Spectrum Hawaii; Interview Knapp and Hillerman

The following program is a production of HGT in Honolulu Hawaii Public Television the following program has been funded in part by grants from the Hawaii State foundation on culture and the arts and the people at Chevron in Hawaii. Today Spectrum's guest host Mr. Terence Nambour professor of theater at the University of Hawaii interviews noted actor John Hill is originally a native of Texas. Mr. Hillerman has performed extensively on the stage both on and off Broadway in classical and popular theater. His film performances have been highly acclaimed and his acting for television has encompassed hundreds of roles. He is currently

starring in the CBS series Magnum representing the paragon of decorum. Jonathan Quayle Higgins Here's Charin snap. Hello and welcome again to the Spectrum Hawaii. And it's my particular night. Today I have with me that I have Bain and Pantelis Mr. John HANNAMAN Magnum P.I. but he's not here as Hagen's today. He's here as his own self. I've had the good fortune of working with you John and I've come to know you at little and I'm very happy to be in that situation. Thank you. Would you mind telling me how you became an actor in the first place. I mean where did you get the stimulus and excitement that led you to give yourself over to life as an actor. Well it actually happened quite by accident and I went to the University of Texas and I majored in journalism.

But I was not a serious journalism major in fact until I discovered acting. I wasn't very serious about anything. Yes. And then I went into the air force. It was during the Korean War and I was stationed in Fort Worth Texas and I had a lot of time on my hands I had one of those jobs where you wouldn't have that much to do. So I answered and notice in the paper for a community theater production of death of a Salesman. And I really answered the notices to meet people off the base. Believe me I had no idea I was going to become an actor. You wanted some kind of a social life that's exactly. You know I got tired of looking at the same faces in the barracks every night. So I went in and I read for the part and it was a small part the part of Bernard a salesman and I got the part. And we rehearsed for a month and it was being performed at a old theater very rococo theater and seated about a thousand people.

And I went on stage opening night a nervous wreck of course. And it's I know it sounds terribly corny but I got on stage and it was such a high that I realized that up to that point I had been bored in my entire life. Is that right. True story. And from that moment on there was no question of what I was going to do I had two more years in the air force than I did about 20 plays locally. And then as soon as I got discharged from the service I went to New York and started the long hard struggle. What was the import to that decision to say that to all this and called your phone to me. I mean what kind of not. When did you get to as a child in terms of your own imaginative. There is nothing in my background to have indicated that I would. I was always a precocious child in that I read I always read a great read a great deal and still do of

course. I guess books are my greatest pastime. But there was nothing to indicate that I was going to become an actor nor that I had any particular time with nobody around you know. There was no no theatrical background not even at school. No nothing like no matter what your family or mother or your father no it was quite startling. When were you born in Denison Texas which is a small town in Dallas Texas. And so life until the age of 6 and 7 was it was a normal life of a small Texas town. What is that. I don't know. Well it's you know the years when I was growing up it was like value was a very simple very black and white you didn't lie cheat or steal or you got the hell beat out of me. And I still believe in those values. I think that there's an advantage to growing up in a small town. I have of course in my adult life lived only in large cities. And I remember the simplicity of growing up in a

small town as a child has its advantages. And but it was a quite ordinary life. You subscribe to the view that. Experience as people offstage is very important to capacity is. Yes I think that I have always been the kind of person who in a crowd will watch the crowd. And I like and I know that people will watch her and I think that one takes that in and remembers it and uses it as an actor I certainly do. And so after this very exciting experience of your debut in the theater as it were. After which you had to fulfill your obligation in the air force right. So that was by no means stepping into that they had to say you did what you took himself off to New York. I went to New York I enrolled to seek work as a professional. So yes there was that. Well how did I even start. Well it was not easy either. I went

to I studied the American Theater Wing OK for a year which is a well-known drama school in New York. And of course I had a thick Texas accent. I talked like this. And there are no cowboy parts on Broadway. So it was either lose the accent or not word and I was fortunate in that I met a woman at the American Theater Wing who was my voice coach and her name was Fanny Bradshaw. She was a very famous voice just blended. It isn't. She was quite eccentric but she was really a voice doctor to the stars and a Broadway star who had a voice problem for example in my class. She had she had a private class at her house and she asked me to attend. She felt that she could get rid of the accent and you walk into her living room and there would be people like Montgomery Clift and Geraldine Page and June have a look and they were all there for some problem they had Jerry page for example had a high high voice and she was about to do that Terence damn play where she plays the actress and

