Say Brother; 1218; Wushu A Treasured Chinese Art Form / Passing it Down: The Black Woman's Oral History Project

17. How much of a deposit did you have to put down? 20 % and 17. How much of

Good evening. I'm Chuck Harris. Welcome to this month's

edition of Say Brother Times 2. Tonight, we'll look at efforts to preserve two very diverse aspects of third world culture. Spurred on by the resurgence of interest in bettering our health, Say Brother producer Barbara Barrow Murray decided to investigate one of the world's oldest methods of promoting health and fitness, the Chinese martial arts. Master Bo Sim Mock and students of the Chinese Wushu Research Institute will show us that contrary to popular belief, the martial arts are not just an aggressive fighting technique. In our second story, Say Brother reporter Kelly Crosley explores a six year effort to record the history of some outstanding black women. Under the direction of Ruth Hill, the Black Women's Oral History Project at Radcliffe College is closing the gap on a seriously neglected aspect of American history. And now, Master Mock and her students will demonstrate some of the mental and physical benefits derived from studying the art of Wushu. Music I've always been interested in the martial arts,

particularly the Chinese martial arts, and I had never known anything about them. Just by chance, I noticed a notice in our school newspaper that Master Bo Sim Mock was coming to MIT one evening to give a lecture on Chinese Wushu. It sparked my interest and I had the time and I came and I attended the lecture and I was hooked. Music I got a lot of

good exercises from studying Wushu. And before I like to exercise, but before I don't know how to do exercises and Wushu give me a better idea of how to condition my body and how to turn on my muscle. Music Music It increases your flexibility, strength, your basic coordination and it makes me feel a lot better about my body. It helps my coordination and I'm much more confident in myself as a person, going out to perform and showing people and I just feel good about it. Wushu is comprised of physical exercise, health restoration and is highly artistic. is suitable for both men and women to study. I

feel that the internal forms especially emphasize and encompass the principle of uniting external and internal energies, hard and soft into one. For instance, Tai Chi Chuan, Ba Kua and Sheng Yi can be practiced by men and women of all ages, especially Tai Chi Chuan. After much study, Tai Chi Chuan has proven to aid in restoring health and maintenance of good health. When you reach a certain age, the pursuit of good health, longevity and youthfulness are more pronounced. Music Music Music Master Bosun Mark is the founder and president of the 6 year old Chinese Wushu Research Institute, which is located in Boston's Chinatown. If you are

like most, you are somewhat familiar with what is called gong fu, usually as it pertains to movies. This is a popularized term and has no direct relationship with martial arts. Translated literally, gong fu means skill or proficiency. Wushu is the transliteration of the Mandarin words for war arts. The external forms, based on the physical capability of the body, emphasize youthful strength and speed. Whereas the internal forms, characterized by soft, circular and subtle movements, are based on the development of internal energy. However, when one practices to a certain level, there is no difference between the two forms, they complement each other. The highest achievement is when the external and the internal, the hard and the soft, are united and balanced into one. Music Though it is a challenge, a full time commitment is a must. Joanna Lu, a member of the Chinese Wushu Research Institute performance group, and full

time staff director of WGBH TV explains. It's generally about four days a week. Sometimes it's two nights a week and then two good half days on the weekend. And I usually just say the weekends are doing martial arts. I need the time because television directing is pretty tense. It's pretty demanding in terms of just stress. And it gives me a chance to cool out and release a lot of that tension when I do the martial arts. I asked Joanna, would we get a similar response from her colleagues at CWRI. Just about the same, the ones that also have jobs will just say, there are a couple of strong things in my life. One is my job, another is my family, and the other is martial arts. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. I work in an electronic company at a daytime, and I'm still going to school at night time. I get up early in the

morning and I stretch my body. And at the lunch hour, I have about an hour to do my exercises. I did work a 40 hour job and I was laid off recently. So right now I'm here working out four days a week. I would come here after work and I still maintain that four day a week working out on nights. And Saturday afternoons, Sunday afternoons, and it was hard. I I would come back really tired from work, but I always felt good after I stretched out and worked out sweat. I work nine to five Monday through Friday. So how do you find time to do this? After work on Saturdays and Sundays. And how many classes do you take a week? Three to four, and I practice on my own once or twice. What happens to your work here at GBH when you put in that kind of mandatory time into the out of worship? Sometimes

it actually helps the work here because I find that if I let myself get too wrapped up just in television, or just in the problems or anxieties or personalities I'm dealing with in television, it gives me a chance to take a break, to think about something entirely different. And sometimes that kind of release or that kind of calmness from thinking about something else or striving to be better in an entirely different field gives me a new perspective on the work. This year Master Bosa Mark

returned to China seeking more knowledge on the out of Wushu. She shares her findings with us. This time when I went back, besides participating in exhibitions, I had the opportunity to research, discuss and exchange ideas, and put to test all that I've learned. I was highly praised for my performances, and I was very honored by the claims and good reviews I received from fellow top Wushu masters. While in China I noticed there are two types of Wushu, one is a required basic form and the other is a traditional form. After this kind of performance by a master such as Bosa

Mark, the obvious question is, what should one know before considering the study of Wushu? It takes a lot of patience and a lot of work and a lot of practice. You often are very frustrated and very discouraged at times, but if you keep practicing, eventually you're going to improve. It's just a matter of time and being patient with yourself. Anybody can do Wushu according to their ages. When are young, when the body is in good shape, they can do rigorous exercises like jump a lot, kick a lot. But when you get old, they cannot do a very relaxed style like Tai Chi. There's a lot of beneficial rewards for your health, coordination and peace of mind.

