WGBH Journal; Sculptor of Legs, Nineteenth Century Black Abolitionist, Pianist Andre Watts, Louis Lyons

Good afternoon and welcome to GBH Journal. I'm Bill cavernous. The month of May has been designated as arts month on public radio stations throughout the country. During the month WGBH Af-Am will be featuring special arts programs which have been produced at other public radio stations as well as by ourselves here in Boston. On today's edition of GBH Journal we have two IDE's features from other national public radio stations that we have an interview with concert pianist Andre Watts and San Francisco have a discussion of a 19th century black abolitionist. Today's show also features commentary on the news from the airlines and a locally produced arts piece about the rather unusual pair of women's legs. We hear. Why the whole idea. That they were my my they. Ignorantly believed in Hankow place but I think they both are dynamite. Their legs I noticed them about 12 blocks up and they came right down. The biggest crowd stopper in New York City these days as a pair of legs pink vinyl

air inflated 50 foot long womens legs wearing black stiletto heels and they draped from the roof of the museum of contemporary craft. The greater of these New York legs is Boston sculptor and Slavin who recently spoke with a reporter of that in Dukat. Slatted began her artistic career by working in the medium of cloth but as her work increased in size she decided that inflatable sculpture was more suitable for her ideas. The first pair of legs she ever made very exhibited locally at the Smith Music. I. Then. Did a show. On women and women. In. The piece. A legacy piece that was about. A neighbor of mine. This is Lewis who somehow His seem to have had an incredible amount of influence on me. I think that she sort of represented a lot of women that were in the media at the time I was growing up you know she was big and

very sexy looking and sort of the kind of woman that you thought you were supposed to look like but God knows how that was ever going to happen. You know I was like this little skinny thing with scrawny legs weighed 43 Pab. I mean I had no identity of you know really growing up that way and I think that also being the height that you are as a child that's your viewpoint that's what you see. You know people's legs and at that time it was like women wearing you know the stilettos spiked heels and it was all and girdles and you know full length brows it was also ludicrous. So. Anyway so I did. That was this piece I had done this large scale piece in flight on the blue with mine and it was that came down I got a letter in the mail from the craft museum saying that they were putting on a show called The Great American foot and it was I working in in anything at this time that

could be contributed to that show and I thought for sure this was a joke from a friend. You know I mean it was look absolutely ludicrous because I thought how many people are working with feet and legs. So I called them up and it was really very straight and true and made an appointment to see them. I had the meeting and we debated a lot about whether the piece could be seen in New York because it was a rooftop piece. He was it would extend from the roof into the sky. And the street in the site where the museum is is very narrow and your visibility would it would be very difficult to see it. And we also went through the make up of New Yorkers that the director of the museum insisted that New Yorkers never look up ever ever ever there maybe people look up in Boston but they're not going to New York. So taking that meeting to heart I redesigned the piece to go down the facade of the building which

I think. It is a much more successful way of handling it because it's so natural to think of just somebody sitting in the position and it's a. So I went to this company John Boyle who makes a special nylon reinforced funnel that is the right kind of stuff for outdoors and ordered about a third of what I needed which they donated to me. So they gave me the material which was very difficult to find because I wanted pink. You know I would call up all these companies in Ohio and California in fact I want the such such outdoor material that's got to withstand incredible winds and you know not fade in the whole thing and they would have the material and I would say Pink and they think you're crazy you know you know you can bubble gum pink I want to. So anyway so I was able to get the material from John Boyle and. I went back to Broxton to do the

piece and realize that I had no concept of how big I was talking about. I mean I started laying the stuff and my living room for that. You know this is I mean I just didn't know what I was doing. So I was able to get a grant from the mass arts and humanities foundation in the Martin Luther King school. Which started off with a studio space that seemed like it would be perfect for the piece. And by the time I ended I was out of the studio on to the cafeteria in the gym blowing it up like three flights of area you know and they were wonderful and they just sort of gave me free access to the school. The second thing that happened was that the piece was welded together in the way that water beds are put together. It's vinyl weld welding and the machine that I was supposed to use broke down and I ended up in a factory in Brighton putting the pieces together

and very strangely turned out to be shoe parts factory. And that was really fun. How long did all those. It took it seemed like it took every minute from January to until you know the piece went up which was three weeks ago. Three civil war race relations in his country were dominated by the deeds of black abolitionists. Various leaders most notably Frederick Douglass attempted to devise ways to bring their people into the mainstream of American society. Another abolitionists an opponent of Douglas was Reverend Henry Highland GA net whose radical ideas characterized him as one of the most militant blacks of his generation. His life story has been told in a book by historian and author Joel Schorr and his granddaughter Henry

