Gemal Woods is doing something exciting out of his Park Triangle shop. And this blog has mentioned it before. It’s “The Angle.” A few weeks ago I went to check it out in person. Did I hear him say he has 2000 interviews recorded? Obviously there’s more to this than just an angle. I’m giving [...]
“Fragile” was recorded by Sting September 11, 2001 at his villa in Italy and released in the live CD “All This Time.”
Yesterday I attended the opening ceremonies of the Smithsonian Institution’s annual Folklife Festival which the attention of returning back to my desktop by 2 PM. I didn’t get back until 5. There was no way I was going to miss the Funk Brothers, the Motown studio sessions band. Where do you think the Motown sound [...]
Gil Scott-Heron was the reason rap didn’t stick for me. People anticipated Gil’s next poetic and prophetic message in spoken or melodic rhymes like hot buttermilk biscuits out of the oven. Always a feast in days of famine. We also have to give props to Scott-Heron’s collaborator and fellow Lincoln University classmate Brian Jackson who [...]
It was Nina Simone who introduced me to the music of Bob Dylan. “Just Like a Woman,” “The Ballad of Hollis Brown,” “I Shall Be Released,” “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.” In fact, it would be many years before I heard Dylan sing his own music; what a difference a cover makes. One of my [...]
The late great Gospel music artist Rev. James Cleveland’s “Peace Be Still” captures my thoughts surrounding recent events from Tucson to Tunisia, and also the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth. This past week, poet Nikki Giovanni made a visit to DC. My first introduction to her writing (as a child) was the [...]
Note: This post has been updated. Some December treats from Georgia and South Carolina are coming to DC this month. David Pleasant’s “Drum Folk” at the Anacostia Community Museum” Since August, Word, Shout, Song:Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities through Language has been on exhibit at the Anacostia Community Museum. The exhibit has been extended through [...]
Eventually, the embargo walls between the U.S. and Cuba will come tumbling down. Iowa farmers are pushing it. Folks with family on the island are now back on the island since the Obama administration lifted the Bush administration’s restrictions on travel for Cuban Americans. Artists, journalists, religious institutions, students and academics still have a shot [...]
Just scratching the surface… American Public Television (APT) is streaming episodes of the series “Voces” including the documentary Celia: The Queen about the one and only la reina of salsa. Catch it through October 31st at www.voces.tv. Lois Malou Jones: A Life In Vibrant Color Opening October 9 at the National Museum of Women in [...]
Inside the Beltway is quite exciting this time of year for all the best reasons…and this just scratches the surface. Sunday, September 5, 6 PM Graywolf Press and CAS/51 celebrates the publication of SKIN, INC. – Identity Repair Poems by Thomas Sayers Ellis (see the eclectique interview with Ellis) CAS/51 510 Randolph Street, Washington, DC [...]