she wanted to lower her voice separate tables separately. So she was striving to get her lower register into her voice. I was striving to lose a Texas accent and Montgomery Clift struck me. I can't remember why he was there. He wasn't around much and he had some problem he was trying to correct. So everyone in that room and I was the only. They were all stars. I was only an unknown actor there but I sort of became a protege and she felt evidentally and she encouraged you. That's what she said. She said You've got to lose the accent or if you want if you're serious about the stage. And of course she was right. So it took about a year. You know lose the accent. And then I started doing summer stock and that sort of thing and the contacts while I was still at school. I mean is that when you began to kind of well you make tentative contacts with it so as you know Terry the life of an actor is perpetually looking for work and that's what we do. We act about two months of the year and spend the rest of time looking work unless you are in

the incredibly fortunate position and I find myself now being in a television series where I am gainfully employed eight months of the year and finally make enough money that I don't have to look for work when I'm on. There's one other big difference too I think John although it may be changing and that is in Europe and most certainly in Britain you have these wonderful standing companies right. Rap is dotted around the country and the standing companies in London such as the Royal Shakespeare Company the National Theatre and so on and so forth to engage actors over the long term you know we have that here too. Now America does begin to happen right. But that's not what I was on. I was on the stage for 15 years from until 1969 for 55 to 60 90 around there and it was during that time that I was a stage actor when the regional theaters really came into their own. I opened the Cincinnati Playhouse in the park and worked there a few seasons. I ended my stage career with four years with a theater in Washington D.C.

So there was employment in that in that sense but it was still not the big time. It was not Broadway but it was your own Apprentice it was your apprenticeship and it was a wonderful training ground and one really learned you know you're performing a play during the day rehearsing rehearsals later in the day performing at night and you learn an awful lot about acting what sort of things did you in fact get an opportunity to play. Everything everything from Shakespeare from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams. In fact I did over 100 leading roles on the stage before I moved and literally every book I read I'll be Tennessee Williams Shakespeare and Esco. Did you meet some exciting fellow players or direct to help you to begin to formulate your own self as an actor. Well I always I mean when you're studying at school you're still in infantine too. You are that is when I and that's true.

I was that but I always had a very strong image of what I wanted to do as an actor. I didn't do a lot of fun thing around like a lot of actors do. From the moment I just I discovered that I had a very strong inner impression of what I wanted to be what I wanted to appear to be to an audience. And I had early on and developed a style which is under playing which has helped me in good stead for the camera. And many times the directors would want me to do something bigger with a scene and I just didn't feel comfortable doing it. So I was always known for under playing the same. And that of course was made my transition to film easy because you know I know a lot of stage actors who are quite good on stage but don't work on film because it's too large the camera is. So I'm to play is generally regarded as the hallmark of comedy isn't it. Oh absolutely. In particular I think so.

I am noted Now of course for doing that kind of comedy right. Very underplayed. No coward asked to throw away the lines kind of thing. And I'm very comfortable with that. I like to read it here man. So I don't there aren't many. I can't offhand recall an actor who does quite the kind of comedy that I do in the style that I show. American actors are generally not credited with the kind of comedy of manners or no not cool understatement such as you require for many kinds of people. I am compelled frequently to people like Clifton Webb and William Powell. And God knows that places me in great company but people tend to compare my style to Christian web and William Powell and I can readily see that. I mean obviously because they both were of course masters of underpaid. Now John tell me how did your acquaintance with good plays come about. I mean you spent a year at the school right at the theater Yeah.

