Black Horizons; 2522; Kuntu

Hello, this is Black Horizons, and I'm Chris Moore. Today's show Strengthens the Ties that bind us together as a family. I'm proud to announce the return of Ralph Proctor to Black Horizons. Ralph was the original Pittsburgher to host Black Horizons, and he'll be along later to give us one of his famous, Did You Know Black History segments? Come to Repertory Theatre returns to Black Horizons to tell us about the revival of the Crawford Grill Presents Billy Holiday. I've seen the original production of Vernail Lilly's fictionalized account of Lady Days' visit to Pittsburgh's most famous jazz club, and it was great. I'm sure this reprise of that play will be just as good. Before we get to any of that, let's talk about the age -old problem of raising our youth. Every generation looks back at young people and ask where did we go wrong. Finger pointing begins in TV, music, the church, the schools, a lack of parenting skills all appointed to as culprits. Inter Sant Cofa Institute, which says it has the answer through looking back to the African traditions and rights of

passage programs for young people. Here to tell us more are Beriki Hall, a member of the Council of Elders of Sant Cofa Institute, and Tony Mitchell, one of the institute's founding members. Welcome to Black Horizons. We're glad to have you here. Thank you. Tony, first of all, the name Sant Cofa. What does it mean? Sant Cofa is a Ghanaian word, which means go back and retrieve it. A few years ago, in response to the myriad of social problems that we have in our community, a group of parents, community activists, and adults and elders in our community thought that we could do more. In looking at our rich African heritage and culture, we thought that it was time for Pittsburgh to welcome and receive rights of passage. As we understand our heritage and our culture, as we understand who we are as a people with a rich legacy and history, our rights of passage in traditional African society was a process that prepared and

socialized young males and females to become young men and women to assume certain responsibilities and duties. The name Sant Cofa was taken because we felt that it's very important for us as African people to understand our rich heritage and culture and to use that heritage and culture to go back and retrieve it so that we can move into the future. That suggests we have lost something, to go back and to retrieve. It suggests we have lost something. Sister Bereke, you agree? Oh, no question. I think part of the reason why we see all of the destruction among our youth particularly today is because they're not aware of what we did have. So we definitely need to go back, you know, back beyond the experiences that we were given as a result of our slavery experience here. We have a history that is so rich and so

culturally, socially and spiritually dynamic. And those are the three aspects of heart of what Sant Cofa is trying to go back and retrieve. And if we do that, then it would put us back in harmony with creation and what we were really meant to be about in the first place and we wouldn't have all of this destruction. Well, it seems as though that opens up a whole venue of looking at things in a different light. That means the schools, so many other educational institutions, the churches that we have depended on for so many years. So many of our institutions are not doing either what they used to do or are not doing what they should be doing. I think when you look at some of the differences between traditional African society and Western society is very important to be able to understand that in traditional African society, education and socialization was very much a

community process. One of the philosophies that you're very familiar with is it takes a village to raise a child. Another important philosophy is to understand that if you teach a boy to follow in the footsteps of his father, he will learn to walk like him. As we look at a number of problems that we're facing with our young, specifically with black males, they need role models. At Sant Cofa, we're committed to providing ethical, moral and spiritual cultivation by providing for our youth and opportunity to be educated and to be socialized within the community. The community must never advocate its responsibility to educate and socialize the young. The purpose of a school, if the community is functioning effectively, is to do what the community tells the school system to do, is to actually mirror the will of the people. And schools don't do that now. They're not doing it effectively, not for African American youth or youth in general in this particular society.

What would the rights of passage program look like for females, Sister Beriki? We take time to teach females how to grow and mature into being strong African American women in terms of first of all taking care of themselves through health means how to eat and prepare food correctly, how to take care of families. Is that sounds very traditional for a woman's role? Is it, in fact, that traditional? Well, it's a combination now, because this is 1993, and we recognize that women's roles have expanded, but we never advocate the nurturing roles that women must continue to play even though we have gone into other aspects of the industrialized world. But we do teach that also. There's a role for nurturing among men, certainly. I think when you look at the male socialization process, there's a need for the preparation of

males to assume certain responsibilities of manhood. Certainly the role and responsibility of a male through the process of developing his manhood should be to provide, mate, and protect the people. So when you look at the problems that we're experiencing with young males in our society, there certainly is a need for nurturing and guiding them toward manhood by defining for them what we want to see them do, what we want to see them accomplish in terms of the need that we have as a collective community for them to be intricately involved in moving our people into the future. And that's what we're attempting to do at San Cofan. And how will you define that? What is a man likely to see as he comes through the rights of passage program? We have a number of activities, values clarification, as you're very aware, this generation of young males are very much involved in what we call the New Jack or Hip Hop. They're very easily influenced by their peers.

