I'm listening to This is Madness by The Last Poets while sitting in a black-owned coffee shop in my heavily mixed-race neighbourhood, one of the historic center's of Washington, DC's sizeable black middle glass. I'm surrounded by young hipsters and middle-aged black families, nodding my head in time with the beat, and really enjoying the music--when it suddenly occurs to me that if they could see this, the men who cut that album would probably be quite horrified.
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Oh, those guys were so limited by their historical and racial perspective. They just wouldn't understand how your unique insight allows you to transcend such shallow resentments. But they certainly are good at dancing! And music. It's that beat, you know? Probably genetic.
Brooksfoe, do you know The Last Poets? In the 1970's they were of the "whites are evil" stripe of militancy. It was just an interesting comment, that's all; there wasn't any particular criticism implied. I'm not sure how I feel about it, actually.
At any rate, only a lunatic would try to dance to the Last Poets, at least in their 1971 incarnation.
Somewhat off topic, but what is with the self-conscious postings from coffee houses? I still don't understand this general trend. Is it that there are fewer distractions that at home so people can get more done? Doesn't seem likely now with wi-fi and music, and there are plenty of people doing it on Friday and Saturday nights. Are these people who live in 120 square foot studios and need the spaciousness of a Starbucks? Is it that if you have a Powerbook, you have to be SEEN with it?
It's not that exciting . . . the coffee shop in question, Busboys and Poets, makes a really great falafel.
However, I *am* more productive in coffee shops; no television, no chatty coworkers, no temptation to vacuum.
Who cares? The artist doesn't own the art. As soon as it's out there, it's out there.
Freddie wrote: Who cares? The artist doesn't own the art. As soon as it's out there, it's out there.
Given current trends in patent and copyright law, I wouldn't count on that...
...one of the historic center's of Washington, DC's sizeable black middle glass.
I'll give you "glass" as a typo, assuming you meant "class," but "center's?" Really?
There must be some distraction in that coffee house. Try working @ home, & promising yourself you can vacuum only after you've used preview & re-read your item twice.
P. S.: The Last Poets say: "Wake up, n*gg*rs, or you're all through!" (Just love that line; any excuse to type it.) I own a cassette of a Last Poets LP, & though I haven't listened to it in about 20 yrs. (stashed in storage) I don't remember much "whitey is the devil," more "wise up & help yourselves, don't expect anyone else do it for you" rhetoric. You probably couldn't dance to it, but you can definitely bop your head to it.
I listened to the last poets when they first put their music and poetry out. As a matter of fact, I was one of those dashiki-wearing high school students running around with big fros, doing bad imitations of the last poets, gil scott heron, nikki giovanni, leroi jones and many other talented folks from that era. lame as it was, we tried, and we were inspired by those artists.
It is very obvious that you know nothing about that music and/or poetry, despite whatever momentary enjoyment you may get from listening to their music. It is very, very obvious that you just do not get it, that you have no appreciation of the historical and/or artistic context that gave rise to their work and the work of so many others from that time period. You obviously do not understand the music.
I am not certain why you believe they would be horrified, but I do know that the fact that you make such a ridiculous assumption reveals much about your ignorance of such matters.
I do have to admit that I buzz by your blog just to see what kind of stupid stuff you will say on a particular day. You never disappoint. It is kinda fun because really stupid people usually keep their stupidity under wraps. They've learned not to advertise the fact that they are a real dunce. Fortunately, for our amusement, you wear your dunce cap high!
Oh yea, one more thing...
It is incredibly insulting to most black folks when white folks dip their toe in our culture and then write and speak as though they have a real clue about what black folks think. Just in case you didn't quite get that either...
Yeah, I know the Last Poets - haven't listened to them in decades. I regretted that post after making it. I was trying to just note that there's something slightly triumphalist in that sort of retrospective defanging of political or racially aware music, and it's a pretty fraught zone to get into. The political issue isn't much different from what would be conjured if you'd been listening to "Straight Outta Compton", but I think that one would be sufficiently aware of how extremely wack it would be, as a white paid coffee-house blogger in a black neighborhood, to be overheard listening to NWA, that one might hesitate to allow it even to come on the randomized player. Just as I would be aware of how wack it would be, as a white coffeehouse blogger, to be overheard using the word "wack" in a black neighborhood, and probably wouldn't use it.
This is vaguely reminiscent of Michael Bolton's commuter scene from the opening of 'Office Space'.
brooksfoe,
Are you suggesting that in public areas where one's music may be overheard it is poor judgement to listen to something that is seemingly at odds with one's phenotype? That seems highly absurd, especially in the DC area, which is so cosmopolitan.
Should I restrict my listening to bluegrass and polkas since that's the music of my ancestors? Because frankly, I like "black music" much more. And I've always enjoyed being the nerdy white girl with glasses bumping Wu-Tang, et al. I make fun of my teenaged nephews and nieces for listening to punk and emo, asking them, don't you have any black folks in your school?
Why would they be horrified? Because you're an American who uses Anglicisms like "neighbourhood," or because you're not very pretty?
You never disappoint. It is kinda fun because really stupid people usually keep their stupidity under wraps. They've learned not to advertise the fact that they are a real dunce. Fortunately, for our amusement, you wear your dunce cap high!
Oh yea, one more thing...
It is incredibly insulting to most black folks when white folks dip their toe in our culture and then write and speak as though they have a real clue about what black folks think. Just in case you didn't quite get that either...
