https://www.ttbook.org/show/getting-jazzed

The Cure For Racism Is Cancer
BY TONY HOAGLAND

THE SUN: September 2018

Have you ever re-connected with someone you knew decades ago ... but had lost contact with? How did the reunion go?

Delegates to the 1964 Democratic Convention heard an extraordinary speech by a woman who went on to match Martin Luther King Jr as a civil rights leader. She demanded the right of African Americans to be included in civic life, and it shook her nation.

Fannie Lou Hamer's 1964 Civil Rights Speech

Because the adoptive family where I grew up as the only child went out of their way to me be non-communicative, at least with me, I think I must have inherited my gre·gar·i·ous side from my biological mother. Never actually met the woman, but I've discovered that she shared my habit of always wanting to make conversation both friends and strangers. Perhaps this explains why I would want to host The Tuesday Talking stick, and why I continue to enjoy hosting a monthly film discussion group called Spiritual Cinema Louisville.

That group actually has much in common with The Talking Stick and most open threads. After streaming a film or watching a movie on disk, we draw our chairs closer together and wait to see what happens. We, most often I, choose not to screen documentaries since that would be a visual presentation of take it or leave fact(s). We prefer films that provoke conversation rather than try to persuade ... films that speak truth although they may never have actually happened. By talking about what we have seen together, we hope to make discoveries that would not be possible {be sure your volume is turned on} if we stayed home and watched a film alone.

We live in such an Orwellian time when one form of "willing suspension of disbelief" leads to another. What are we to do? How do we keep our individual and collective sanity? Music, especially making music, is one way to remain whole. I've long believed in the healing power of folk music & the blues & jazz. Guess I need to add drumming to my list.

Please read on.

As you sip that first or second cup of French press java ... you might catch yourself scratching your head and wondering out loud, "exactly what is community radio and why in the world should I care?"

Let's talk about that today ... along with a look back to the days before corporate radio. I'll share my listening history with you and encourage you to share your own radio memories. It should be a fun ride.

Please do come along!

On the day before the day before the new year
The snow is falling on my prairie home
I'm so far away from where I started
But no closer to where I belong

The gym lights gleam like a beacon beam

And a million motors hum

In a good will flight on a Friday night;

For basketball beckons, "Come!"

A sharp-shooting mite is king tonight.

The Madness of March is running.

The winged feet fly, the ball sails high

And field goal hunters are gunning.