Warning, this video contains boring, non-controversial, common sense responsible talk about Kwanzaa. It will not enflame passion. In fact it may put you to sleep.
A couple clarifications.
- Ligon was a metaphysician first and a philosopher second.
- When I was in the 7th grade reciting the poem about Santa Claus, we had already returned to our Christmas traditions. We only skipped it one or two years.
Here is another interesting reference I haven't really thought about. I generally take it for granted that people have some passing familiarity with the Black Consciousness and Black Arts movements. Since there appear to be people who seem to have no idea about the connections to other intellectuals of the day:
As the movement matured, the two major locations of Black Arts' ideological leadership, particularly for literary work, were California's Bay Area because of the Journal of Black Poetry and the Black Scholar, and the Chicago-Detroit axis because of Negro Digest/Black World and Third World Press in Chicago, and Broadside Press and Naomi Long Madgett's Lotus Press in Detroit. The only major Black Arts literary publications to come out of New York were the short-lived (six issues between 1969 and 1972) Black Theatre magazine published by the New Lafayette Theatre and Black Dialogue, which had actually started in San Francisco (1964-1968) and relocated to New York (1969-1972).
In 1967 LeRoi Jones visited Karenga in Los Angeles and became an advocate of Karenga's philosophy of Kawaida. Kawaida, which produced the "Nguzo Saba" (seven principles), Kwanzaa, and an emphasis on African names, was a multifaceted, categorized activist philosophy. Jones also met Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver and worked with a number of the founding members of the Black Panthers. Additionally, Askia Touré was a visiting professor at San Francisco State and was to become a leading (and longlasting) poet as well as, arguably, the most influential poet-professor in the Black Arts movement. Playwright Ed Bullins and poet Marvin X had established Black Arts West, and Dingane Joe Goncalves had founded the Journal of Black Poetry (1966). This grouping of Ed Bullins, Dingane Joe Goncalves, LeRoi Jones, Sonia Sanchez, Askia M. Touré, and Marvin X became a major nucleus of Black Arts leadership.
That's from a Modern American Poetry website.
Here's another reference by the same author, Kalamu ya Salaam.
I should also include my original scans of Negro Digest from Pops' Institute for Black Studies Library (which I inherit, whoohoo!).
Also I would add that we knew Mr. Cauthan of the Ebony Showcase Theatre, and later I was also a member of PASLA. It was my connection with Cauthan that got me my auditions for the television show Julia. I was going to be Cory Baker. I also was going to be the first black kid on Bonanza, but we had problems with the script.
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