There was a historic music festival in the summer of 1969. But it's not the one that took place in Bethel, NY. The
Harlem Cultural Festival ran from
June 29 to August 24 that summer, presenting a concert every Sunday afternoon in
Mount Morris Park (known today as Marcus Garvey Park).
Three hundred thousand people turned out for the
six free concerts, hearing acts like
Nina Simone , Sly & the Family Stone (the only act to play both Woodstock and the "black Woodstock"), Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, The 5th Dimension, Moms Mabley and. Speakers included Jesse Jackson and "blue-eyed soul brother" Mayor John Lindsay. Security was courtesy of the
Black Panthers, since the NYC police refused to provide it. Filmmaker Hal Tulchin recorded
over 50 hours of concert footage, which has remained unreleased.
Historic Films seems to hold the footage; it was supposed to be made into a movie to
premiere at Sundance 2007, but its
release seems to be continually delayed for reasons unclear.
[more inside]
posted by Miko
on Aug 20, 2009 -
19 comments
In 1910 African-Americans owned
16-19
million acres of land in the United
States, much of it rural farmland. Today, that figure has dropped to less
than
8
million acres overall, and less than 2 million farm acres.
What
happened? In some cases,
violence— whites
would forcibly take farmland, a homestead, or a home from the black
residents, who were often powerless to fight back in the face of systemic
racism, threats of retaliation, and the 'enforcement' of the thefts by
the Ku Klux Klan. More perniciously, many of these losses were the result
of
forced partition land sales.
Many
legal
scholars and activists today
are working to
reverse the
trend.
[some pdfs]
posted by miss tea
on Dec 16, 2007 -
41 comments
Steppin' is an hour-long documentary on an African-American dance tradition, most closely associated with
historically black fraternities and
sororities (though it's also found in
high schools,
clubs, and
professional dance companies). Combining footwork, hand-clapping, chanting, singing, use of props, and changing configurations of dancers, it's a tightly coordinated dance form in which teams vie for honors in
competitions nationwide.
posted by Miko
on Dec 7, 2006 -
20 comments
About Sydney Poitier Something one of my professor's brought up. He said, "I'm tired of everyone being politically correct in Hollywood. They say African-American because they are afraid to say Black." His point being that Mr. Poitier is from the Bahamas and not Africa. What do you think?
posted by ProfLinusPauling
on Mar 29, 2002 -
74 comments
