Armstrong Sings With…

The song is ended, but the melody lingers on
you and the song has gone, but the melody lingers on
-“The Song Ended” featuring Louis Armstrong and The Mills Brothers

The man affectionately referred to as “Pops” fathered an incredible heritage of barrier breaking music and instrumental genius that ushered in the era of modern jazz, but it was the melodic gift of his gravelly, yet nurturing voice that also firmly established Armstrong as one of the foremost vocalists in the history of music.

The compilation album Armstrong Sings With…released on the Jazz/Blues catalog of obscure European label, WNTS, features an all-star cast of perhaps some of the most famed voices in popular music paired with the iconic, Louis Armstrong. Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Louis Jordan, Velma Middleton, The Mills Brothers, Bessie Smith and more join Armstrong to round out 20 renditions of classic songs like “Dream A Little Dream” featuring Fitzgerald, “On Blueberry Hill” featuring Bing Crosby, and “My Sweet Hunk of Junk” featuring Lady Day, Billie Holiday.

The recording is obviously void of a good portion of Armstrong’s most famous vocal offerings namely “Ain’t Misbehavin,” “Black and Blue,” “When You’re Smiling” and his opus vocal gift that ascended to worldwide fame, “What a Wonderful World”.  It may be that these solo recordings, extremely important to Armstrong’s mainstream popularity, indeed overshadow this compilations selection of tunes, which display his expansive discography section singing in the company of other premier vocalists. Yet, Armstrong’s duets hold as much significance as his solo recordings and reveal Pop’s efficacious personality complete with playful banter between him and his counterparts. One could even argue that Armstrong is as vocally supreme as the featured artists who are known solely for their vocal ability. The voice, gruff and at times bellowing, doesn’t rival Bing for that velvety crooner appeal or paralyze you with Billie Holiday’s arresting conviction. Yet, through his muddled words and instrumental delivery, he made you smile like a child listening to a story.

Satchmo stands in rare company as one of those storytellers—a griot, a stellar interpreter of lyrics, delivering the song’s message with authenticity by conveying all the intent, humor, wit, and regional vernacular that connects to people from all walks of life. First, he could relate with black audiences by way of his New Orleans roots and body of work playing the traditional jazz and blues. Then by virtue of his acceptance of the popular song into his repertoire, Armstrong gained acceptance with a global audience. Much to the chagrin of the jazz purist, who felt Armstrong may have abandoned his traditional jazz core for a more popular sound, Armstrong’s move to reach wider audiences can be credited with paving the way for scores of black entertainers to expand their reach.

The simplicity of the lyrical content in the Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen penned tune, “Life Is So Peculiar” assisted masterfully by Louis Jordan, another vocalist to cross over into popular audiences, showcases Armstrong’s guttural, jovial voice and his tremendous ability to communicate the facts of life intrinsic to the human experience regardless of race, gender, and socioeconomic status.

Though Armstrong’s revolutionary horn playing made him famous and has had as much of an impact on jazz music as Charlie “Bird” Parker’s fiery alto sax had on post bop jazz, it was his skills as a vocal virtuoso that catapulted his fame through the stratosphere simultaneously transporting jazz music from the speakeasy’s to the international stage. If you listen closely, Armstrong’s voice is an extension of his trumpet play, a trait that seems to elevate his sense of melody, phrasing, and vocal improvisation. This unique quality is present throughout almost every song, but especially profound on the latter half of “That’s My Desire,” the duet with Velma Middleton, his background vocalist from 1947 to 1960 and “Nelly Gray” featuring The Mills Brothers.

 

 

During an interview with Grammy award winning clarinetist, Oran Etkin, who has been pledging allegiance to Armstrong’s music since 4th grade, described Armstrong’s vocal style: ”It’s always a question – does Louis sing so amazingly because he sings like he plays the trumpet or does he actually play the trumpet so amazingly because he plays it just like he sings!  In fact, I think his singing is so unique because it is like a full instrument, with so many different timbres and he is so rhythmic in the way he sings.  But also, he has a way of simplifying a melody into the 2 or 3 most essential notes in it and singing the full melody on just those few notes in a way that so few people could ever pull off!  It’s really one concept he has that shines through if he’s singing or playing the trumpet and hearing him sing really reveals the magic of that concept and puts his trumpet playing in a new light.  All I can say is – it makes me feel good!!”