Highland Garnet Edmond is currently writing a historical play based on his life's achievements. Donna Limerick of National Public Radio in Washington recently spoke with Schorr and Edmond about. Every island got its life in his early life he had been an escapee from slavery and his family had been harassed and threatened by. Slave hunters. The family was split in New York City. This infuriated the younger nat the younger Arnett would be came bounding determined to end slavery any way he could do so. And he was taken under the wing of abolitionists in New York State. White and black. He became. Associated with the Presbyterian Church and it was from Presbyterian ism in the fervor of the great awakening a religious movement that was going through New York upstate New York where Garnett was residing. That he obtained is his

orientation and his reformists. Inclinations you had a world wide plan for ending slavery that encompassed Africa the Caribbean United States and the islands. And I agree Britain. What type of research did you have to do to get the facts together concerning his life. A lot of it was. Looking through old abolitionist news papers and tracks they provided very important sources and clues to the publications of Frederick Douglass in particular also stray letters where I could find them in special collections wherever I could find it was a very painstaking job. Henrietta if you were writing a historical drama on the achievements of your great grandfather what kind of problems have you encountered taking the life of a historical figure and making it into a play.

Well the biggest problem in this instance is that there is so much material that can be put into a drama because his life his life was a drama. And the matter of selecting certain incidences to portray on the stage. And then you always have to think of the limitations of theatre. You know you can't I can't have him go from New York City to Liberia and Ireland then. And Jim and you know Jamaica or someplace like that. So there's that there's a lot of difficulty writing a historical play. What parts of his life do you hope to highlight. Well for dramatic purposes I am highlighting. The bitterness some of the bitterness. A big moment of it from the time that he was running away from the slave catchers and injured his leg.

He had to have his leg amputated later on and that had to affect personality. It had to really go to the core. But yeah I think the thing that balanced some of the bitterness that one could not help but have not only from his personal life but when he looked around and he saw that there is things that were happening to black people at the time it certainly does provoke bitterness. It still does today. He felt that he never obtained from the black community the recognition that he deserved. How did Douglas seemingly surpass going net in influence. Well. I think that has to do with media. Remember I we said earlier the Douglas's paper was the most important. Black media. Communication. Well when Douglass didn't agree with you. I suspect you got less coverage or perhaps were excluded or were put down but

central to it to the issue is and to gaining the minds of the black community was a question of communication. And here the governor did not have the resources although the battle was very prominent and later in the 1850s Garn have associated himself with another. Black newspaper called the weekly Anglo African. And there was quite a battle raging all the way up until. Oh the middle of the Civil War. As for control over the minds of the black community how do you plan to portray that relationship just before whether the votes that was taken as to what strategy they should use. Garnets forces lost by a slim majority one vote one vote. Which path is best dramatic you know. You have two opposing camps and you don't know how the vote is going to come out.

But one thing you must do as a playwright is foreshadow what might happen because they have to the dramatic impact. And so what I had planned was to have. BARNETT And Frederick Douglass come very early in the morning before anybody had all the delegates had arrived and what they would be doing was they would be eating. And you would have this scene with them eating and eating is really a fight. And it's the way they tear the bread. Drink a cup of coffee whatever that is that they are doing because they are in the play I'm having breakfast brought to bear saying that eating scene will foreshadow the what will actually happen when all the delegates get there we have the battle and so forth and so on. Do you have problems. Worrying whether or not people will accuse you of

being biased and you are his great granddaughter. Because. There is so much time removed. I think that would be true if I knew and had known him then I could not remove myself. But the medium that I am dealing with says that you cannot stick to exact truth anyway and so you you have poetic license because there are some facts which are fine as long as they are in book form. But when you translate them to the stage you have to distort them in some kind of manner because the state is not reality it's an illusion. Concert pianist Andre Watts played at the White House at Richard Nixon's first inaugural and during Nixon's presidency. He feels he was used politically in all

situations. Any discussion with Alan Farley of station KUOW in San Francisco he talked about these experiences about the broader question of when an artist should draw a line between politics and art. I played in the White House under Nixon and stayed in for president. Hu to. The Congo. Democratic Republic of Congo. And. Which is I said in a stressed democratic republic but because you know after I played he was he was very nice and President Putin was very nice and. Ask him Mr. Nixon then President Nixon if he said Mbutu had Nixon's permission to Knight me I mean I was very flattered but I thought it was rather peculiar to be knighted. I'm going to become your career is you know it doesn't quite go to get it anyway. And that was then and I remember. Did you feel at all using that at that.

