Cynthia Fuchs on Paul Robeson

Today, Paul Robeson seems impossible. How could one man have accomplished so much, commanded such respect, be so large and legendary, even during his lifetime?


Paul Robeson: Showing a Little Grit
by Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters Film and TV Editor

I have never separated my work as an artist and my work as a human being. I have always put it even more strongly, that to me, my art is always a weapon.
—Paul Robeson, Pacifica Radio interview (1958)

He defined social responsibility, and above all, he defined artistic responsibility.
—Ruby Dee, Our Paul: Remembering Paul Robeson

Trouble is my buddy.
—Brutus Jones (Paul Robeson), The Emperor Jones

Today, Paul Robeson seems impossible. How could one man have accomplished so much, commanded such respect, be so large and legendary, even during his lifetime (1898–1976)? It sounds reductive to attribute his success to genius, too easy to call him destined for greatness. Even if they might be true, such stories leave out the sheer will it must have taken for Robeson, son of a runaway slave, to find himself in so many ways, and even more to the point, to make himself known—boldly, bravely, and magnificently.

Criterion’s new box set, Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist, offers multiple introductions to Robeson’s work, starting with new digital transfers of eight films (he appeared in 11 during his lifetime). These range from Oscar Micheaux’s 1925 silent film Body and Soul and Sanders of the River (Zoltan Korda, 1935), to the jazzily fragmented fiercely forward-looking Borderline (Kenneth Macpherson, 1930) and the socialist pro-union documentary he narrated, Native Land (Leo Hurwitz and Paul Strand, 1942), to a thoughtful, still defiant 1958 Pacifica Radio interview. In every performance, he refused to accept conventions and expanded options. This at a time when “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks”, in Donald Bogle‘s famous phrasing, were the common opportunities for black film actors.

Most certainly, Robeson demonstrated remarkable dignity and challenged expectations. As Sidney Poitier says in the Oscar-winning short documentary Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (Saul J. Turell, 1979), “No one who has ever heard Paul Robeson sing “Old Man River” will ever forget it.” True, but he sang it many times and in multiple contexts. Poitier observes that when he performed the song during WWII, he turned it “from a song of lament into a song of political protest”, altering the lyrics to point out institutional racism and injustice, at least for those listeners paying attention (for example, “Git a little drunk,/An’ you land in jail”, for example, becomes “You show a little grit and/You lands in jail").

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Can Pookie (& Nay-Nay) Get Some Love?

Who is Obama's 'Cousin Pookie'?
By JONATHAN TILOVE

In his sermon Sunday at Brown Chapel in Selma, Ala., Barack Obama declared: "If Cousin Pookie would vote, if Uncle Jethro would get off the couch and stop watching SportsCenter and go register some folks and go to the polls, we might have a different kind of politics.''

It wasn't the first time the Illinois senator and presidential aspirant has invoked "Pookie'' in gently scolding terms, and his mention was met with affirmations of recognition at the church.

But for those not in the know, the question remains: Who is this Pookie?

The Obama campaign didn't respond to requests for details. But Newhouse News Service asked some of America's best minds on black culture, language and politics.

In their interviews and e-mails, Pookie emerges as a stock character of the black popular imagination, a name that has come to personify the kind of layabout kin who, if endearing, is also a source of some embarrassment and consternation to his more successful relations. And, it turns out, in his use of Pookie, Obama reveals something about himself.

"Pookie means a whole lot of different things; none of them are good,'' said Kevin Gray, a South Carolina writer and activist. "Pookie's always the foil.''

To linguist and writer John McWhorter, Pookie is the kind of ghetto character played by Cedric the Entertainer or Chris Tucker in one of those "Barbershop'' or "Friday'' movies. In the 1960s and '70s, he would have gone by Leroy, Tyrone or Otis.

Pookie, according to Michael Eric Dyson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and writer about race, is "nearly a pop-culture folk-figure in black circles.'' He is the average black every-youth.

While Gray said Pookie goes way back, Mark Anthony Neal, professor of black popular culture at Duke University, believes he has come into his own only in the last decade, as a "metaphor for kin ... who everybody knows is just a little trifling and a little lazy.''

