Soul!; To The People, Thank You

It's soul, and tonight, soul says to the people, thank you, appearing are the members of the soul's dance, Alanzo Brown Jr., Anna Horstford, Loretta Green, Sherry Santafer, Leslie Demis, and the producer of soul, Ellis Hazel. Thank you, and welcome to tonight's show. Tonight we decided because, as I've told you, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

has not announced that it is renewing soul for the next season, and we thought that it was time that we sought a reminisce a bit and that we began the root of documenting our own history, because we know from what we see in the media, from the response we've had from the people, that soul will be included in the television history of this decade when things go down. And so, thank you. And so tonight, we're going to really concentrate with the people who we thank. We thank all of you who are here in the audience tonight. It's like a family. We invited you because we wanted you to be with us to share this experience. And we thank all the people who have ever participated on soul. As you know, soul taped its first program on September 8, 1968. And at that time, there had just been some, or the summer before then, there had been some uprisings in the United

States. And a fellow named Kit Lucas, who was director of programming, and John KMR, channel 13, invited me in to a producer's show for them. We battled it through, and I won, with what I wanted to do on television, and it ultimately became soul. Since that time, since that invitation for me to produce a soul, our soul program on channel 13, I had been very fortunate in being received in many homes across the country. And I thank you for that opportunity and that privilege of being in your homes. I also want to say thanks to the many performers, poets, authors, sculptures, painters, civic leaders, persons of promise in the black experience who have appeared here. And I say a very special thanks to Nikki Giovanni, who dedicated her book, My House, to me. I say a very personal thanks to Mae Jackson, who has been a beacon of hope and strength

for a long, long while. I say a personal thanks to Imamu Amiri Baraka, who has answered every call that I've ever put out. I also say a personal thanks to Ida Lewis, for the award she gave us in encore. I thank Dr. Charles Hearst of Malcolm X College in Chicago for awarding me an honorary doctorate of humanities. And I thank all of you who have written to us and who have expressed your admiration for the show. And tonight, I'm going to read a few letters during the show, and the staff, my staff with me is going to read some of the poetry that you've sent in, because one of the influences that Saul has had on the community is to help the nasons, not the re -nasons, but the nasons of poetry in this country, and especially black poetry. When we first started soul a few years ago, there were

many people, many, many, main performers who were not as yet aware enough to come on our show. And we did the best we could. It was successful. It was very successful. The first year, it was a local program, and then the second year, it became a national program. And for the last four years, it's been a national program. And the people who answered our call, the very first were three exquisite young ladies, who so loves very much. And whenever I'm named minister of culture of any country, they're probably called our national anthem. And so, will you receive with us the very first musical performance of our show, five years ago, September the 8th, 1968, Sarah Dash, known a Hendrix Patricia Holt, then known as Patti LaBelle and the Blue Bells. Hey, hey, hey,

hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey Oh, right. Oh, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor, razor Really do move, come true. Someday I'll wish upon a star And wake up where the

clouds are far We'll look back I'll follow my path Amount and likely I'm on. But now wait for no light I'll send you down. Where are those dah何. There's nothing left in. That's where we've got fair won't we? It's done. It's done. It's done. It's done. It's done. It's done. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,

ah ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ah,

ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ah,

ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, I'd like to read you a letter now that is from Personal Science at a Lawyer Fan, and it says, Dear Ellison Staff, just the idea that soul may not be on the air next year has caused me to selfishly wonder what I will be able to watch on TV. I have come to the conclusion that there is no alternative to soul. That exists as far as I know, no TV program that deals with my culture so completely, so freely, and so beautifully. There is no alternative to soul. When I first saw the program

listed in the paper four or five years ago, I was put off by the fact that it was peering on educational yacht television. I must admit that I expected a very proper square do to expound in a dry monotone about topics like musicology in eastern Africa, loving me to sleep. Or worse still, I thought it would be a talk show with a bunch of Negro intellectuals rambling on about the comparison of the first reconstruction with the then contemporary political scene. But because I hadn't seen enough images of myself, I watched. Low and behold, I saw Wilson Pickett, the last poet, was introduced to Roberta Flack and Barbara Antir, experienced Bill Withers and Imam Uperaka, saw, actually saw that fantastic lady who taught me how to make a natural facial, Alma John. Alma, we bless you tonight. Got caught up in the spiritual mystique of Marion Williams