Sure of course and I think that it would be ridiculous you know for somebody in my racial position to go to the White House and agree to play the state dinner for African head of state and black african have stayed there without realizing that well there's a certain amount of showcasing. I thought it was fun I didn't mind that you know when I went in with my eyes open and was aware of the situation. And well I'd really don't know. I I don't I think it's I'm telling the truth when I say that you know there is an honest comment and I think I was invited once or twice after that. Not in Mr. Carter's administration but I mean after I played from a good two and I did just that I don't I didn't care to go again. Did the president talk to you. Well you know I played at the first inaugural concert mixed with Howard Michel in the National Symphony

and. Well at the state dinner I don't know I guess he said hello and it was a nice concert you know. That was about it. And I mean you know there are lot of people there at the in the first inaugural. I remember on a my foot was also on that concert and I remember mentioning briefly to. Something about Geo. Well I mean this really isn't a political you know I just wanted reassurance you know and she said don't worry about it I sang a chant in the normal too and I thought are great but I was never quite convinced that something. Had been asked which I was not there for the second time around I don't think I would have done it. And the business of musicians and music and politics I think is a very dangerous one in a very complicated one on the one hand I think that at a certain point the argument that I'm a musician and not a politician and don't have anything to do with that is no

longer a valid problem then of course if you have that kind of an attitude is exactly where is it that you start then to make a stand. You know I mean I do think about obviously the classic case of Germany and German musicians and then attempt the Nazis and I was I think in public as our own that kind of situation yeah. Well the one thing I notice in political with political reason and others is that the musicians very often tend to have very big mouths and then to say I will never again in so long as I live play in such and so and it always seems to crumble you know depending on the financial arrangements of tourism which I think is a mistake. You know I think you know you especially when you're a young musician your early career you know what you're turned on. Don't be too quick to say I will never play here again as long as I live. Because you know or then if you do change your mind come out and say it. Don't don't make some you know flimflam excuse about well I didn't really say that or that's not really what I meant to say look at change my mind I was wrong. You know do it and you find yourself very often being put into political situations or is that a rare

occasion. It's pretty rare. I mean and I hope that I have enough judgment to know what is a political situation. Actually you know I give an exam. Our doctor was going to college my new college term and I don't know very well who with no judgment you know he was making a judgment but he was simply we were discussing the Philippines and I'm going to blame and I lived in Manila before it never occurred to me. I certainly know all the things one reads about the Philippines and President Marcos and so forth and so on. It never occurred to me not to go for some reason that may be very dumb. I don't know but this colleague of mine said well yeah you know I'm wondering whether I would do that or not but I would go there and see and I'm not sure actually. Maybe I'm making excuses for myself now. But to a certain degree there must be some fact to it that if you started to refuse to go to countries that have political abuses you would really practically play no place because anyone

can pull that on the United States as well. Sure I mean it exists now depends to what degree and there it comes again you have to start to draw the line. I don't know really what I should have done for example as many years ago I played in in Managua Nicaragua. And they have you know they have the fancy pyramid a hotel and beautiful concert hall and I think I walked between the two. Anyway it was short distances you could walk in the walk between the concert hall and the hotel you know you'd find cooking dinner in the gutter on the street. Well and I felt bad about that and you know. And yet at the same time I don't know enough for Mr. Summers or not supporters to Somoza actually in the news you know that made me think of it I don't really know where you where you draw the line. Everybody makes their own private one I guess you know I would never go to South Africa even though I've seen is it seems you know I could be invited and you could make a lot of money but when South Africa

it's something that I don't think I would want to do. Now with a look at the news here is commentator. The so-called bottle Bell is killed for another year in Massachusetts after passage in the house it failed in the Senate yesterday on a 20 to 20 vote and failed again today for reconsideration by the same vote. President Harrington casting the decisive vote against it has been the object of intense lobbying the bottling industry reportedly spent five millions to defeat it last year. Supporters say the bill is an anti litter bill. Such a title might have strengthened it