Neal believes Pookie's rise is linked to the growth of the black middle class, and "intimately connected to some of the anxieties that the black middle class has with regards to their relatives who have not been as financially successful. I'm sure Sen. Obama has a few Pookies in his own family.''

"It's a real strong use of language,'' said Bakari Kitwana, the hip-hop writer, lecturer and activist. In dropping Pookie's name, Obama is signaling to those who question his blackness — because his mother was white and his father an African without slave ancestry — that he is not an outsider to black life.

"If you get it you get it, and if you don't, you don't care,'' Kitwana said. "I have a Pookie in my family.''

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I Don't Get Liturgical Dance, But...

from The New York Times

Moved by the Spirit to Dance With the Lord
By JULIE BLOOM

WHILE teenage ballerinas and midriff-baring hip- hoppers cluster in the halls of the New Dance Group building on West 38th Street in Midtown Manhattan, inside one studio a very different type of dance class is starting. Twenty-five women are bowed on their knees in a circle, eyes closed, their foreheads resting on the floor.

“We thank you, God, that you created the dance and you made it pure. Father, we want to dance your words through our limbs.” Wendy Heagy’s voice rises as she leads the circle in prayer. She is the founder of Raise Him Up Praise Dance School and Ministry, and she is about to start her Saturday class.

“We thank you for our physical bodies, for lining up every muscle and every joint,” Ms. Heagy continues. “We don’t want to just be dancers. We want to be ministers of you, Lord God.”

The class, mostly African-Americans ranging in age from early 20s through mid-60s and clad in warm-up clothes, several with scripture written on the backs of their T-shirts, answers loudly, “Amen.”

Ms. Heagy begins by leading what appears to be a very secular warm-up: head rolls with feet in parallel second position while an upbeat jazz version of the Lord’s Prayer plays on the stereo. She is a soothing yet demanding teacher, “Pull in your tummy and squeeze your bum,” she chides. “What are our arms doing? Our palms?” she asks, as she paces the front of the room. “They’re open, because we are praising him.”

Praise dance is a form of worship that seeks to articulate the word and spirit of God through the body. Though it is far from a new phenomenon — in biblical times, dancing was embraced during celebrations and worship — it was forced out of the Christian church during the Reformation, and has been fully welcomed back only in the past 20 or so years. In recent years praise dance has become an increasingly popular part of church services across the country, particularly among America’s growing Pentecostal movement, and it has emerged in New York too, where experts say one in 10 people is Pentecostal.

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Panel Discussion: “All the News That’s Fit to Print?: Hip-Hop, Urban Culture and Mainstream Print Journalism

“All the News That’s Fit to Print?:
Hip-Hop, Urban Culture and Mainstream Print Journalism”

A Panel Discussion Featuring

Kelefa Sanneh, music critic, The New York Times

Scott Poulson-Bryant, former staff writer, Vibe Magazine and author of Hung: A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America

Bakari Kitwana, former editor, The Source Magazine and the author of Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: Wankstas, Wiggers, Wannabes and the New Reality of Race in America

Moderated by Joan Morgan, Visiting Instructor, Duke University and author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist

Thursday, March 8, 2007
5:00 pm
The John Hope Franklin Center
Room 240
Duke University

Rap Sessions Begins at Purdue University

Black Cultural Center town hall to focus on hip hop, women

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University's Black Cultural Center will bring in some of the nation's leading hip-hop intellectuals, activists and authors to discuss "Does Hip Hop Hate Women? A Community Dialogue."

The town hall format meeting will be at 7 p.m. March 5 in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall.

"The gender crisis facing the hip-hop generation is a major hot-button issue for those both outside and within the hip-hop community," said BCC director Renee Thomas. "The community dialogue on hip hop and gender will provide a safe, healthy forum for Purdue students and the community to participate in the discussion."

Audience members will take part in a comprehensive discussion of hip hop's gender crisis that touches on each of the following:

* Hip hop's impact on the self-image of an entire generation of girls.

* The connections between domestic violence and hip hop's popular culture messages.

* How the popular images and representations associated with hip hop affect the culture's perception in the larger society and world.

* The misogyny and homophobic behavior in our national culture that predates hip hop's emergence.

"This is the first time we've tried this format, and we're hoping to get a lively discussion between our community and these highly sought-after individuals who are experts in an art form that often is controversial," Thomas said. "This new multifaceted approach will engage the entire audience. The issues involved with hip hop include not only gender but race, and the discussion should be educational as well as enlightening."

The discussion will be moderated by Bakari Kitwana, author and co-founder of the National Hip Hop Political Convention. Panelists include Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, author of "The Black Feminist Reader"; Joan Morgan, author of "When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks it Down"; Raquel Rivera, author of "New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone"; and Mark Anthony Neal, author of "New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity," "That's the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader" and several other books.

For information, call the Black Cultural Center at (765) 494-3092.

Esther Iverem and MAN on KPFK

Samm Brown's FOR THE RECORD KPFK

Broadcast Date: Sunday, March 04, 2007 2-3 PM (PST)
Subject: JAMES BROWN: SOUL BROTHER #1

Host: Samm Brown III
Cohost: LISA BONNER

CONFIRMED GUEST(S) INCLUDE:

1. DR. MARK ANTHONY NEAL, Ph.D., Associate Professor Black Popular Culture, African-American Studies, Duke University, author of: Songs in the Key of Black Life: A Rhythm and Blues Nation, Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture, The Last Soul Brother: James Brown);

2. ESTHER IVEREM, (Journalist, author and poet founder of the SeeingBlack.com, a web site she founded in 2001, a former staff writer for The Washington Post, New York Newsday, The New York Times and contributing critic for BET.com and Pacifica Radio);

3. CAMILLE SOLARI, (Director and co-producer of the documentary: "Life On The Road with Mr. and Mrs. Brown" -- about the last two years of legendary Godfather of soul James Brown life featuring his wife and lead vocalist Tomi Rae Brown)

Continuing our Black History Month expanded coverage, we'll be taking a look at the life of the legendary "Godfather of Soul", the "hardest working man in show business", and "Soul Brother #1", James Brown -- as seen through the eyes of a journalist/author, professor/author, and a documentary filmmaker.

Join us at 2 pm for what will be an hour of provocative thought, and educational entertainment.

Shelton J. Lee at 50

Spike Lee is 50
by FERENTZ LAFARGUE

While reading Black Enterprise the other day I saw something that took me by surprise. Spike Lee is 50. BE’s special entertainment issue did a profile on Mr. Shelton J. Lee who’s better known as Spike Lee, and guess what, Spike Lee is 50 years old—or at least he will be on March 20th.

But since I’m a proponent of the New Afrikan birthday system, he’s already 50.

Let that marinate for a second, Spike Lee is 50.

So what you say?

A friend of mine Phil likes to tell this story about when Lee’s movies first appeared in the 80s they were like rock concerts, or rather rap concerts, because previously white movie theatre lines were now teeming with young black moviegoers. When She’s Gotta Have it came out in 1986 The Beastie Boys had people rocking out with Licensed to Ill, we were swooning under Anita Baker’s Rapture, Run DMC was instigating us into Raising Hell, and the Notorious one was Duran Duran not B.I.G.

Public Enemy, the rap group, who Lee was often associated with earlier in his career were signing their first Def Jam contract back in 1986. Now as Chuck D tours college campuses and Flava Flav blurs the line between reality and minstrelsy, Spike Lee instructs us about what really happened with the Levees.

Spike Lee is 50?

But since I’m a proponent of the New Afrikan birthday system, he’s already 50.

Let that marinate for a second, Spike Lee is 50.

So what you say?

A friend of mine Phil likes to tell this story about when Lee’s movies first appeared in the 80s they were like rock concerts, or rather rap concerts, because previously white movie theatre lines were now teeming with young black moviegoers. When She’s Gotta Have it came out in 1986 The Beastie Boys had people rocking out with Licensed to Ill, we were swooning under Anita Baker’s Rapture, Run DMC was instigating us into Raising Hell, and the Notorious one was Duran Duran not B.I.G.

Public Enemy, the rap group, who Lee was often associated with earlier in his career were signing their first Def Jam contract back in 1986. Now as Chuck D tours college campuses and Flava Flav blurs the line between reality and minstrelsy, Spike Lee instructs us about what really happened with the Levees.

Spike Lee is 50?

Read more at The Nightshift Chronicles