and witness Nikki Giovanni's coronation as the princess of black poetry. There is no alternative to soul. And I'm not trying to say that I won't ever see black people on TV should some unaware group of people take soul off. While we are everywhere eating soup and cleaning our own floors and ovens and hosting comedy shows with white guest stars and being guest stars on shows with white hosts and intellectualizing about problems trying to sound profound, is just that I won't see black people creating, searching and acting instead of reacting, researching and reacting. There is no alternative to soul. Maybe it's the style of the show that really turns me on. It's relaxed and real just like you have physically come to my house in person to visit friendly, warm and happy. Until your show, I didn't even understand the creative possibilities of a TV

camera. Maybe it is the soulful style because I did learn a lot about those subjects. I thought would put me to sleep but I didn't sleep. I was awakened. I also discovered that NET wasn't so bad. As I am sending this letter to you, I am starting a letter and phone campaign to all my friends who watched the program to tell them to write you two. Soul must survive. Love, Ruth McLean, a loyal fan. I would like to say that you have afforded us a rare opportunity. If you feel that your work and your encouragement has been well rewarded, then we are asking you, and this is the final plea of our season, that if you wish to see soul renewed, I don't say renewed, I think if you wish to see soul continue and grow. And I mean

that if soul continues, it must grow because it takes much more now to relate the happenings in the black experience than it did on September 8, 1968. We have all grown tremendously. You can simply write us. I hope you not only write us, I hope you overwhelm us with mail. You can write us at Soul 304 West 58th Street, New York, New York, 10019. I repeat that address, it is Soul 304 West 58th Street, New York, New York, 10019. A short while after we started producing soul after I started producing soul, a young man came along who I convinced to become the musical director of soul. He was a man who every time he walked in the studio or we

had lunch together or we met, he uplifted me spiritual he encouraged me we fought a lot it was all in a friendly way and he was always late and and he was just you know he was he was soul through and through and I loved him very much and he was tragically killed and it left a dent in soul so that we have not replaced our musical director on soul since his death. But King Curtis was a man who left a beautiful library of music and influence behind at the time of his very tragic death and he was then serving as a musical director of soul. Will we now witness a bit of the beauty that he often created for us here at Soul? King Curtis. I agree.

Again I'd like to name some people you know tonight I'm a little nervous because so we spent all our money this year but we brought you role in Kirk and Nick Ash and Valerie Simpson, Carmichael, Billy Preston, Stevie Wonder, Nicky Giovanni, Marmo Veracca, Minister Lewis, Falokon, Al Green, we did a lot but we blew the budget so we're doing the show tonight kind of live so just bear with us we haven't done that in a long while but you know the two pieces you saw the three pieces King Curtis just played Hello Sunshine and somebody's watching you and Paddy, LeBel and the Blue Bells sang over the rainbow and those pieces were taped as I said when we first started so and we had a beautiful man who was working with us his name was Ivan Curry and he's in the audience with us tonight so why don't we just

thank Ivan for all the beautiful things today. Thank you Ivan. Ivan left public television to enter the commercial field and I hope it's going much better because his wife had a new son after left public television so it must be going much better. So Linda thank you for your support also but when Ivan left they've been a dream of mine and it still is a dream of mine and that is that black people can come together and can form a union of coexisting in an artistic world where everything can be beautiful and you can avoid a lot of the discussions and hassles because they understand. I met a brother once in in Boston he was doing a show they're called Save Brother and he came to New York and he started working

as a direct in producer with black journal which is another program here on educational television and he came over and he picked up where Ivan left off working on soul. The brother's name is Stan Lathon I love Stan very much we've had an incredible relationship that's going to continue we're going to go on and Stan I really want to thank you so much for all the support and all the all the beauty you've given us this year he's the one who brought us wonder love and all of its effects and Billy Preston and Stevie Wonder I mean it's really it's been an incredible season with Stan he understands me I understand him we communicate I thank you Stan and I thank the man who is our floor manager here Ernest Baxter who's been very beautiful brother also who came in at a time when we needed a black floor manager because they're again it's a man who understood our audience understood our talents and understood what we were coming from and didn't panic when we were about an hour late you know getting going and so