The good feeling described by Etkin has proven to stand the test of time as the result of Armstrong’s singing. That good feeling persists even when Armstrong doesn’t utter a word. He simply scats, hums, or grunts you immediately know its Armstrong.

In a rendition of “On Blueberry Hill”, the golden voiced crooner, Bing Crosby, sarcastically responds to Louis Armstrong volunteering to bring his horn up Blueberry Hill, with “If you don’t bring your horn, we’re cooked…” much to the humor of the listening audience. I would guess that I am not alone in the notion that if Armstrong did leave the trumpet behind, they would be just fine. As identifiable as a the great melodies of popular music, likewise Armstrong’s signature voice will continue to linger on throughout the annals of popular music and further cement his place next to the most celebrated voices in music.

Words by Johnathan Eaglin

Esperanza Spalding &

The Southern California

Children's Chorus

- "What a Wonderful World"

Presented at the 84th Academy Awards.

__________________________

Black Gold

 __________________________

CONVERSATION    AIR DATE: Oct. 28, 2010

Esperanza Spalding

Takes on Dual Role in Jazz

SUMMARY

Jeffrey Brown profiles Esperanza Spalding, the young jazz phenomenon who pulls double duty on stage by playing the bass and singing. The classically trained bassist has appeared at the White House and is currently on a world-wide tour.

RELATED VIDEOS

• Esperanza Spalding Explains Her Song, 'Little Fly'
• 'Little Fly' by Esperanza Spalding

Transcript

JEFFREY BROWN: Esperanza Spalding latest sound, featuring a string trio with her jazz bass and band, shows how she mixes classical music into the jazz idiom for which she's best known. She's recorded a collection of these songs on a new album titled "Chamber Music Society."

When we talked recently before a performance at the historic Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C. she said it explores what she calls a middle ground between styles.

ESPERANZA SPALDING, musician: Yes. I mean, it's -- the way that a jazz musician is thinking, listening, interacting is very similar to what's happening in pre-written music, obviously, where everything is pre-prepared. There is just more improvisation.

So, in this project, we are exploring that space as instrumentalists, and obviously as a composer and the arrangement, exploring that space between the written chamber music and the improvisatory chamber music.

JEFFREY BROWN: At just 25, Esperanza Spalding is something of a jazz phenomenon. A bass player, singer and composer, she released her first album just two years ago, to much critical and public acclaim, since then has appeared at White House twice.

She also performed at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo last year for President Obama and on numerous TV programs. But classical music came first, and, yes, PBS viewers, "Mister Rogers" played a big part.

ESPERANZA SPALDING: I saw a program with Yo-Yo Ma when I was about 5. And I said, mom, I want to do that. You know, whatever that is, I want to do that.

The first 10 years of my musical life were as a violinist because of seeing Yo-Yo Ma perform. Of course, I realized later that that was the wrong instrument.

(LAUGHTER)

JEFFREY BROWN: Right.

Spalding taught herself the violin at first. She grew up in a neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, with poverty and gang violence that she's described as -- quote -- "pretty scary."

She joined a community orchestra for adults and children, the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. Soon after, though, she met her true musical love: the bass.

ESPERANZA SPALDING: I picked it up just out of curiosity, and played a note, an open note, an open string. And the sound really captivated me. It has a very distinct way of resonating within the body and resonating in a room. And I had never experienced that before.

My music teacher came in and gave me a brief overview of how a bass functions in improvised music, so in the blues. And then, in about five minutes, we were jamming on this really simple blues progression.

When I got a taste of the spontaneity of the improvisational music, right then, I knew that that was really the kind of music I was supposed to be playing.

JEFFREY BROWN: That was the opening to jazz?

ESPERANZA SPALDING: That was it, yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: Spalding graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and, at 20, became the school's youngest-ever instructor.

And she became known for weaving together different styles of music into her jazz compositions, using Latin rhythms, hip-hop, soul, whatever worked.

ESPERANZA SPALDING: It's sound. You hear a feel, you hear a groove, you hear a melody shape, and you really absorb it somehow.

And when it comes time to write a balanced piece of music, all you are listening for is what sounds right in that moment. It doesn't matter what genre or idiom or anything that it comes from. It's just, what's going to make this piece work?

JEFFREY BROWN: Spalding's bass playing got the attention of jazz giants. She performed recently with an all-star group at a Los Angeles gala celebrating Herbie Hancock's 70th birthday.