And by the way the reason I didn't stay longer here is because I had first of all been doing some acting on the stage. And I didn't feel I was learning anything I had or I you know I had pretty much figured out. What it took to be an actor so I was not I was not heavily into a lot of training and that sort of you kind of knew yourself pretty well by the time you went to high school. Yes I really had a very strong image of what I wanted to do. It was never I always had great confidence as an actor. The secret is convincing other people that you're good. Would you go so far as to say that maybe far too many people attempt to become actors too early in life before they have any understanding of the realities of life before they've had the corners knocked off their own Sankey's. I think that's an awfully good question. I know that young actors tend to see it all the time. Young actors always do too much you know and it takes a while to learn the craft

enough to know that less is more and the simpler the performance the more believable. And in fact the more interesting it's going to be. And young actors always try to bring too many things to the performance and it becomes too busy and too muddied and there's no focus. I think part of that of course is self-confidence. Part of it is learning the craft of acting. But part of it is indeed having had some life experience to back you up. Mean the thing is that when you're when you're an actor you're assigned the task of creating reality out of fiction. Right. That is not the easiest task. No. No. Do you know and do you like Oliviers. Yes. At which time I actually did myself persuading in a way that the act of self persuading in order to persuade. And that's one that's the only thing he's ever said in so many words about the art of acting because he refuses to talk about it. Yes. The mystery of acting yes. And in spite of my my question is to you would you basically agree with that that there is a kind

of an internal mystery about it. And I certainly can't tamper with it or you sure be. Well I am very articulate when it comes to talking about the mechanics of acting myself. I don't I don't have any complicated techniques that I use. I've always been an intuitive it I find generally speaking that if the scene is going well that means it's been well written and it has not been given to given the presumption that you've been cast properly. If the scene is going well then it's well written or if it's not going well it means a damn scene isn't well written. So you would understand what he did have in his head once when she was asked to do something by a director and she simply said yes he yes I leave it in the oven a little longer. That's all she says she felt able or wanted to say about her crafting style. If I'm comfortable that I know the performance is good even if I'm uncomfortable and something is wrong either the direction is wrong or I'm misinterpreting it. I love speaking of quotes quoting actors I love Ralph Richardsons quote he says acting is a two hour struggle to keep the audience

from coughing and the other lovely one way he said. Eight o'clock is the time to dream which is the other side of his nature. That man really had one feels a deep mystic streak to him. Yes. Do you think that actors in that sense have to be all things to old man. Is it necessary for us to be able to respond to. I think the good actors are people who John we should. We think we are and I think that most shallow hollow creatures. No I don't think. I don't think we should allow it. Alfred Hitchcock once said I think in a derogatory way that all actors are children. And my reply to that is yes indeed we are and thank God for it. If we were not children who lived deeply in fantasy and I'm not saying that I live in fantasy when I get up and brush my teeth when I get up and brush my teeth I'm John Hillerman brushing

his teeth. But if I'm doing a performance then of course I'm immersed in the fantasy that I have to have to create the reality. I know it's a contradiction in terms with it but I think we're all. I think that all good actors are chameleons we are what we do is live a person other than ourselves. You know there's a nice That's one of the nice things about being an actor is that if you get bored with yourself you're going to be somebody else. The distinction between between being childish and childlike is very important. And yes I think. And again like he once said how wonderful to be a train driver one day a cardinal or the next of a child and as to the next and being paid to do lots of investigation of our own humanity. Right. Well the thing about you know I like actors I find generally and I've met literally thousands I guess in the course of my 32 years as an actor and they're all they're generally nice and interesting people.

And usually with broad interests there's a cliche that actors can only talk about acting but it's not really true. And I think that good acting requires a kind of liberal broad approach to life to be able to understand the many kinds of people many kinds of problems and situations. Who's the most exciting or one of the most exciting actors that you have come across in your professional life. Do you mean to work with either to work with. Well I would never I could never admit to a single person but the people that impressed me over and over again will all my life I'm sure. Peter O'Toole For example I think is an absolutely brilliant actor with an incredible range of his personality in part two that you find so the personality is fascinating and I think that's true of all actors who use outrageous speed isn't he.

That's one of his great outrageous rages in the very best sense that he's very vulnerable at the same time on the field. Yeah. And I love our people like Alec Guinness and Laurence Olivier and Gil good. And of course the great American stars Bette Davis Humphrey Bogart Edward G. Robinson God the list goes on and time again that maybe Spencer Tracy Spencer is one of the greatest actors in the lab so he was able to do things one wonderful fulfillment in the studio and repeat them right at will. And again he had no technique he said acting is standing up and saying the lines and trying not to bump into the furniture. And that was all he would say I'd like to try it. Absolutely veal. I refused to release any Montgomery Clift was a definitive film actor. Yes. God rest is so there isn't there is a distinction is that in terms of skills and techniques between the two between the theater actor and oh I'm still a camera actor.