What we try to expose them to are men who are ethical, moral, and spiritual in terms of their values, in terms of how they see the world, but more importantly by their action and by their conduct. So what we're very committed to at San Cofan is developing the character of our young males so that as they become young men, they will develop a commitment to serve the race. If they leave San Cofan, we expect them to bloom wherever they are planted. We also expect them to return to our community and use their knowledge, use their values, use their character to improve quality of life for people of African descent. So we do have a mission and we have a vision that these young initiates, and that's what we call those who complete the passage into young manhood, a womanhood, will leave us and yet return their knowledge skills and talents to the African world community. The foundation of San Cofan is based on the seven principles of the Inguza Sava, and we use these seven

principles to inculcate a very powerful, liberating value system. And those seven principles are the seven principles, and I will use the English translation. These are Kiswahili words, are unity, self -determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative, economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. And it's very important to be able to connect the development of a young male or female based on inculcating a value system which in itself is very positive and liberating so that as they experience life, they can not only learn from the wisdom of the elders, they can also think very critically as they venture out into the world. Sister Buriki, I'm a parent watching this program. How can I, if I'm interested, how can I get my child involved in San Cofan? We're at the beginning of a teaching session now. So Saturday, November the 13th. Next

week? Yes. At the Shandhi High School, we will be holding a retreat that will bring in any of the new inductees who would like to become a part of San Cofan, and will also include those who are already a part of the San Cofan Institute. So from three to nine on that date. Is this something like, I would imagine you're going to attract high -end kids. Can anyone come? When I say high -end, I'm talking about kids who are pretty much successful as they are right now. They're probably getting grades, their parents want them involved in something positive like this so that they can grow beyond what the parents are doing. They believe the parents believe in this philosophy and they will bring them. What about, how will you reach kids whose parents are somewhat disinterested in the children? And I run across far too many of those. How will you reach those kinds of? Well, I appreciate your question, Chris. And if I understand you correctly,

we try to take a holistic approach to everything that we do. It would be all -inclusives. So those who are maybe higher achievers already, there would be a track for them that is in place. And then we take our youth where they're at and take them to where we want them to be. That's important. You're about to say something about other things that are going on. Yes, because, you know, we are in return of the volume about this whole thing around Christmas versus Kwanza. And San Cofa recognizes the birth of Christ. And that's what all their Christmas is about. But Kwanza comes in there to pick up their cultural dynamic that we have. And so we're having a public celebration of Kwanza on the 26th of December that I'm pumping up volume. Okay, how are we going there? In that part of the time early, right? Okay, so that will be coming in December 26th. But even before that, I would also like to mention that San Cofa is co -sponsoring along with the African heritage study groups that

are already in place on Tuesday evenings that we all know about now. So we thank Brother Chris for having allowed us to co -sponsor bringing Dr. James Peoples who will have a major impact on the implementation. He published the African Heritage Study Bible. Exactly. Okay. Well, that's great. I wanted to add quickly that over the next year, we have a number of exciting activities planned. We have after school mentoring. We're going to be offering African drumming and dance. We're also going to be providing fencing. We have a number of recreational activities planned. As Sister Baruki pointed out, we want to make it a very holistic. We want to serve those youth from our community who definitely need to have positive role modeling. And certainly, we want to serve youth from our community who are interested in African history and cultures. So we would

encourage anyone who's interested in becoming affiliated with San Cofa. We're looking for adult volunteers. We're also looking for youth who simply want to learn the richness of African history and culture. And we do have a telephone number. And that number is? Three, six, three, seven, five, five, five. Would you repeat it please for those who are scrambling for pen and paper? Okay. Three, six, three, seven, five, five. And you will probably get a machine. But please talk to it, right? And someone will get back. And someone will get back. All right, Sister Baruki Hall, Brother Tony Mitchell, we thank you for being here on Black Horizons. We wish you much success with San Cofa Institute. And I hope people will call. I hope their machine is just back there. Okay. Thank you, Brother Kurt. Well, each of us probably can recall some right of passes that we have all come through. Black Horizons is about to experience a right of passage of sorts as Dr. Ralph Proctor. The original host of this show returns for the first time in many years in the role of a contributor to what we do here. One of Ralph's

many areas of accomplishment is as a historian. He comes to us today in that capacity with the television version of his now famous radio. Did you know segments? Did you know that Egypt was not the first African civilization? While it was probably the most advanced civilization in the world at the height of its power, one must look further to find the first African civilization. From all available information, it is likely that the first civilizations occurred either at the ancient southern African nation of Zimbabwe, or the northeast African nation Ethiopia. Little was known about Zimbabwe, except that there was a great wall built by the inhabitants around the country. The wall was 30 feet high and 20 feet thick. The architecture is very much like that used in the great pyramids, yet the civilization is older than Egypt. More is known about Ethiopia because they left written records of their history.

