The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975: Take Three

Göran Olsson's The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) contains so much material, I can barely tick off all that's shown or heard. In addition to MLK, we see Coretta Scott King (1927-2006). And the Black Power salute at the Olympic Games in Mexico City (1968). The Last Poets, inspired by Malcolm X and formed in 1968. Eldridge Cleaver, Kathleen Cleaver, the Black Panther Party. Bobby Seale in Stockholm, saying "in the final analysis" -- a phrase nearly identical to today's "at the end of the day." Free food, free breakfast program hosted by the Black Panthers. J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO. Exile in Algiers, Algeria. Huey Netwon, From Russia With Love in the background. TV Guide taking issue with Swedish journalism. Emile de Antonio (1919-1989 -- director of In the Year of the Pig, 1968, and other influential films). The Attica Prison uprising (1971). Civil rights lawyer William Kunstler (1919-1995). Elaine Brown, Black Panther. Governor Ronald Reagan of California vs. Angela Davis (1972) and her aquittal; her earlier study wih Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979). Robin Kelley, Sonia Sanchez, John Forté, Erykah Badu, Louis Farrakhan, Harlem and Lewis H. Michaux (ca. 1884–1976).        

The bonus "reels" are also well worth delving into in their own right. There's a heartbreaking section about Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005) and her bid for the presidency in 1972 -- ahead of her time, she was hopelessly outnumbered, defeated but unbowed. There's more with Stokely Carmichael. And there's a very interesting section on the 1974 trial of Joan Little in Raleigh, North Carolina -- charged with first degree murder for stabbing a rapist-prison guard with the ice pick he threatened to kill her with, immediately after he raped her. She was eventually found not guilty. 

Today's Rune: Harvest.   

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975: Take Two

Göran Olsson's The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011) begins with footage from 1967 when the US population is 210 million (it's now 312 million at the time of this posting) at the height of the US-Vietnam War, with a military draft in place and 525,000 American soldiers deployed in Vietnam.

Swedish archival footage gives us fresh glimpses at people, places and events, including stellar footage of Stokely Carmichael (or Kwame Ture, 1941-1998, pictured above) and his mother -- she has a fascinating Trinidid-New York City hybrid accent, while he retains a subtler Trinidadian lilt. When asked in Paris if he fears being imprisoned upon his return to the USA, he responds, "I was born in jail." He relocates to West Africa in 1969. 

Martin Luther King is clearly against the US-Vietnam War, as Angela Davis notes in narration made for parts of the documentary. His "Beyond Vietnam" speech at Riverside Church, NYC on April 4, 1967 -- exactly one year to the day before his assassination in Memphis -- epitomizes his overall stance: "We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

There's footage of MLK and Harry Belafonte meeting with King Gustaf VI Adolf (1882-1973) of Sweden in Stockholm, reminding us of ongoing Swedish support for human and civil rights as well as the international dimensions of American society.

Black Power kicks into high gear when MLK is killed in 1968, the year of the Tet Offensive and sometimes called Revolutionary Year Zero. (To be continued).

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.       

Göran Olsson: The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Göran Olsson's The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 brings to light exciting and empathetic archival footage of the movement from a Swedish perspective. I loved it. There's the backdrop of the US-Vietnam War, riots, upheaval and assassination, the Black Panthers and Attica Prison uprising, with contemporary commentators. More to say about it, with more details -- soon. Anyone interested in human/civil rights and/or the 1960s and 1970s would probably dig this for any number of reasons. I sure did.  

Today's Rune: Initiation.  

Basque Culture in the Americas

There's a chapter in Elizabeth Little's Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Languages (New York: Bloomsbury, 2012) called "Nevada: Basque" that delves into Basque linguistics and culture, anything ranging from vocabulary to Picon Punch ("tasted like lighter fluid mixed with battery acid . . .") to the "Basco Fiasco" or National Basque Festival in Elko, Nevada, held every year (God willing) right around July 4th. There are Basques and people of Basque descent in every state of the Union -- including a small handful in West Virginia -- but most live west of the Mississippi River.
   

The Basque language is distinct from Indo-European languages, but most people would recognize the influence of Basque in names like Saint Francis Xavier (Francisco de Jasso y Azpilicueta, 1506-1552), for instance, and Saint Ignatius of Loyola (Iñigo Loiolakoa, 1491-1556). 

Today, there are lots of Basque-related people living outside the Spanish-French "heartland," particularly in Latin American countries such as Chile, Argentina (where, for example, Che Guevara had Basque lineage), Mexico (also of Basque lineage, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1651-1694; José Doroteo Arango Arámbula aka Francisco Pancho Villa, 1878-1923), and Cuba.

Today's Rune: Joy.    

Moonlight in Glory: The Survival of Gullah, or Sea Island Creole

I've never lived in the middle of nowhere, always in a place fairly adjacent to oceans and lakes, large rivers or inland seas, within easy reach of a large city. For whatever  reason -- a lot of moving around, maybe -- I've forever been keen to listen for differing voices, languages, dialects and accents, plus slang and colloquialisms. What's different, what's similar? The dynamic borderlands and port cities on one hand, palimpsests and isolated areas on the other. Coastal languages created and preserved, but always shifting at some pace or another.

On the Atlantic Coast along an arc ranging from around Wilmington, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida, now mostly concentrated in parts of South Carolina and Georgia, there's Gullah, Sea Island Creole, and the Geechee people, with direct and indirect links to Central and West Africa, mixed with English and Caribbean influences. "Goober peas" (aka peanuts) would seem to be one Gullah crossover contribution to the lexicon of the wider American South. The word "Kumbayah" ("come by here") has an even wider circulation. A history teacher from South Carolina, Dr. Ruth Cunningham Bishop, quipped in one of my high school classes that the word "jazz" had a similar provenance, but the verdict is still out on that one.

Today's Rune: Partnership.

A nod to Elizabeth Little's Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Languages (New York: Bloomsbury, 2012) for reminding me about Gullah.

Up, Up and Away with TWA: Trans World Airlines, 1925-2001

Trans World Airlines (TWA): like Pan Am, swanky. Like Pan Am, absorbed into another airline after decades of service. In this case, acquired by wobbly American Airlines, now in bankruptcy.

 

Let's face it, the airline industry is a tough one. And it's not swanky anymore, at least from my experience. Riding Via Rail (aka VIA Rail) in Canada is a lot more civilized, for sure. But still, there's no good alternative to covering long distances quickly than by jet aircraft. To move fast, you've got to pay for it -- one way or another.

 

Today's Rune: Journey.

"The Wings of Man:" Eastern Air Lines, 1926-1991

Eastern Air Lines was another airline that tubed in 1991. Like Pan Am, I remember it well. Eastern had a lot of routes in the eastern USA, with major hubs at Atlanta, Miami and greater New York City. The logo and colors stick to mind, and the comeback CEO, former astronaut Frank Borman (now 82 years old). Borman did a lot of ads promoting good service. It seems as if two things led to the demise of Eastern. One was deregulation of the industry and the other was a major management-labor dispute that was apparently bungled by senior management in the late 1980s, after Borman's retirement.

Today's Rune: Signals.