t vote for Trump. I’d rather walk through hell wearing gasoline britches,” announced retired construction worker Terry Stinson. Not everyone in Sandy Hook loves Donald Trump, apparently—which seems like the only bit of real news in the piece.
There have been a few notable exceptions to the typical safari tour of Trump’s America. W. Kamau Bell filmed an episode of United Shades of America with black coal miners in eastern Kentucky. The AP has run two stories set in North Carolina’s most racially diverse rural county, Robeson County. But old stereotypes die hard, as black Kentuckians told The Washington Post in 2017. “When someone hears ‘Appalachia,’ the first thing that pops into their head isn’t an African American face, ever,” said Shaylan Clark of Lynch, Kentucky. In the press, the prototypical Appalachian still looks like a white man in Carhartt and coal miner’s helmet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Moviegoers have been going crazy over “Black Panther,” the new Marvel comic book superhero film. In addition to being a fun romp, the movie holds special emotional significance for many -- not just because of its mostly black cast, but because of its setting, Wakanda. A fictional country located somewhere in Africa, Wakanda avoided colonization by foreign powers, and is now wealthy and highly developed. That image speaks powerfully to many in the global African diaspora, and to many Africans as well.
But although Wakanda represents a fictional past, its wealth and its glittering skyline probably do represent the future for many African countries. After decades of disappointing performance, many places in Africa are beginning to tread the path to prosperity.
As of today, sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the poorest regions in the world. In addition to perpetrating numerous atrocities, colonialism left the continent with a number of artificial boundaries -- nations that cut across ethnic lines. It also left many countries with extractive institutions that concentrated political power in the hands of a small elite. Since decolonization, Africa suffered a large number of horrendous wars -- the worst being the Second Congo War, the bloodiest conflict since World War II, which drew in nine countries.
Since the 1990s, most of the continent has made a dramatic turnaround. The big wars are mostly over, and much of the continent is peaceful. As countries stabilized, governance improved. Child mortality, malnutrition and deaths from malaria have plunged. Literacy rates and years of schooling have increased dramatically.
But it’s still early days. The region’s per capita income remains only about one-tenth that of a wealthy country like South Korea.
So how are African countries going to get rich? Here, Wakanda doesn’t set a very good example. It’s a small country with fabulous mineral wealth -- kind of like Qatar, Brunei or Kuwait, which have vast oil reserves. But although such countries do exist, they’re rare, and they’re all very small. Although Botswana has managed to parlay its natural riches into middle-income status, most African countries have populations far too large to imitate the Qatar model.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fears grew in north-east Nigeria on Wednesday about the fate of potentially scores of girls who have not been seen since attack on their school by suspected Boko Haram fighters two days ago.
Militants stormed the Government Girls Science secondary school in Dapchi, Yobe state, on Monday evening. Locals initially said the girls and their teachers had fled the attack, but many were still missing on Wednesday.
Boko Haram gained notoriety in April 2014 when its fighters abducted 276 girls from their school in Chibok, in neighbouring Borno state. Fifty-seven escaped in the immediate aftermath and since May last year, and 107 have either escaped or been released as part of a government-brokered deal, but 112 are still being held.
Monday’s incident sparked fears of a repeat of Chibok, and on Wednesday morning some 50 parents and guardians gathered at the school to demand information.
The Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, tweeted:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What the artist's early singles—made before she was famous, and newly released—reveal about the legend she'd become. The Atlantic: The Prowess of Nina Simone’s Early Records
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sixty years ago, Nina Simone was not yet quite an icon. The legendary singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil-rights activist—who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April—turned 25 in 1958. Her debut album, Little Girl Blue, had just been released on Bethlehem Records, an up-and-coming jazz label. Among Bethlehem’s alumni were Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and a promising young saxophonist from Miles Davis’s band named John Coltrane. Simone, on the other hand, had been signed as more of a pop-jazz artist; the label, after all, was also the home of Mel Tormé. Relatively unknown, Simone was a fresh face to find success by safely interpreting the standards of the day, albeit by using her uniquely husky voice and bluesy yet classically informed piano playing.
Little Girl Blue kicked off a run of singles Simone made between 1958 and 1963for both Bethlehem and another New York label, Colpix Records. The singles she released during that period, many of them drawn from the Great American Songbook, have been collected on two anthologies out this month: Mood Indigo: The Complete Bethlehem Singles (via BMG Records) and Nina Simone: The Colpix Singles (via Stateside Records). These early singles have often been overlooked in favor of her original, historically important compositions such as 1964’s “Mississippi Goddam” and 1970’s “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” both of which became rallying cries for the civil-rights movement. But viewed together, her pop-oriented output on Bethlehem and Colpix form a charismatic portrait of one of the 20th century’s greatest artists in the first flush of her prowess.