in Vermont and Oregon a similar bill has brought cleaner roadsides and parks. The New York Senate yesterday uphill governor Kerry's veto of a death penalty bill by a single vote. That's been the most intense issue of this session and watched nationally. Harvard faculty yesterday accepted a new program of studies aimed at ensuring a more balanced undergraduate education. The new core curriculum replaces the general education program that have adopted 30 years ago which had become the general pattern of liberal arts colleges. The new program has more definite requirements and a broader field of studies. A student must take as much as a fourth of his studies. Seven to 10 courses divided among five fields. He must also demonstrate competence in writing and mathematics and in a foreign language to graduate. The five areas in which he will select his core of studies in history science and math. A foreign language and culture literature and the

arts social and philosophical studies. The three to one faculty vote came after intensive debate in a series of faculty meetings this spring that followed committee proposals and discussions for nearly four years since Dean Henry restocks he reported that the university must tighten and broaden its requirements. Other colleges that adopt it have a general education program Melia have been closely following the new direction. President Carter appears to be losing his case in Congress to link modern jet planes for Saudi Arabia with plane sales to Israel. The majority of the House Committee on International Relations signed a resolution of disapproval so-called of the package deal. This despite speaker anneal support of the president's request the resolution signed by 21 of the 37 members is a procedural first step. Scientists say it means the committee will recommend congressional veto over the president's proposal unless some kind of accommodation is reached.

The White House insists that it has enough votes for approval. But as reported planning to reduce the size of the request for the sarnies and increase that Israel plans for Egypt have provoked less objection. The Congress has until May 28 to vote disapproval of the request it would put in last Friday. Israel has strongly protested that the late model planes to Saudi Arabia could be used against it. The administration's gests insists it needs to deal even handedly with Israel and moderate moderate Arabs to have an effective voice in peace negotiations. The politics of Prime Minister Begin his visit to Washington as had priority over the economic issues. Japan's Prime Minister Fukuda for quotas had to wait till today to discuss with President Carter Japan's 9 billion dollar surplus in trade with the United States he told Congress and administration leaders yesterday that Japan's Japan is determined to reduce it to increase its imports and reduce

exports of cars and television sets to cut steel shipments to United States by 10 to 20 percent. But he wants the United States on its side to do something about inflation that is weakened the dollar against the yen. The extortion charges in Massachusetts politics took a giant leap in sensationalism yesterday when the attorney general's office described a plan to raise $500000 to obtain the Republican nomination for vice president for John Volpi in 1972. Well he said he never heard of it nor apparently had anyone else in Bay State politics. But the NBA consultant for him informed the attorney general's office that it had been pressured by two Republican fundraisers to pay them ten thousand dollars toward the 500000 that was to buy the former Republican governor a place on the Nixon ticket. This to replace part of Agnew for pay had been a candidate for second place in the 1988 Nixon ticket. Nixon had appointed him ambassador to Italy.

And assistant attorney general brought the charges into Suffolk Superior Court in an argument for $10000 of bail for each of the defendants as Albert Menzies and William less yellow were arraigned on indictments for extortion from the MBM firm whose officers have testified to extortion on behalf of other politicians. MBM had been promised immunity for his testimony. Governor a carcass suspended Menzi from his state job as vice chairman of the master's turnback authority Manzi was a fundraiser in the 60s for vote later for governor Sargent no bail was set the judge set another hearing for June 20 raising $500000 to influence a nomination would not of itself be a criminal offense. The charges of extortion demanding the ten thousand under threat. Whether the funding the allegation was raised and if so who got it was unanswered in the arraignment. It would be more readily brushed off were it not for the odor of money in the 1072 Nixon

campaign which various people have gone to present and to state senators have gone to prison for extortion from MBM the impact of the $500000 streamer headline this morning was reinforced by sharing the front page with the fourth installment of the Nixon memoirs the forex tips published in The Globe and in the New York Times have so far been identical indicating they were not selected and edited from the book in the newspaper offices but supplied ready to use rebated by the syndicate which was the New York Times feature service. The package of seven will run through this week. The book's publication date his May 15. For Wednesday the 3rd of May 1978. That's TV external and regional news

magazine heard Monday through Friday at 4:30. Producer and editor of The Journal is Marcia heard today's engineer mile single and I'm going to have a warbling but not wobbling Wednesday. Blah blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah blah. Blah blah.

Blah home. The all. The way.