It's cold you have the situation onstage. Let's say you have a thousand seat theater which is not that big and you're doing an intimate love scene and you've got to be heard in the last row in the house well somehow you're not really whispering and making love you're pumping up your diaphragm to get the words out and you're still trying to make it seem like a love scene that is not an easy task but the camera is the exact opposite. It sees every tiny bat of the eye and the smaller you make it the better the more believable. And you can now I have on stage I'm sure that any actor who if he will be honest will admit that he has faked it onstage and a scene or a performance when you're not feeling well and you don't have the inner energy and you can you can fake it onstage you cannot take it for the camera. At least I don't think you can it too to me it's a question not necessarily of sincerity. I mean I'm not doubting

that he either. But the question of style. For example if one thinks of Elizabeth and miniature You know I've had this size and yet the distillation of her personality is so complete. And then on the other hand say a Rembrandt self-defensive is different to me three or five feet high. Do you think that analogy is fair. I think it's a question of projection and coloration. I think it's a fair analogy I find quite frankly that I prefer working for you like being a miniature just in that I love. Write because you can. The detail is so great. I don't miss the stage at all. I haven't been on the stage in 15 years. Would you be content with the thought of continuing to work in front of the camera with the rest of your life. Absolutely yeah. I hope to do so. What sort of things would you like to do over and above what you have already accomplished as a camera. Well I would always want to have a television series because I like working with the same people every night. In a sense it's like repertory Did you sense of family a sense of the ensemble and the

ensemble of it. Everyone raves about the chemistry between Tom and me and Magnum because we worked together for five years we know each other's rhythms so well and we can rehearse the scene for five minutes and it's just pure gold comes out of it and trust each other and we try all that explicitly and that is great fun. Its very stimulating. So I like doing television series and magmas over I would indeed seek another one. Beyond that I like doing a good motion picture when one comes along. John you once said to me that you would like to do one of the plays to do but I'd love to laugh. I'd like to do. No I wanted to do a blind spin out lie and spin it for a for the camera. And I think it would make it. In other words take the stage play and give it a camera a treat and try and bring it all down to the kind of delightful small detailed intimate work that you would be deciding what I hope to do that someday like for HBO or one of those things it would be. I have done that play and I particularly enjoy my performance.

So I'd like to do it again. Yeah. What other kind of theater do you enjoy going to watch John. Do you like the opera. Oh yes I like opera very much. That's a big big big right. Yes. Well I always ignore the acting. I just say you know that's just me and I'm bringing it I don't mean go no I'll be stopped. Some of them are stunning. Some of them are great. Some of them were great performances but as you know a lot of them they're not. But I go for the music and the extravagance. I've always thought it was vanity fair that in Africa and in ballet you have this gorgeous undertow of music which so excites the audience right that they cheer and rave I mean especially the ballet. And we pull speaking acting as it were have to be content with just good applause. I know it's the music that does it all live music if only we can score them plays one them. But I think the important part of your life I'm so music is a very important part of my life. I'm along here I don't listen to anything later than bra.

Yes I do like it. Yeah that's very romantic isn't it. Brahms perhaps. I guess I'm a bit of a romantic. Yeah yeah. And in terms of play is I like good. The last play I saw which excited me was I'm a daze. Yes that was a wonderful place in New York with Frank Langella. He was absolutely brilliant. And it was just an exciting play. Do you like the liberties that Peter Shafak took with the personalities of Mozart. How do you add in order to create that dynamic in that confrontation. I love the player and it was fun. John after this season finishes you're off to London I'm too. So we're doing we're doing a two hour Magnum for the opening of next season in London. It'll be the first time that they've allowed us off the island so we're terribly excited about it. I'll be there for the whole month and I've been to London before once briefly and I really fell in love with it. Would you enjoy it all the more as the quote complete Englishman unquote. You have proven yourself to do well.