Posted by frankie d | September 10, 2007 1:03 AM
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What an incredible string of nasty unsubstantiated ad hominems. Depressing reading
Maybe it's that I don't own an iPod, & am usually listening to NPR or even Air America on my (cassette-playing) Walkman©, but I assumed that The Last Poets were on the coffee-house's sound system, not that Ms. McA. had them on her iPod. Thus were, say, one of The Last Poets to walk in for a "great falafel" (@ a black-owned establishment, yet) he might "quite horrified." Though I doubt it.
Ms. McA., can you clear this up for us?
What is incredible and depressing is that a supposedly reputable publication would hire someone like McArdle to write under their name.
McArdle implies that an African-American musical group that happened to assume a very militant stance back in the early '70's would be "horrified" by a white female enjoying their very militant music and poetry in an racially integrated setting. In doing so, she ascribes a certain racism or racial animus where there is none. Methinks there might be a bit of projection going on there. Or at the very least, complete or total ignorance of the political and racial dynamic at play when the Last Poets put out that music at that time. It is obvious that she doesn't get it, doesn't understand why the poets would use such language and imagery if they did not subscribe to a basically racist philosophy. It is obviously beyond her capabilities. But instead of recognizing that fact and not delving into areas that she is not capable of understanding, she steps in it again. The sign of a real dunce. And an arrogant one at that. Again, the fact that the Atlantic would keep someone that ignorant on staff is what is depressing.
But again, she is always good for a laugh.
Well, Frankie D., at the time, AFAIK, the Last Poets were separatists, no? I doubt that they then would be happy to see what has happened to U Street, though I don't know what their opinion now would be. And I don't think it takes much understanding of the times to understand what gave rise to a song like "Opposites", which is what I was listening to when I wrote that; I'm pretty sure they didn't mean it for upper middle class white women to listen to while they work. But you're weirdly reading in criticism where there was none. I was wondering about the question of what happens to art after the artist lets it go, not investigating the question of black separatism.
Likewise, Brooksfoe, I wasn't celebrating it; just noticing it.
M. Bouffant, no one in their right mind would put This is Madness on a sound system in a coffee shop. I was listening to it with surround headphones; no one else heard it. The sound system had some sort of boring Muzak on.
Thanks for the update. Guess we can see how old I am. And I certainly would put the Poets on in my coffee shop, pasty white as I am. But I like Yoko Ono too. Any of her on your 'Pod?
Maybe my real confusion is "coffee shop." In my lexicon that means a Denny's, or local equivalent, perhaps you wacky yougsters mean it to be a Starbucks or local, "hipper," equivalent, which I'd call a coffee house, for want of a better term. Though I don't remember "This Is Madness" specifically, I think it was fair to assume a black-owned place called "Busboys and Poets" (assumption: more "coffee house" than Denny's/Joe's Diner) might put The Last Poets on.
Your question illustrates my point.
Were they separatists? Who knows. One can assume certain things from their music, but the fact is that lots of politically aware black folks dabbled in separatism back in the day.
Plenty of Africa-Americans believed that racial separatism was the only reasonable and rational response to the legalized apartheid that existed in this country in the sixties. Even respectable people like James Brown and Muhammad Ali and certainly Malcolm X. But on a practical level, one understood that it probably would not happen. Sure, some folks dreamed about an autonomous black nation carved out of places like South Carolina and Georgia, but most folks understood that such a dream was exactly that: a dream.
The position of the Last Poets as a musical group illustrates their dilemma.
When I saw them in Detroit and Ann Arbor back then they certainly did not turn away the many white folks who came to see the band. As a matter of fact, the crowd of college students in Ann Arbor was predominantly white, and neither the band nor the crowd appeared to care. And they, like most other black artists then, understood that they could not -and did not - practice separatism when it came to the business of music and poetry.
Separatism, especially for certain artists from that period, was a theoretical goal, something to aspire to, no matter that it was ultimately not likely to happen. Most artists understood that and dealt with their world from that perspective.
Also, artists evolve and grow and change. That reality hit home after the Virginia Tech shootings this year. When I saw Professor Nikki Giovanni presented as an esteemed member of the Tech faculty and heard her present to the rally as a symbol of unity for the campus, I had to do a quick google search to determine if that was THE Nikki Giovanni. The Nikki Giovanni who wrote some of the most militant, confrontational, black nationalist poetry that came out of the sixties. Yep, it was her. That Nikki Giovanni. When I came across her work in 1970, I would never have imagined that she would or could have ended up as the person I saw on TV that day, but sure enough, there she was.
So who is to say what the individual members of the Last Poets would say, regarding the matters you note.
One really had to be there - in the turmoil of the '60's and '70's - in some capacity in order to understand the historically unique circumstances of that time.
Listening to a cut on an album and trying to make sense of it and fit it into America 2007, without that historical perspective just does not cut it.
On the other hand, reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X is always a good place to start. Speaking of misunderstood black separatists...
My only regret is that MattY didn't chance by so that he and Jane Galt could both nod their heads while discussing the best place to find lobster rolls in Maine.
Megan McCardle wrote: " I was wondering about the question of what happens to art after the artist lets it go, not investigating the question of black separatism."
No you weren't. You were glorying in just how delightful you find yourself, and posted in hopes that your readers would share that delight. Doesn't seem to have worked out for you, though.