Ernest I thank you and sitting to Stan's right is a woman who's been very beautiful she's been with us for a long time and her name is Merleys Mossman soul's been good to Merleys she bought a boat Merleys so when you leave I hope you have a lot of fun on your boat and that is historic we love you all and sitting on Stan's left this is all in the control room I'm talking about that you never see is a man who is quiet he's dignified and he's very beautiful his name is Leonard Chamley he started off with us and there's never been one moment when when when red we call him has ever raised his voice or not ever tried to give us anything that we ask for red I thank you very much and when red wasn't here there was a man named Robert Kofarski Bob I thank you very much and sitting beside red or Bob is a man who does our audio I scream at him more than anybody

so you know although you have a small speaker at home if it doesn't come out quite right the only man you can blame is Lou Bruno but we love Lou just the same Lou came to us as a refugee from a show that they used to do in Bedford Stuyvingson called Inside Bedford Stuyvingson Joe Dennis who was our announcer tonight produced Inside Bedford Stuyvingson with a sister that I love a whole lot her name is Marion Watson so let's give all these beautiful people for giving me all these vibrations a warm hand while we were producing soul a few years ago there was another series on channel 13 it was called actous choice soul had won an Emmy on its own but we were asked to produce some programs for actous choice Glenn Jordan and I produced the series and the

series eventually won an Emmy one of the programs that we did was a program on Langston Hughes with Ruby D and RC Davis reading poetry and Langston who still stands is a great inspiration to me is really the father of all of this and Charles Wright who if we had more soul shows if we were refunded would probably be on soul has written three books the first one was called the messenger the second was called the wig and the book I'm going to read from is called absolutely nothing to get alarmed about Charles thank you for allowing us to read two passages one now and one later on this program Charles says and here I sit popping pills drinking wine weighed down with 12 pounds of grief for you Langston remembering the to the reply to your hospital note that I forgot to mail forgive the delay I think of you often now try to rest and think of what you're working on in your

future work that is all except a little good loving now and then florides florides from the heart and then when I can't remember during some full fledged moment of despair I had written on that note just let me close my eyes and die I am dying and you are dead the people are in mourning the presses given you the full dress treatment they are caroling about your charm vitality your prodigious output your humor you were a very logical man who would have been a better poet and writer if you had not been born black in America are the weary blues your first book but you discussed with me last month drinking black coffee and brandy I had a vodka with beer chaser and listen to your advice you were one of the few real people and that's a very true statement Langston was very real I had met during the last two years I

remember you saying the weird disturbed me and it's a pity you can't write another one like it but don't write another book like the messenger a good night that last crow night all the weary blues no mother -grabber he did not sell out to whitey with his simple tales he did not even sell out to himself he was born in another world he created something that was real one day as that mentioned that this was the only way for him to get published and that he had to eat and buy shoes and none of it was easy and it seems to me Langston that you knew what your literary black sons haven't learned it's a closed game on a one -way street are the bitterness some jive mother -grabber will say but we know better don't we the smile on your face in the white quilted coffin says so the undertaker had a touch of genius for the smile there's nothing like your smile but the smile that was always underneath the surface smile

the smile that was in your voice and in your laughter the serene mad smile of one who is trapped at the funeral home I had a woman I heard a woman say don't look like he suffered one bit no no no it was strange that Tuesday morning Langston I hit the streets slightly stone talk singing that old Billy holiday tune that Donna Ross these are my friends just has revived good morning heartics here we go again and there you were on the front page of the New York Times dead I hated to leave you up on St. Nicholas Avenue just when I had gotten to know you I hate to close this note but I must put you out of my mind for the time being and it is not your death that I'm warning it's the horror of it all our man