The strange thing about the strange thing about Magnum and Higgins and all of that I was in London about three summers ago. First of all I get fanmail from England saying you're a credit to great Britain show it will make you not a citizen. Oh absolutely. And when I was in London people would come up to me on the street and say we are so proud of you. And I did say well you know I'm not really English I haven't actually said oh you're putting this on. I'm in the peculiar position of being a man who tells the truth and they think that I'm like you know it's an extraordinary experience to go to to travel abroad we're in 75 foreign countries. You somehow you expect to be anonymous when you leave your own country because you haven't even your wildest dreams contemplate this kind of. I'd use the word celebrity because it kind of covers the case right. I'm not sure that I like the word very much would you John. Well yes I always intended to be rich and famous Did you. Oh yes. But I. That to me is part of being a successful actor because

you see you only have you only have two ways to go as an actor or you can be obscure and you get little parts for no pay. Or you can become quote famous a famous face which is what they buy after all. Yes. And you get the big parts you get paid a lot of money. And I don't see very much in between. So yes I intended from the very beginning to become as the biggest stars I could possibly manage that and that to me was part of the whole thing. Beyond the thrill of acting beyond the satisfaction that I get as a performer and of course I want to be rich and famous cause for tremendous energy and that personality. Doesn't it. I mean you are drawing on enormous psychic powers in addition to those that you are creating as you become more successful demands on you become far greater than anything I imagine. Yes. I was not quite prepared for all of the pressures that come to

bear when you become a very famous actor. It's quite extraordinary that people come at you from all sides and then you then you go away to a quiet corner sometimes where the world can forget all of that. Oh I do. I have. I live in a penthouse that is isolated and I can turn off the phones and sometimes I do so every day. Yes. Yes. John it's been a great delight to speak with you and I thank you very much for revealing those parts of you that most people would never know about otherwise. Thank you. I must also tell you that I am a great admirer of you as an actor. I've enjoyed working with you. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's a compliment indeed. Yes. And so John hillmen thank you very much. And this is good bye for now. From the spectrum Hawaii and see you another time. Thank. You.

Spectrum was funded in part by grants from the people of Chevron in Hawaii and the Hawaii State foundation on culture and the arts. The following program is a production of key HGT in Honolulu Hawaii

Public Television the following program has been funded in part by grants from the Hawaii State foundation on culture and the arts and the people at Chevron in Hawaii. Today on the spectrum. We visit with Maatta human Elysa a Samoan artist who displays his artistic technique on the vast scale of the mural a brief excursion to nature is highlighted by the thoughts of William Wordsworth the black experience in Hawaii is represented by a poet a dancer and a reggae singer.

During a celebration of Black History Month but first we witnessed an intriguing form of meditation called Zen Archery. Zen is a Japanese word. It signifies a sect of Buddhism that encourages self-discipline meditation and the attainment of enlightenment. It touches many facets of Japanese culture such as poetry painting calligraphy ceremonies. And. Archery.

The Zen Archer uses what was once the weapon of the warrior. In his hands. It is now an instrument of cultivation. Those who pursues Zen Archery pursue it to satisfy a flexible mind. About two hundred years ago they are not using too much arrow in the battlefield. But at that time some still having the arrow as a treasure of the house. Sometimes they have what I wanted with someone else from the road to the house. That very night to have the. From what I know quarters. Of. The. House. So. After that war the guys using this block will. For they are strictly chained themselves.

Mentally and physically. You mind I guess that is if there is Sylvia for yourself in other words it's a nice idea or complaint or maybe all can of bothering is in your mind. You have to wipe those out to make peace. And your mind should be one. You've got this idea one needs your mind should be zero nothingness.

So to get in debt plus just improving your mind. And yet you can't. In other words all the time you're not thinking of anything else about nothing but. So. That is the idea of this. Q was most important pushed. The archery club judo chi invited ten master archers from Japan to visit Hawaii and perform their skill. The form of the body requires attention. As does its posture and composure. In this exercise gracefulness is as valued as skill. The mind seeks to become one with the tiger which lies 90 feet

away. The goal is to let the target go and master yourself. The bulk of this exercise is in the preparation. At the final moment when the ball is at its utmost extension. The mind must be empty. There should be nothing in it. Even that is how you have to search among the Kishwaukee maybe digging a. Few of them is not

only way to. Satisfy themselves but even the higher tools. Still a room to room to study do right. So there is no question you have nothing to say. I. Hear.

Mutter umu is an artist in residence at Brigham Young University. He paints and makes prints but his chief activity is drawing sketches and from them composing ceramic tile neuros. It you was born and raised and some of it is lived in what you since 1959. When I was going to school and some want. The emphasis. At. That time was. Try. To. Be.