(MUSIC)

JEFFREY BROWN: But these days, it's her singing that's transfixing audiences. And that, she says, is new and exciting.

ESPERANZA SPALDING: It's a whole new instrument. And -- and it's kind of like acting too. And I'm realizing, really being able to fully emote and live the experience of the story that you are telling, it's exciting to see how that alone sometimes can bring someone into music that might sound too confusing or kind of too brainy, too cerebral.

Just, sometimes, having that thread of symbolism with the words to draw someone into the music, then they can really dig everything that's happening around that -- that melody.

JEFFREY BROWN: Right now, Spalding is gaining a faithful following. But a question for everyone in jazz these days, especially one so young, is how to build audiences for the future. Perhaps remembering her own early exposure to Yo-Yo Ma, Spalding sometimes plays for school audiences.

ESPERANZA SPALDING: I have personally experienced the process of kind of modifying how I explain or how I present improvised music to, you know, second-graders. And when they get into the right headspace, they can engage with us as we play freely. We're not watering it down.

JEFFREY BROWN: You can see it? You see it happening?

ESPERANZA SPALDING: Yes, I have seen that happen. And I think that's beautiful. And seeing how much they could really enjoy this spontaneous conversation that we were having, I thought, wow, that means anybody can enjoy it.

JEFFREY BROWN: Esperanza Spalding is now at work on her next recording, which will feature sounds she grew up with and still loves on pop radio. In the meantime, she's on the road with her "Chamber Music Society" mix of jazz, with strings attached.

JIM LEHRER: That story was, of course, reported by Jeffrey Brown.

Poetry Foundation Ghana

Online Poetry Contest

We recommend all entrants to read the rules carefully before making submission.

RULES: GENERAL

1. The competition is opened to everyone, international to all poets and writers whether published or not, regardless of experience.  Current employees of Poetry  Foundation Ghana or their relatives are not eligible. Previously published poems in other contests, books, magazines, etc. are not accepted.

2. All poems must be 40 lines or fewer, should be typed single line spacing, and must only be on the theme of POLITICS.  Only ONE poem must be submitted and should be the original work of the contestant.

3. The closing date of the competition is midnight, 1st April 2012.

4. Under no circumstances can alterations be made to poems once entered.

5. Submissions will be done online ONLY and will receive automatic confirmation at the time of submission.

6. Summited poem should come in a message format and not as an attached file. Any poem submitted as an attachment will not be attended to.

7. The competition organizers reserve the right to change the judging panel without notice and to withhold prizes if later found a rule breached by a contestant.

8. The judges’ decision is final and neither the judges nor PFG staff will enter into any correspondence.

9. No employee or member of PFG is eligible to enter the PFG Poetry Competition.

 

RULES FOR POEM SUBMISSION

1. The theme or subject matter of the submitted poem must be on POLITICS and nothing else. Poems which fail to capture this theme will be discarded.

2. Submitted poem should be pasted directly in the text area and the subject line bearing the name POETRY CONTEST. No attachments will be accepted.

3. All entries/inquiries must be submitted to: submissions@poetryfoundationghana.org
   This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
4. All entries will be judged anonymously and the poet’s name will not appear on the poem itself.

5. All poems must have a title and must not exceed 40 lines in length (excluding title).

6. Poems must be the original work of the contestant.

7. Entries must not have been published, self-published, published on a website or broadcast before February, 2012.

8. Entries must be written in English language.

9. There are no charges, ENTRY is free.

 

PRIZES AND WINNERS

CASH PRIZES WILL BE WON

• First Prize      = GH₵400

• Second Prize = GH ₵200

• Third Prize     = GH ₵100

 

*Winners and commendations will be notified by 30th April, 2012. All winners will be asked to provide a biography and photograph

*The copyright of each poem remains with the author. However, authors of the winning poems, by entering the competition, grant the Poetry Foundation Ghana the right to publish and/or broadcast their poem for one year from April 2012. Use of the poems elsewhere during this time is subject to permission from the Poetry Foundation Ghana.

Call for Submissions

February 19, 2012

By admin

 

Submissions of short stories, short creative non-fiction, and art pieces are requested for possible appearance in an academic/scholarly book tentatively entitled  “A Lesson in Doubt: the social and linguistic construction of OCD.” Work of up to five double-spaced pages will be considered. Pieces can be written/created on any aspect of OCD, from a number of perspectives including but not limited to first person accounts/takes from sufferers, family members, doctors or community members, etc.

Submissions will be accepted until April 15th, 2012.

They will be assessed on their literary/artistic merit and appropriateness given the aims of the book (to raise awareness of the social dimensions of OCD beyond medical diagnosis). Please paste your written submission to the body of an email message and send it to patricia.friedrich@asu.edu.

For art, please contact Friedrich first. If your piece is selected, you will have the option of publishing it under your name, a pseudonym, or anonymously. You must be at least 18 years old to send your work. By submitting your text/art, you are acknowledging that it is your original work and that you grant permission for publication/reproduction in the book. Should your work be accepted for publication elsewhere during the process of review, you agree to withdraw your submission. This project has been approved by the IRB office at Arizona State University.

Call for Papers:

Queer S3xualities in African Literature

and Film

(MLA Convention, Boston)

 

Deadline: 10 March 2012

This panel seeks papers that examine/theorize LGBTIQ issues in African literatures and film. Africa, here, includes North and Sub-Saharan Africa. Especially welcome are papers that explore how recent political events and controversies—in Cameroon, Malawi, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana—produce new sites of reading or demand new agendas for deciphering the complexities of African “queer” s3xualities.

Please send 300-word abstracts and CV to Taiwo Adetunji Osinubi at: taiwo.adetunji.osinubi(at)umontreal.ca by March 10.

For list of possible topices, click here.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For inquiries: taiwo.adetunji.osinubi(at)umontreal.ca

For submissions: taiwo.adetunji.osinubi(at)umontreal.ca

Website: http://www.mla.org/convention

 

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Language in

African Literature

(Republished)

 

By Emmanuel Sigauke

Update: The following is a post I made in 2009. Since its publication, there have been many changes in the world, but one striking one is the demise of Borders Books. The bookstore at which I was browsing the Paris Review has since been closed. It was my favourite location of the then large chain. This is a topic for another day, so for now, enjoy the (re)-post on language in African Literature.

Yesterday (1 January 2009) I stood in a Borders bookstore for thirty minutes, reading an interview the Paris Review did with Chinua Achebe in 1994. It's a brilliant interview, dealing with the usual arguments we have come to expect from Achebe: what prompted him to write, racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the birth and importance of the Africa Writers' Series, the issues of writers and audience, advice to budding writers, and how creative writing should not be taught, etc. It was a good Achebe refresher, which one needs once in a while, but I realized that Achebe's works had not been translated into his native language. When asked if he would consider doing so, he answered (then) that what was labelled his native language would not be able to carry the experience of his fiction because its standard version was not a representation of the full potential of the language. His argument was that the standardized version of the language was put together for his people by an Anglican missionary, who helped impose one dialect to be the standard of all the others.

This got me thinking again about the state of what we call standard written Shona (or Ndebele for that matter) as inventions done by missionaries who were not native speakers of the language. I studied Shona to the university level, and I was nervous, starting at A - Level, about how we had to use English to analyze Shona literature. Then all the Shona grammar I learned was explained in English. So if you were good in English, learning Shona literature and grammar became easier. I remember one essay I wrote in Form 6 in which I was analyzing a Shona poem. The teacher used it as an model to the whole class, but I remember one student commenting that the analysis wasn't that great but the English analytical terms were "well-executed". I appreciated his critique then, and we had a talk about how I could perhaps try to do the same analysis in Shona (There was an option of using Shona too, but the teacher preferred English), but he said that wasn't necessary.

Then when I went to the University of Zimbabwe I took Shona, together with English and Linguistics. Initially, I had been offered the option to study Romance Languages with Eng/Linguistics/Afrikaans, but I was allowed to substitute the Romance Languages with Shona, which had well-known professors like Solomon Mutswairo, Emmanuel Chiwome and others I wanted to work with. It was easy dumping Afrikaans then. The Shona curriculum was great, but the use of English intensified. One professor, I think it was Mberi, amazed us with his command of Shona as he explained Shona grammar concepts, but most of us appreciated the ability to continue using English. Of course, I decided not to major in Shona and focused on English and Linquistics, but the two years I studied Shona left me with mixed feelings about this approach of using English to do literary and grammatical analyses. I was happier analyzing the language through Linquistics, where we were also looking at phonological, syntactical, lexical, and semantic patterns of different languages, including Esperanto, the made-up language of linguists.