And by the way, there was no Ethiopia before the coming of Europeans. The word Ethiopian was coined by the ancient Greek historian and explorer Herodotus. All the people he encountered in Africa were dark in comparison with Greeks. So Herodotus called the Ethiopians, or called them Ethiopians, which is derived from two Greek words, Ethios, which means burnt, and ops, which means face. Thus the Ethiopians were considered as the people with burnt faces. Present -day Ethiopia evolved from East African kingdoms once called Axum, Pont, and Nubia, land of the Kush. The people from the land now called Ethiopia, were the ancestors of other civilizations, written records of both Ethiopia and Egypt, agreed that the Ethiopians established the original Egyptian civilization. For more than 100 years during the early Egyptian age, all Pharaohs were from Ethiopia. A branch of the northern Ethiopians were the ancestors of the first civilization in India

in the region known as the Indus Valley. And perhaps that explains why folks from India look very much like those of us who call ourselves African -American or Black. A southern branch of the Ethiopians moved away from the continent and settled on the island of Crete. And there they developed the Minoan civilization, the first European civilization with a known written history. They were in fact the genesis of Greek civilization. The Greeks also borrowed heavily from Egypt, so the mightiest of European civilizations was based on two African kingdoms, one Egyptian, one Ethiopians. Since African civilizations were the first, it follows then that these civilizations made major contributions to the world. But we'll talk about that on a future edition of Did You Know. Well Ralph, I want to know about some of these future editions of Did You Know. What have you got planned for us? And by the way, it was quite good, I enjoyed it. Well, thank you very much, I really appreciate. You're allowing me to come back as good to be back

home. We'll be tracing African history to the ancient kingdom of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai. We'll be talking about some of the contributions we made to the world, like human beings. We'll be talking about the slave trade, but not very long because that's about a blink in the eye of our history. Okay, I'm sure there are lots of topics that you're going to cover, and we're going to try to get some more visuals out. You get us the scripts, and we'll hunt up the pictures, and we'll go from there. And I hope that we all grow and learn from what you do, and welcome back. Brother, it's good to have you here. It's good to be here. Okay. Well, Kuntu Rev. Theater is the dream child of Dr. Vernel Lilly. For 20 years, we have been blessed to have Kuntu bring us a true slice of African American life. Here with me now to tell us about the latest production are Jackie Walker and Leslie Burrell. Welcome to Black Horizons. How you doing? Okay, so tell me about Billy Holiday and the Crawford Grill and all of this, and you play Billy Holiday, right? Yes. What's your good Dean?

Well... She's not going to answer me. She's just going to laugh at all the people. Okay. Well, this production of Billy Holiday portrays a good part in Billy Holiday's life. It's important for people to see that Billy Holiday just wasn't hooked on drugs and alcohol, but she was an amazing singer, an amazing performer. She touched the lives of a lot of people. How did you prepare for your role? Let me be like, I've seen it. How did you prepare for your role? Did you start drinking and using drugs? I had to, you know, you do a lot of research. I've watched a lot of films on Billy Holiday and seeing her perform and trying to get into character, I have to try and extract feelings for myself to put as much emotion into her song so I can feel the words that she's singing, so people won't think it's fake or... And then distinctive phrasing that she used also. It's very hard

to imitate Billy Holiday. She had a style all her own. How do you come to it? You think you've captured the essence there or what? Well, I think I'm close. We don't try and imitate her voice. We use our own voices, but we do try and capture her phrasing and to make it seem as close as possible, but no one can think exactly like her. All right, so are you going to give us a sample of it? Are you going to hit that high note? No, I'm just kidding. Okay, Leslie Barrell, what is your role in all of this? Well, I'm the vice president of the country repertoire theater. I was just in a play, actually, the dilemma of a ghost, which is at CMU. I'm a dancer in Billy Holiday, which is... I'm not going to dance for you, I'm sorry. And one thing I did want to stress, something that just came to mind, is that the country repertoire theater is not just about acting. Excuse me. It's not

