Thionne Seck—perhaps the purist vocal talent in an extraordinary cohort of male Senegalese singers that includes Youssou N’Dour, Baaba Maal, Omar Pene and Ismael Lo—died on March 14th.
Various Authors
Biden on the Union Drive at Amazon
Click here to hear President Biden speak on the organizing drive at Amazon’s Alabama facility.
The Canadian News Service Elmoudjahweb has provided a useful explainer spelling out why Biden avoided mentioning Amazon in his statement. Per Professor Joseph A. McCartin, the Executive Director of Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor…
Insurrection to Inauguration: Reflections on Violence & Healing
By Thomas Beller, Kristi Coulter, Benj DeMott, Richard Goldstein, George Held, Bob Ingram, Vida Johnson, Charles Keil, Greil Marcus, Dennis Myers, Zuzu Myers, Nathan Osborne, David Quigley, Budd Shenkin, Laurie Stone, William Svelmoe, & Peter H. Wood.
The Caning of Charles Sumner in the U.S. Senate: White Supremacist Violence in Pen and Pixels
Peter H. Wood and Harlan J. Gradin place the attack on the Capitol in an American historical context…
Boston Massacre Energy (in Russia)
The kicker…
The Louisville Syndicate (Excerpts from William Klein’s Documentary on Muhammad Ali)
One Night in Miami sent your editor back to William Klein’s 1964 documentary, Cassius the Great (which Klein would go on to re-edit later with new footage as Muhammad Ali, The Greatest). The following bits from the movie are way less than a perfect compaction, but the opening scene, which limns the Louisville syndicate that once “owned” Ali, is for the Ages. B.D. (H/T Jeff Kreines)
Click Read More to see on a bigger screen.
On the Bus to A Promised Land (Riding with J. Charles Jones & the Sherrods)
At the website of the New Coummunities Inc., J. Charles Jones (one of SNCC’s founding members) and Charles & Shirley Sherrod talk about the success of the Southern Freedom Movement and the failure to hold on to what would’ve been the largest piece of land owned cooperatively by black Americans. This short ride down memory highway is full of information and inspiration. (Thanks to C. Liegh McInnes for his help with steering this post.)
The story of New Communities isn’t over. See the post below to learn more about how the Sherrods et al. have kept on moving…
“One Fast Move or I’m Gone”: Kerouac and Big Sur
Prose by Zalokar (AKA David Golding) (x2), Bob Levin, Richard Meltzer, Aram Saroyan, and Theodore Putala prompted by Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur and the documentary, One Fast Move or I’m Gone, about the stretch in Kerouac’s life chronicled in that novel. You can watch One Fast Move for free online here. (H/t Theodore Putala.)
Beggars Banquet (More Post-Election Reflections)
By Stacey Abrams, Michael Brod, Nick Bromell, Robert Chametzky, Kristi Coulter, Leslie Epstein, Bruce Jackson, Bob Levin, C. Liegh McIness, Zuzu Myers, Asha Sanaker, Aram Saroyan, Budd Shenkin, Tom Smucker, Scott Spencer, Alison Stone, Laurie Stone, Bill Svelmoe, and this walker in the city…
New York Minute
Click the link to watch Michael Rapaport (it may take a few seconds to access the video): IMG_0755 (10)
Choosy Beggars (Election 2020)
By Bernard Avishai, Paul Baicich, Russell Banks, Sue Bergeron, Michael Brod, Nick Bromell, Robert Chametzky, Kristi Coulter (x2), Benj DeMott, Chauncy DeVega, Mark Dudzic, Donna Gaines, Richard Goldstein, Karen Hornick, Bob Ingram, Bruce Jackson, Summer Lee, Bob Levin, Bob Liss, Leslie Lopez, C. Liegh McIness (2), Greil Marcus, Dennis Myers, Nathan Osborne, Ron Primeau, Lee Russell, Ruby Sales, Aram Saroyan, Budd Shenkin, Fredric Smoler, Tom Smucker, Laurie Stone, & Bill Svelmoe.
The Plot Against Democracy: Barton Gellman’s Scoop on Trump’s Electoral Strategy
Barton Gellman’s Atlantic piece about Trump’s plan to break America is online. You should read it soon.
Angie
https://twitter.com/marceldirsus/status/1299293222993383424
Politics of Local People
C. Liegh McIness and Benj DeMott discuss the demise of SNCC, the nature of grassroots organizations, and the character of people who end up in them in the thread below.
Papi Don’t Preach: Pedro Lemebel’s Anti-Macho Metaphysics of Love
Pedro Lemebel, queer artist and radical provocateur, was acknowledged to be an “essential figure of Chile” in his own country when he died in 2015. His work and life–“more than a writer; he was a free man” (per Wikipedia!)–are now becoming better known in El Norte. A documentary film, Lemebel, came out last year and Lemebel’s book Loco afán: crónicas de sidario (Crazy Desire: chronicles of the AIDS ward) has just been translated into English. What follows is a swatch from that report on gay life and death in a Latin American city of night.
The American Experiment (Per Beto & Stacey Abrams)
Beto O’Rourke sent out an email to his supporters which included this video of his short address to the Texas Democratic Convention…
Brotherman
ICYMI, George Floyd’s brother Philonise and nephew Brendan…
Click Read More for a bigger screen.
Homage to Spanish Anarchism
Stephen Schwartz, co-author of Spanish Marxism versus Soviet Communism: A History of the P.O.U.M. in the Spanish Civil War, has linked a number of his associates to the film below (which is available on Youtube). Your editor, in turn, passed the link on to another distinguished author of a recent book on the Spanish Civil War, Adam Hochschild, who was wowed: “Amazing. I’ve seen lots of still photos from this time—which must have been in the first month or two after the beginning of Franco’s coup—but didn’t know there was film.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVv6ampdPeY