So now, looking back, I often wonder if one day the Shona scholars may come up with a new alphabet for Shona, or if that's too much to ask, at least an approach to the study of the language that utilizes its different dialects, perhaps designing a better standardized version of the language.

As a teacher of English in the United States, I have developed an appreciation of the value of my own language, and I have continued to write poetry and fiction in Shona. I have noticed that my Shona has moved away from the fake standard imposed in secondary school; it is now predominantly Karanga (I grew up in Zvishavane), with traces of Manyika (my brother married a Munyika woman), some words of Ndau (I lived in Chimanimani for four months), sizable phrases of Zezuru (all those years in Harare), and five words of Korekore(three of my friends are from Mount Darwin and I once dated a girl from Madziwa). I don't know how publishers would react to my cocktail of Shona phraseology, but the works make me happy.

On Christmas  day, 2008, a Zimbabwean scientist who was visiting in Sacramento pointed out that one reason many African countries have lagged behind in developing scientifically and technologically is that they have not trusted their languages to handle scientific concepts. I enjoyed the discussion and we ended up looking at countries like Japan, China, and most European countries that have trusted their languages to express advances in technological advancement.

I applaud those who have already begun to write their blogs and emails in Shona or other African languages. Now, more needs to be done to make our languages more desirable in Africa and beyond. One day there can be a Things Fall Apart in Shona, and I have a title: Pakakoromoka Zvinhu. Imagine House of Hunger in Shona, or Bones, or An Elegy for Easterly, or Harare North, etc. It's time we think again about what we mean when we say we are arguing about language in African literature.

__________________________

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

KINYARWANDA

In case you missed it. Kinyarwanda was the winner of the 2011 Sundance Audience Award. The film explores fresh perspectives on the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Winner of the 2011 Sundance Audience Award for most popular international drama, Kinyarwanda offers a new perspective on the 1994 Rwandan genocide. As the conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsi intensified, the Mufti of Rwanda, the most respected Muslim leader in the country, issued a fatwa forbidding Muslims from participating in the killing of the Tutsi. In the city of Kigali, the imams opened the doors of the Grand Mosque to those fleeing the conflict, making it a place of refuge for both Muslims and Christians, Hutus and Tutsis. Weaving together six narratives based on the accounts of survivors who sought safety in the Grand Mosque, Kinyarwanda deepens and broadens our understanding of those terrifying events. Born in Jamaica and trained at New York University, director Alrick Brown brings an African diasporic perspective to Rwanda’s recent history, adding important new layers to the growing body of films on the subject.

 

OP-ED COLUMNIST

America's Exploding

Pipe Dream

By CHARLES M. BLOW

Published: October 28, 2011

 

photo by: Damon Winter/The New York Times

Charles M. Blow

• 
  

 

We are slowly — and painfully — being forced to realize that we are no longer the America of our imaginations. Our greatness was not enshrined. Being a world leader is less about destiny than focused determination, and it is there that we have faltered.

We sold ourselves a pipe dream that everyone could get rich and no one would get hurt — a pipe dream that exploded like a pipe bomb when the already-rich grabbed for all the gold; when they used their fortunes to influence government and gain favors and protection; when everyone else was left to scrounge around their ankles in hopes that a few coins would fall.

We have not taken care of the least among us. We have allowed a revolting level of income inequality to develop. We have watched as millions of our fellow countrymen have fallen into poverty. And we have done a poor job of educating our children and now threaten to leave them a country that is a shell of its former self. We should be ashamed.

Poor policies and poor choices have led to exceedingly poor outcomes. Our societal chickens have come home to roost.

This was underscored in a report released on Thursday by the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation of Germany entitled “Social Justice in the OECD — How Do the Member States Compare?” It analyzed some metrics of basic fairness and equality among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and ranked America among the ones at the bottom.

I could write (and have written) ad nauseam about our woeful state, but it might be more powerful to see it for yourself. So here are some of the sad data from the report.

•

I invite you to join me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter, or e-mail me at chblow@nytimes.com.

 

SUN FEB 26, 2012 AT 04:00 PM PST

 

The lie about when slavery ended

 

by Denise Oliver Velez for Daily Kos

A Southern Chain Gang, Library of Congress

 

I hate lies. History books are still full of them.

Lies about the founding of this country. Lies about the treatment of Native Americans. Lies about the Civil War and slavery.  