just about the plays. It's about the lighting. It's about the music. It's about stage -managing, directing. It's a lot of fun. It's cleaning up almost everything. Right. Once you leave country, you're so well -rounded, you can do just about anything, because you know all the details. Dr. Lilly assures that you know all the details of what it takes to manage your quality, the theater inequality production, right? Exactly. Okay, so how have you grown by being involved? As an actress, as a dancer, as a theater manager, all of that? Well, this is my first year, actually, being involved in the sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh. But one thing that I have learned, an invaluable thing from Dr. Lilly, is just perfection, you know, trying to be perfect, trying to do things to the best of your capability, which is also another thing that Kuntu is about trying to do your best, putting your best effort forth. You look forward to a long association with Kuntu? Yes, actually. Are you a student at Pitt or CMU? Pitt. And you are a student at Pitt,

also. When you were introduced to Dr. Lilly, did her reputation precede you? What do you think of her now? Did her reputation precede her, I'm sorry. Well, I just, I met Dr. Lilly, my freshman year, I'm a sophomore now. I took her contemporary black drama classes. And to me, she's my mentor. You know, she was my first black professor, and she's really made a great impact on my life. She pushes you to your fullest potential, because when she knows that you can do something, she'll push you and push you. And you might not be happy about it, but it's worth it, it really is. And there's a lot of love in it. You might not even see that at first, but you know, somewhere down there, there's a lot of love buried in what she does for you. She takes a lot of pride in what she does. Well, tell me a little bit more about the play. First of all, I've seen the original production. And I know that she wrote it based on a fictionalized account of Billy Holiday coming to

Pittsburgh and singing at the Crawford Grill. You said it focuses on the good part of her life. And I think that that's really important, because it's important for people to remember that she was more than just a drug addict, as you said before. Every time you see an old kinescope of her or film or something, the style and the phrasing of her music, and you almost start to think what she looks high. And that was not all that was to Billy Holiday. You enjoy playing the role that day. I love it. I think that she's a wonderful singer. And the words of her songs, you know, she wrote some of her songs. And the words are just, you know, you can really tell that she was really in pain. And when she sang it, you could tell that she was in pain. How do you compare that style of music from what probably seems so long ago to you to the style of music that's going on now? Is it something that you like? Is it just something that's different? Well, let's see. I

like that style of music. Like I'm very interested in all types of music. And to me, good music is music that touches me or that I can relate to. And the blues and jazz, they just have a way with, you know, just relating to everything that you're going through. And the music of today, I find myself listening to a lot, like a variety of music, like, I don't know, I like to listen to Leni Kravitz. You know, I think that what he says in his, in his music is something that I just, I just feel, I just feel, you know. Leslie, what about the play itself? Where will it be performed this time? Steven Foster? Yes, it'll be at the Steven Foster Memorial Theatre. You've got some other talented singers and actors involved a live band on stage, all that sort of stuff? Sure do. Yeah, so it's going to be first class production as usual, right? Of course. And so for now, Lily production. The cool's without saying, right? Right. Okay, final

words that you would say to anybody to encourage them to come out and see it? Well, I would just like to say, please come out and see Crawford Grill Presents, Billy Holiday. And if you like, in which I'm sure you will, I hope that you would come out and join the country repertoire theatre. And you could be a host of things, not only an actor, actress. You could be stage manager, producer, director. You would work, right? And also, we're having our 20th anniversary and we're looking for all of our alumni. And we're also going to be traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland, and Africa, and then the next summer on the August. And to perform in the French festival over there. So all the alumni, just please contact us. Okay, thanks for being here with you. We wish you much success with Billy Holiday at the Crawford Grill. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having us. The country repertoire theatre production of the Crawford Grill Presents, Billy Holiday, will open November 10th and play through the 14th. The run continues the 18th of November

through the 21st and the 25th through the 27th. For information on the play, simply pick up your phone and dial 648 -7817. And that's 648 -7817. Well, that... Oh, did that say 171 -4? I'm sorry, 648 -7814. Well, that's another Black Horizons in the can. I hope that you enjoyed it. And I also hope that you tune in to Black Talk. My daily radio talk show on WCXJ1550 on your AM dial. It's a serious program. So serious that my listeners say that if you're not listening to Black Talk, you just ought to have your ears cut off. I'm Chris Moore, and I hope that I'll either see you here next week or hear you there. Thanks

for watching. Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching.