Los Angeles was treated to a powerful and deeply moving performance on Sept. 27 as internationally renowned bass-baritone Davóne Tines and his band THE TRUTH took the stage at Zipper Hall in the Colburn School.
Reflecting deeply on his experience and appreciation for The Robey Theatre Company, professional videographer, director, film editor, and American actor Jermaine Alexander tells us a little about himself, and why he believes that we all should be interested in attending or supporting a milestone event that will take place this coming Sunday, April 9th, in honor of the late Paul Robeson.
America’s consistent and evil campaign to remove African Americans from American history continues to demonstrate the level of racism that this country still has for Black people.
If there is one hard and costly lesson learned from history and the current and continuous police killing of our people and the depraved disregard for our lives and our right to life, freedom and security that this represents, it is that there is a fatal penalty to pay for our daring to be our Black selves and free our Black selves in America. But we rightfully continue to resist our brutal erasure and savage oppression. For there is no moral or meaningful alternative to this position and the righteous and relentless struggle we wage to achieve these twin and intertwined goals.
As we wait for the final results of the 2020 election, I refer us to the article I wrote in 2016 under similar circumstances. And the point remains, whatever happens, the struggle will and must continue. No matter how things go down Tuesday night, we must wake up Wednesday morning still in struggle and reaffirm without unrealistic hope or paralyzing horror, that there is still much to do and it is up to us to do it. For indeed, as we always said, the time is now, there is no other; struggle is the way forward, there is no alternative; and we are the ones, there’s no avoiding it.
During the civil rights phase of the Black Freedom Movement, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) chose as its motto: “To Save the Soul of America.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., SCLC’s principal theorist and social philosopher, explained that it was really to reaffirm that “America would never be free or saved from itself” until African Americans are freed “completely from the shackles they still wear.” He said it was a question of concern for the integrity and life of America. And as I read it, it is a question concerning the very life and death of the people of America, caught up, at that time, in a monstrously immoral war against the Vietnamese people and wasting lives and resources better spent on the well-being of the American people.
This is not a drill. “Houston, we have a problem,” or more historically and currently correct, “Houston, we’ve had a problem, here.” It’s not a problem of a ship in space, but rather the ship of state, setting aside its best-documents claims and making a hard right turn towards its worst-practices. And both the captain and crew are unrepentantly and defiantly doing and saying immoral, mad, mean-spirited and small-minded things.
It is clear now that the 45thpresident of the United States is knowingly or unwittingly a tool of the Russian government. But for many years before the dumpster fire in the White House came into office, the Kremlin has been wielding a secret weapon against the “land of the free.”
Whatever others may say in clearly deserved praise and homage to Aretha Franklin, it is vitally important that we, as persons and a people, speak our own special cultural truth about her and make our own unique assessment of her music, life, service and meaning to us. Here I mean not letting others’ descriptions of her and her music serve as an orientation and framework for our own praise and proper due, but rather reaching inside ourselves and understanding and speaking of her in a multiplicity of meaningful and praise-worthy ways drawn and distilled from the depths of our own hearts and our own culture.
“Towards the Mountaintop: Commemorating Dr. King” is a live stage event to honor the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s passing and the 55th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Rep. Waters has both the right and responsibility to speak truth to power and speak truth to the people. And we as a people and a community also have the right and responsibility to confront evil and injustice everywhere. Indeed, we must not and will not let our silence suggest consent, our inaction suggest agreement or our reluctance to confront and resist give encouragement for greater evils, injustice and oppression.
It is clearly an irony of history that such serious subjects as race and racism would find a place of protest and resistance on the playing fields of America, sites of entertainment and distraction from the pressing problems of society and the world.
Among the sacred names of our honored ancestors which we raise and praise this month, let us pay homage and pour libation for Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898—January 23, 1976), a truly Imhotepian man, in the classical African sense of the word, i.e., a master of many disciplines of knowledge and skilled practice directed toward bringing good in the world. Indeed, he was a critically acclaimed actor, singer, scholar, civil and human rights activist, orator and advocate of workers and everyday people everywhere. However, it is important to note that it is not simply his professional excellence and achievement which made him who he was and won for him accolades, honors and reverent respect around the world, but also his profound and steadfast commitment to his principles and his people and to humanity as a whole, especially ordinary, everyday people.
This week’s facts of Black History.