One of the most important things that takes place each year in Black History Month is the outing of lies and attempts to correct the distorted history we have been taught.

So as Black History month draws to a close, let's examine one of the big lies and together help spread some simple truths.

Slavery in the US did not end with the emancipation proclamation.

Slavery did not end in 1865.

Thanks to PBS, we have an accessible documentary to address the truth. But too many of our citizens don't watch public television (though polling suggests they back it) and PBS is facing major cuts. Too many textbooks distributed to schoolchildren are as yet unrevised. So we have to take it upon ourselves to spread some truth.

If you have not yet seen it, Slavery By Another Name, is available in its entirety online.

Trailer:

Slavery By Another Name

Directed by Sam Pollard, produced by Catherine Allan and Douglas Blackmon, written by Sheila Curran Bernard, the tpt National Productions project is based on the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Blackmon. Slavery by Another Name challenges one of our country’s most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery ended with Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The documentary recounts how in the years following the Civil War, insidious new forms of forced labor emerged in the American South, keeping hundreds of thousands of African Americans in bondage, trapping them in a brutal system that would persist until the onset of World War II.

Based on Blackmon’s research, Slavery by Another Name spans eight decades, from 1865 to 1945, revealing the interlocking forces in both the South and the North that enabled this “neoslavery” to begin and persist. Using archival photographs and dramatic re-enactments filmed on location in Alabama and Georgia, it tells the forgotten stories of both victims and perpetrators of neoslavery and includes interviews with their descendants living today

The book, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, by Douglas Blackmon, received a 2009 Pulitzer Prize, the 2009 American Book Award, the 2009 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Non-fiction Book Prize, and the 2008 Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights Book Award. It was on the New York Times Bestseller List.

And yet, with all this acclaim, its content has failed to trickle into American History curricula and our children's textbooks.

My college students can cite dates by rote. But few have a clue about the period of reconstruction, and frankly, almost none of them watch PBS. I asked. They have little time to watch television. They rarely read the news. One student said to me "unless you show us something, we probably won't learn it."

So unless I assign this, or show it in class, there is little likelihood that they will learn this history.

 

Hard Times on a Southern Chain Gang
Originally Published as the novel Georgia Nigger by John L Spivak

 

The first book to expose this travesty in our history was written as a novel, by James L Spivak and serialized in several newspapers in the 1930's.

Spivak was a firebrand leftist journalist. Many of the photos Blackmon has used are from his groundbreaking book. His papers are housed at Syracuse University. He was

an investigative reporter and author whom fellow muckraker Lincoln Steffens described as "the best of us," was most concerned with the problems of the working class and the spread of fascism and anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States from the 1920s through the 1940s...

Spivak traveled throughout the South in the early 1930s interviewing prison camp officials and photographing camp atrocities and their corresponding punishment records. His novel, Georgia Nigger, depicting the brutality of prison camp chain gangs was serialized in the Daily Worker. His 1935 exposé in the New Masses charged a congressional committee with deliberately suppressing evidence of an offer made to Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler by Wall Street financiers to lead a military coup against the U.S. government and replace it with a fascist regime. He also investigated the anti-Semitic and financial activities of Charles E. Coughlin, the Catholic radio priest who founded the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, Michigan.

It's been a long time since the 1930's. And in spite of Spivak's exposes which created a stir at the time, the ripple in the water of history subsided, smoothed over into the glassy smooth false face we see reflected at us even today.

We still hear people mutter "black people should get over it—slavery was a long time ago." Was it really? Is it over? What say you then about the continuing inequity of our Criminal Injustice system, our stop and frisk laws and the bogus war on drugs which is essentially a war on poor people—many of whom are people of color?  

Lies My Teacher Told Me:
Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong,
James W. Loewen

 

No it has not ended.

And yes we are still being fed lies.

While we are talking about lies, it may be time for us all to get the revised edition of this worthy book, which I have sitting right next to my copy of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

As long as history books are bland or censored, as long as Americans are fed a steady diet of faux news, and sugar-coated entertainment via corporate media outlets, as long as liberal and progressive citizens don't invest time in their local school boards and curriculum decision making we will continue to be enmeshed in a tissue of lies.  
Perhaps we need to #Occupy our schools.  

Till then, please pass this on.

Each one, teach one.

And while you're at it, support Public Broadcasting.

Originally posted to Daily Kos on Sun Feb 26, 2012