Master Mark gives us her final perspective on the art of Wushu. The term Wushu refers to a uniquely Chinese traditional exercise and is one of China's oldest cultural art forms. Wushu appears to be like dance with its graceful movements, but actually it is more. It not only includes fighting techniques, but also physical exercise, health restoration and health maintenance.

These are the values. In addition, it can be practiced by men and women of all ages. Many masters who reach the age of 70 or 80 can still perform and practice like a youngster. Wushu is one of China's Wushu one Wushu Wushu Wushu

most of us know, there are very few things that actually improve with age, so it is encouraging to hear that martial arts forms like Wushu offer an alternative for keeping ourselves fit and happy well into our later years. Now, Kelly Crosley takes us through the rich tapestry of a rediscovered segment of black history. What do you find when you go searching through most American history books, looking for information about the contributions of blacks and other minority Americans? Not much. It's a discrepancy which has angered those who have been left out. The role of people of color in the making of America, as one black historian put it, is neither well known nor correctly known. But during the last two decades, a number of books and articles have been published, information which has served to fill in the gaps. Still, there are a lot of contributions which have gone unnoted, and that's the reason for a special project which has been based in Cambridge for the last six years. Established at Radcliffe Schlesinger Library, the Black Women's Oral History Project is the vehicle through which 72 black American women have told their

life stories. And I was the only certified obstetrician gynecologist within 50 miles. And their hospital was going to be certified that year. And I knew they needed me more than I needed them. And I took advantage of that opportunity. Because when I went there, I wanted to build a maternity clinic right in the area. But I knew we had to get it together, and I had to do something about delivering patients and taking care of patients before. And I got full, crazy privileges at that hospital. Me, deep in the heart of Texas, a black woman, doctor. The women range in age from 47 to 108. All have contributed in their own special way to American life as doctors, teachers, laundry workers, artists, activists, mothers, and mostly

as pioneers. And this is an interesting fact. We had a supervisor, assistant supervisor. Of course, she took me in the homes at first. But anyhow, they apparently must have told around that they were going to have a black nurse. Of course, we would call it nose time, join the staff. But there was this family, she told me, they said they never wanted a colored nurse to come. Now, this is ironic about it. When my father was in Christian endeavor, he used to meet to often invite some of the members to his house and throw a big feed. Well, the family didn't want me to come into their house. It was one of the most faithful members of coming to his house to eat the food. Ruth Hill is the coordinator for the Oral History Project, which was funded by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Blanchard Foundation, Boston Safe and Trust Company, and Warner Communications Incorporated. Hill has overseen the collecting of the interviews, and for the last several years, she has

headed up the effort of transcribing and editing the interview cassettes, literally hundreds. I've just found it a fascinating project to work on, and constantly amazed, even though I experienced some of the same things. You're constantly amazed, as you're reminded, over and over again, of all the things that black women have gone through, and they still survive somehow. They survive with banners flying, so to speak. The idea for the Oral Project came from a black woman on the board of the Schlesinger Library. Later, an advisory committee was formed to select the interviewees. The committee considered more than 400 women. We had women who were doctors or lawyers, but on the other end of the spectrum, we had women who had raised their children, and their children had gone out into the world and done more than perhaps they had done. So, it was a very broad definition of contribution to improving black life, and also, we weren't necessarily looking for women who were known on the national and

international scene. We hope that we find women who had made contributions in their own communities, and we did. Hill is often asked about the need for a project which focuses solely on black women. History and history books reflect the contributions of the white male, there's room for recognizing the contributions of others. And so, this project is in a small way an attempt to fill in the gap to show some of the contributions women have made and show some of the contributions that blacks have made. 11 Massachusetts women were included in the Black Woman's Oral History Project. Muriel Sutherland Snowden is one of them. Well, it was built into the proposal that the women who were going to serve on the advisory committee would automatically be interviewees, so that certainly I was thrilled. was glad that that had been written in. I was really very excited about it. At 66, Muriel Snowden is as comfortable in the corporate

boardrooms of Boston as she is in her home community of Roxbury. She's always looking for ways to service that community where she's dedicated her life for three decades. Here at Shawmut Bank, she's been on the board of directors for seven years. I think that in a sense, serving on all these boards and running around all these meetings, that there's been a matter of trying to keep seats warm and hoping that there will be people who will come along behind you and who will benefit from your experience. Snowden got her experience the hard way, hands -on. It began shortly after college graduation. I graduated from Radcliffe and didn't say a word about teaching and felt that I had found my niche by chance, really, that I really wanted to be involved in people kinds of things and started working in New Jersey with the Essex County Welfare Board, old age assistants, that that really wasn't what my mother and father had in mind for me.