you would chuckle sadly and then Charles goes on to write poor black poet who died proper and smiling Langston Hughes we worship you as I was saying to you and we will keep reminding you that if you don't respond so will not be renewed we'll go off the air and we will go on to other things it's such a thing as patty said black seeds keep on growing and when I first started at channel 13 there was a brother spiritual deep true who always had some word of encouragement and wisdom real wisdom to impart to me and I don't know he

was delivering mail but I said I need a writer on my show will you be my writer and he said yes he's not only become my writer he's become my right hand and my brother and my friend and he's sitting to my left now and his name is Alonzo Brown Jr and sitting next to Alonzo is well I don't know you've seen me with Anna on so before and I love her and in 73 I'm going to be the sage and say Anna is going to marry and have a baby I hope be very beautiful she'd make as beautiful a mother as she has a friend to me Anna Horsford our associate producer on so and over there with the little little balls around her

neck I call her greenie her name is Loretta green you may have seen her in black girl and while the soul goes on and not Loretta is going to become a movie actress she's going to be very successful she's tremendous she was beautiful and black girl I didn't quite understand the parentage and the sisters and all that but Loretta was gorgeous and we love her that's Loretta green who is our assistant producer I feel very good but to tell the truth about everything you know Lincoln I didn't hang out that much but all I say is we got Sherry and all of y 'all in the family know you know and Sher Sher is going to make it this year too she came to us she she revitalized something she produced a thing that being a fan you'll night

who works on the style of one core and the wrote us a tremendous letter that I haven't decided if I read to you as yet said our production of soul at the center this year was the greatest cultural event that had happened in the city of New York in its existence and Sherry was largely responsible along with me and Jerry bled so for that she's our talent coordinator she's our office love and we love you Sherry and Sherry Santa for and then for one brief year and I should see I love beautiful women they're all around me and is been a sister who has been our production secretary she fights all the battles with the man who is our production unit manager that means the man who handles the money and when I call his name don't y 'all laugh because

his last name is Glicksberg but Paul and I've had a lot of battles we've wasted through mostly through Leslie Demas who is our production secretary being so beautiful so cordial so efficient and so lovely and a lot of people took so very seriously and they write letters to us but they also send us a lot of their poetry and right now the staff and I are going to read some of the poetry that we had received through the mail and I'm going to begin with reading you a letter that sister Loretta Broderick wrote and I'm not ego -tripping when I'm saying this but it's one of the most moving things that's ever happened to me is to open a letter and said the letter said this is dedicated to brother Ellis Hayes that the truest definition of a human being thank God for you and the name of her poem is mirror

-eyed people. Miracle people, spiritual people gifted people, God -given people with mirror eyes reflecting love and hate truth as they look through you talking to the insides of you, can't run, can't hide, can't even die these spiritual people with mirror eyes. No there are hope our lives, our past, present and future, our children and their children, all me yours ours. Black people's mirror -eyed humans like grandpa, grandma, mama, papa and Nikki Giovanni, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, James Baldwin, us others. Who knows there wasn't any real secret about life but to suffer, to learn to pay the price, to love or even like the little children who know too, maybe not understanding it, maybe can't explain it but neither could dad or mom, nor grandpa or grandma. Black

authors and poets trying to put it on paper, trying hard. Black song writers and singers recording soulful, gospel, jazz, rock it's there and we know it. Yes, we are all mirror -eyed people, black people, it's just that some of us don't see with our eyes or maybe some just got used to seeing things through broken bits of glass. To my sister, Angela? Why, David's. To me, you remind me of what I could be, of what I should be and of what I am, reminding me to determine the differences between the street and my dreams. Reminding me to be myself in spite of everything. Reminding me to think and