Eunice Waymon was born into poverty in 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, and the precocious singer-pianist made her way to the renowned Juilliard School in New York before adopting the stage name Nina Simone in 1954. She had grown up steeped in church music. Secular sounds, however, called to her. As she told the magazine Hit Parader, “We didn’t have a record player, but we had a radio and a piano, and somebody in my family was always singing or playing or dancing. Oh, I heard a lot of boogie woogie too. That killed me, because I loved to dance. I had to play that when mama was out of the house because she didn’t allow it.” Blues, jazz, and classical music—including Simone’s beloved Bach—all found their way into her playing style. After taking on a name she felt was better suited to show business, Simone began performing in bars in Atlantic City. Her notoriety there grew, and in 1957, she signed with Bethlehem Records.
At the time, only top-tier pop singers were given any significant amount of creative control over the material they would perform or the musicians they would work with. Simone insisted otherwise. In her 1992 autobiography I Put a Spell on You, she remembered of Little Girl Blue, “If I was going to make an album, I’d choose the material myself and pick the musicians I wanted to support me.” She had no national name and no industry clout yet; her only leverage was her talent. It was enough. Bethlehem agreed to let Simone record with a stripped-down trio that included the drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath and the bassist Jimmy Bond (who in the ’60s became a member of the legendary studio group the Wrecking Crew). Little Girl Blue reflected Simone’s integrity. Her voice sounded decades beyond its years, an instrument of resonant sorrow and guarded joy. Her readings of the standards “Don’t Smoke in Bed” and “Love Me or Leave Me”—the latter notable for Simone’s playful blending of Bach’s Fugue in C Major into her piano solo—were spirited and fresh. The album closed with its sole Simone composition, “Central Park Blues,” a jaunty and dexterous instrumental displaying the mark of the bebop masters Oscar Peterson and Thelonious Monk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DURHAM, N.C.—“Let me be clear, no one is getting away with what happened.”
That was Durham County Sheriff Mike Andrews’s warning on August 15, 2017. The day before, a protest had formed on the lawn outside the county offices in an old courthouse. In more or less broad daylight, some demonstrators had leaned a ladder against the plinth, reading, “In memory of the boys who wore the gray,” and looped a strap around it. Then the crowd pulled down the statue, and it crumpled cheaply on the grass. It was a brazen act, witnessed by dozens of people, some of them filming on cell phones.
Andrews was wrong. On Tuesday, a day after a judge dismissed charges against two defendants and acquitted a third, Durham County District Attorney Roger Echols announced the state was in effect surrendering, dismissing charges against six other defendants.
“Acts of vandalism, regardless of noble intent, are still a violation of the law,” Echols said during a brief news conference at the county courthouse. But he said the unfavorable decisions on Monday made clear the state would not be successful. “For my office to continue to take these cases to trial based on the same evidence would be a misuse of state resources.” Additional trials had been scheduled for April 2.
As a legal matter, these dismissals reflect the specifics of this case, especially the shockingly weak case brought by the Durham County Sheriff’s Office and the DA’s office. As a political matter, their effect could be wider. Actors on all sides portrayed the Durham case as an important one. Activists viewed the destruction of the statue as a blow against white supremacy and the hundreds of monuments that dot the country, paying tribute to a rebellion that sought to preserve the enslavement of African Americans. Their opponents—including President Trump—argued that the monuments represented a piece of history, and warned that allowing such destruction would sanction anarchy. The failure of the attempt to prosecute the guerrilla action in Durham shows how activists maintaining a united front can stare down a government divided over the proper approach to the controversial matter of Confederate monuments—and it may offer encouragement to activists elsewhere in the country, including in places where government cannot or will not act, to take monument removal into their own hands.
The destruction of the statue in Durham came two days after violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, left one dead, and it helped galvanize the effort to tear down Confederate monuments and statues across the country.
“This victory is the result of one thing and one thing alone: the conviction and determination of a mighty movement against white supremacy and the racist system that it upholds,” Defend Durham, an umbrella group for activists, said in a statement Tuesday. “Power to the people! Fighting white supremacy is not a crime!”
When I spoke to Qasima Wideman, one of the erstwhile defendants, Tuesday evening, she was still in disbelief. She said she was proud of what the movement had done.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~