But they didn't fight it. And I think that was the important thing. I didn't have to have this great battle with my family. That first taste of community work led her 33 years ago to found Freedom House with husband Otto. Together, the two in their role as community brokers have worked with the city's movers and shakers as well as their neighbors to affect positive change. It's something she's proud of. If I had to just put it in a nutshell, I would say that certainly the personal satisfactions and rewards from having been involved in Freedom House and in trying to do something that was, you know, important to our community, but also important to us in giving us a reason for living. I guess the best way I can put it, that there's a reason for living that is more than a paycheck, the demands that are made upon you. You put in 25 hours a day, eight days a week,

and you may fuss about it and it may times get a little wearing. But in the long run, you think about it and you say, you know, this has been a good way to live. Snowden credits her marriage of 37 years as one of the big reasons she's been able to achieve. Equally important is the fact that the couple's work places them side by side every day. Otto and I would have arguments. But the next day, no matter what we were arguing about the night before, that the next day we were faced with doing something had to do with Freedom House. So he might call me Mrs. Snowden all day long. The atmosphere might be a little tense, but you had to go ahead with this. If there's any one message Snowden wants to get across about her life, it's this. If she had to do it again, she'd make the same commitment. Like Muriel Snowden, when Dorothy West made up her mind about her life's work, she never wavered. At seven, she told her family she planned to become a writer. I used to follow the family around with a news of the big family.

And I'm sitting there with a little pad and I'm writing down everything they said. And my mother gave me the best advice I ever had. She took me aside and she said, Dorothy, I know you want to write about the family. But you see, when you sit there writing down every word, person says they get self -conscious. So what you should do is put it back in your head. And so I have learned to do that. West was born in 1912 to a well -to -do Boston family. To be well off and black at that time was unique. No matter, Dorothy's parents stress character building. I'm a strong person. I don't know why I'm shocking statue and one thing or another. I don't know. But I'm very strong. And I think the reason I take things in stride, because I can take this appointment in stride too. Feeling confident of her talent, West left Boston as a teenager and went to a place where it all came together for her. That place was Harlem. It was the 20s. Duke Ellington was leading

his band in the new music of the day, jazz. Harlem was in vogue. Money blacks and whites enjoyed some of the most glittering nightlife in America. The Cotton Club and the Plantation were hotspots. Politicians, artists and writers were drawn to the dazzle during what came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. It would be That is to say, I feel so sad about Harlem, because Harlem is the most exciting place in the world. And the thing that happened was we came from all over, because you were going to write the great American novel. West was introduced into the writing circles by Wallace Thurman. Soon her friends were Langston Hughes, County Cullen and Claude McKay, one of the most fiery writers of the time. McKay was her mentor. I personally feel that Carter was a genius of all the people that I knew. He was a good deal older than I, maybe 20 years, I don't know. And evidently he saw something in me that I didn't know that I had. I mean, I don't know, there was just something between us. I

respected him. In Harlem, West edited a literary magazine called The Challenge, which featured works by black writers. Years later, she wrote her own book, an autobiographical novel called The Living is Easy. Now, West is one of the last living writers of the Harlem Renaissance. These days, she pens articles and columns for the Vineyard Gazette, located on Martha's Vineyard, where she's lived for 35 years. I'm a storyteller. I hope that I've got quite a few good years. That seems funny. A few more good years in me, you see, because I test my mind all the time. And it seems pretty good when I forget things or something, and I don't, and I look for my glasses and then I'm going to get scared. Then I get scared. But no, I'm going to write for a long time. Being a part of the Black Women's Oral History Project has put West back in the spotlight. Her novel has been reissued early this year. Her friends on the island are planning a book party for her for some time this summer. Regardless of what, if we have to go get the books ourselves, we

are going to have that party. Meanwhile, more people are asking for short stories. She's flattered, but keeps her perspective. I remember once my mother was ill, she had an operation, and the day that I went to see her, and she said, it was snowing when I went upstairs. I said, no Ray, it was snowing yesterday. And she looked at me, she said, Dorothy, I lost the day. And at my age, I can't afford to lose the day. I've never forgotten that because I have to make, I too now, have to make every day count. Organizers of the Black Women's Oral History Project hope that the contributions of all the participants will soon become as well known as those of Muriel Snowden and Dorothy West. But for right now, the experiences of these women and their voices have been preserved for posterity. If you can't do what you want to do, you fail to do something for yourself. And don't blame it on what somebody didn't do or didn't give you an opportunity to do. You have to make your opportunities in this life. They're not made for you.

And when you get it, you have to excel. It is through efforts like the Black Women's Oral History Project that the overlooked contributions of Black women to American life will be recorded and remembered. Thanks for joining us on this month's edition of Say Brother Times 2. If you have ideas or comments to share with us, please write Say Brother Times 2, Channel 2, Boston Mass 02134. I'm Chuck Harris. For the entire Say Brother staff, have a good night. Thank

Thank you.