To speak English. I went to school and. I spent most of my time. Drawing on my exercise books. On. Textbooks. And so I got sent. To the office for doing that. And kicked out of school for. A couple of days. And. But whenever troubles like that happened I went home and I think the person that really helped me was my mother who was really understanding. She was. Well you don't understand if you want to draw the home and draw. So. I. Stay home and draw. In someone as I was growing up there where. There was no one to. Say this is what to draw. And that is the right way to draw. I was. Maybe it was good for me because I was totally free to express anything that comes in my mind.

My good mother except everything I did it was beautiful to her. It was a great. Encouragement. Often he will treat the subject that is relevant to the building that houses. Such as this mural of sporting figures in the gymnasium at Gurukul high school. I'm very close to all the ethnic. Groups here. I learn. A lot from. From different. Cultures that we have here in Hawaii. And I and with Mira. I try to incorporate that. Comes through in the mirror and all the different sports. As actors is one thing to try to play this. This team this. Is to organize all these bodies into this one to do this one thing. And. In Hawaii we have all these

different ethnic groups. They all work in. In Harlem when they do live together. And my mother and I hope will. Tell. Twice now. It doesn't matter what decision you play. You are part of this one crate. You call O'Hana. It took me a year and a half or a couple of years to do that mirro. And it was. All the experience that I went through. It was all part of that. And so I went through a lot of growth during that year. You see something that you wanted that that you are going to draw. And then you and then you draw up one thing. Until you really understand and really identify yourself with it. And then you take what all that experience from that thing. And then you twist it. To fit. Yes. And I think when you do that

I think you are taking a level off. You're not in yourself anymore yourself. Kind of an area that's going. And and and then it's one more attention to your own and Richmond your own spiritual enrichment. And. If you have. Five of those five or six of those experienced a week. Here. Are your attained we attain something I would like to live that you know. Really relate to. Some people call it nature. That they do to your surrounding and then. Take that experience that you draw from that. And be part of you. And it's every art. Piece that I do. Know is a big they are. They all that experience. Before and to me. That become part of me. The next mural. Will be.

The information for that next mirror will. Pour out from me. I will see it different because of the investment from the last one. Nature never did betray the heart that loved her just her privilege through all the years of this life to lead from joy to Joy. She can so inform the mind that is within us. So impressed with quietness and beauty and so filled with lofty thoughts that neither evil tongues rash judgments or the sneers of selfish men.

No greetings were no kindness. All the dreary intercourse of daily life should ever prevail against us or disturb our cheerful faith that all which we behold is full of bliss. Therefore let the moon shine on the solitary walk let the misty mountain winds be free to blow against the. And in after years these wild ecstasies shall be matured into a sober pleasure when the mind shall be a mansion for all lovely forms of memory will be as a dwelling place for those sweet sounds and harmonies.

The. Black culture presents a rich blend of pride tradition history and struggle this culture originated in Africa and is spread through the world over the last three centuries. Here in Hawaii we shall explore the thoughts beliefs struggles and joy of the black experience expressed through the movement of a dancer from Panama. In. The words of a poet from Alabama going home well with Wisteria droops languorously in summer time and afternoons are quiet as clouds except for homes of gnats and mosquitoes and flies. Still as a bird

song Home from the song of a reggae musician from Jamaica. Adela Chu is a dancer who has been in Hawaii for just over a year. She's lived and worked in many countries learning as well as teaching dancing. She combines the indigenous steps of many places and do her own unique style called Afro-Caribbean in. The. Caribbean. That means taking Cuba. Trinidad and Jamaica. And some Brazilian. When asked why and combining it with what I know about modern jazz. And so it's a combination of all of those different elements.

And it's. Just called Afro-Caribbean jazz. In I think of myself as just a title. To allow us to come through and I don't always know what's going to happen even though I like to have a play on the piano in fact. I. Always. What's going to happen. Catherine Toccara is a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawaii. She writes when she's not teaching she says it's because she has to. And she writes poetry because it takes less time. And it's her way of saying what she wants to say about her culture and experience.

Well start with some history and drift into some more personal things. The first number that I'd like to do for you is called River of struggle river of struggle and protest flowed from upper valleys of West Africa ancient kingdoms of sungei Ghana Mali Messiah house float down to the base of brutality the unknown ocean of Atlantis and to the voracious mouths of dungeons ship proud warriors and promising you betrayed by brothers delivered by slavers into the shackles of Western Europe. Avarice my poetry is like a call to those who are here. For transcendence. For unity.

That for moving forward kind of a spiral. Effect. It includes history and. Other things. But I think that essentially that that's what I'm trying to do is to. Have people move up. You Raven are so beautiful ravenously beautiful outrageously radiating rainbows and black pearls. Do you silhouette the morning and angles of some black flash of contrasts. You have feathers found for warriors and children. The night velvet cloak. Did you ever talk of Raven's as beautiful before as soul is black. When I read said. Not only the words that I say.

There is an energy that comes with the words that I say I like to throw out there and I worry about what might be listening. Either they can leave feeling better way up high perhaps feeling more enlightened and areas that they have not taken the time to observe or think about before. But especially in a heightened state of awareness the way to us was to follow one who had been before. Grandma said to observe the taboos across the water at appropriate times up and down the stream of humanity. Born. In Jamaica you began singing

reggae in London in 1969 stationed here in the military in the 1970s. You returned to live and share his music and beliefs or your music has a lot to say about the culture and not just one culture but many cultures. Because it's based on. The natural things around you. For example the birds the bees I hate. Reagan music says a lot about that for the human being. It's what goes on within the life form of the system. Real Stuff reality. Life. Dad. And all other things. But like most singers of Reggae has strong religious beliefs and is known as the rest of fairy in a word common in reggae music is the word Joie. And too much though John is much more than just a word in a song.

Song. All. Right. Joe. Johns. Is the creator. Before known as God and are spiritual language. Came down in the Rastafari culture as John. Sheriff jackhole in that aspect it's easy or mighty about all things. And all people. So sing about John is basically like somebody praising God. All right. Guys. My hair. Is a mess. That no one has seen yet though some might. Feel like.

Me. As you point out reaching out to many words which show through technology and look around. To see what's really happening. On the music and so. Forth. So. I. Support the dancers. By really. Bringing to it in great rich cultures and background. To each. But what is now the place where they share their work. I came to Hawaii in 1968. And. I was. Thunderstruck practically by the immensity and the intensity and the beauty of nature and having grown up in a small town on the south.

With it's own kind of closeness to nature. I don't know whether it's some kind of. Invisible connection to Africa or roots or something like that that I am so impressed by nature. But I am I think all humans can be if they allow themselves to be. So I would say that Nature has been a big factor. And then the. The great variety the range of. Ethnic groups is inspiring because you have so many different flavors of different menus you can choose from. Taste and be inspired by and that's. That's been. Wonderful for me. I get a lot of back from this and a lot to keep this music going and that's why I stay and I hope that a majority of people really get to see fulfilling this music that Greg is putting out. It's great to be in NY. It's a second home for me but some day I'll see my home Jamaica again

and when I do I know I'll never miss a way because. The same environment. Really. Why are you such a blending of people and races. I feel like I'm giving the small in a small way a reflection of what. I have experienced in my life. And. In terms of cultures that might not be present here. Or might not be so well known here. From Alabama Panama Jamaica. The Black culture is revealed through song dance and poetry and expression of life as it was as it is as it may be. For I've so far seen some of the future. Which I cannot put out in words. It comes in the mist. And therefore I like somebody asked me to see that I can put it out where I can get knowledge. Only. Twice. It's. Wonderful work.

I think that the poet is. Kind of a chronicler. Of the times and. I feel it is my unspoken task to kind of Chronicle. The Times. To me culture is something that comes out of the soul of the people and it comes out in a form. And it can be in music it can be and dance it can be in a lot of different things you know but it's basically the expression of the feeling of those people. I think we're getting into a place where we're dealing with world culture at this point. Culture is a means by which. We are. Expressing ourselves as a people but it's also a means by which we expect expressing particular things that are really special in that culture. Your influences they take unknown paths. To the surface in the performing arts visual arts as well as in meditation. The strings of experience. Are not severed. There are those alive who wish

to join us again on our next spectrum. God. God. God God God God. Everyone. With. The.

Spectrum was funded in part by grants from the people of Chevron in Hawaii and the Hawaii State foundation on culture and the arts