be free and effective and create a revolution within myself. Who wrote that story? Switten by sister Kim Jenkins of Himsted, New York. This is a poem by Ron Hill of Riverhead, New York. King, you lay there bleeding. I cry and I cry. Nonviolently, you dressed this morning. Nonviolently, you said goodbye to us, your family. Nonviolently, you spoke to me as you passed in my dreams. Nonviolently, you were so sweet. Nonvigently, I tested nonviolence, but violently you died. I died too. Also violently, my father. Ahead, I must try. I cannot accept your philosophy because to be beat and cut and stabbed and caged is for the birds. What time is it? I don't know, only

time can answer time. Today is time, but time is now. If I'm alive now, it's time. Not yesterday, later, today, or tomorrow, but now. I've just run out of time. They are the sisters. Who do they belong to? They belong to the people by way of the moon. The moon shines on them, that they may shine on you. Then they are the brothers, and who do they belong to? They belong to the people by way of the sun. The sun shines on them, that they may shine on us. There will be an eclipse. The sun and the moon being drawn together by circumstance for us revolution, so that the moon and the sun will shine on each other and their people as one. That's why it's Sister Andrea Omar.

This next one is by Madeline Hall of Hollywood, California. Don't you want to know who I am before you speak love to me? Don't you want to know the words to a song while you're humming the melody? Don't you notice the colors used when a picture has been painted? How can you come on so strong with me before we even acquainted? I really did the way we grew, but there's so much I'd like to know about the hopes and fears you hide inside, and just how you want us to grow. Don't you want to know who I am and get inside my mind? I mean, you might think I'm one side. I'll find out on the other side. Why don't you want to know who I am and what we are combined? In the

stillness of night, I could hear a hundred sleep, but not only you, with close eyes standing on the business of streets with hundreds passing by when you need my heart would sing, and I would pick you by the rhythm of your steps. In an atmosphere of a thousand cents, in total darkness, the fragrance of your hair would lead me to your side. I don't need to see you to know you. For you travel through my veins like the other life of me. Let me speak of my love for you. For my heart overflows for all the well to know. Do I know you? I know you for you are the other part of me. You are my heart which set my soul free. You are my happiness, my goal in life. You are my beautiful lady forever and a day as my wife. Those two poems are written by First one is written by Madeleine Hall, and the other one was written by Charles Canalis. This one I'm going to read by

Amassi of Corona New York, who have great love and respect for. It's called Water of Your Bath. I wish I could be the water of your bath. I would surround you with mellow warmth, liquid love, like a folking childish wave on the sandy shore. I would dash and break upon the firmness of your body, and golf and moisten the places I dream of. If I were the water of your bath, I would memorize each and every muscle, and being liquid I would take your shape, moan myself to your every curve and your every indentation. I would roll on over and off your satin skin. If I were the water of your bath, I would send part of me to gather in the recess of your navel. There, my temperature would rise to match yours, and like plants of the sea, I would move your body hairs in and out with the tide, created by your movements. Playfully, I would slosh against your thighs and become very intimate with your nature. If I were the water of your

bath, I would cleanse you as my ancestors, the Nile and the Congo cleansed your ancestors, but even more, when you leave me and pull the plug, I would defy the natural order of things and stay and wait for your naked return. Thank you, Al, Anna, Loretta, Sherry, and Leslie, and thank you, Al, Anna, Loretta, Sherry, and Lesley, thank you. I must say that it is only fair that we say that Niki Giovanni, Imamu, Amiri Baraka, Caroline Rogers, Norman Jordan, Michael Good, Vanessa Howard, Wanda Robinson, Sonia Sanchez, China Clark, Quincy True, Kane, the

last poets, Filipe Luciano, Jackie Early, David Henderson, they have all contributed to this nascent of black poetry. It really has been beautiful and that we have inspired people. That is only a selection of poetry. We have volumes of it. Maybe one day, we can get it all published and you can buy it and read it. We are publishing a book of the James Baldwin Niki Giovanni Conversation, not we, but is being published, and it will be available soon. And just before we leave for maybe this final time, I like to appeal to you to write us to say, soul must continue and grow. The address is soul 304 West 58th Street, New York, New York, 10019. I repeat that address. It is soul 304 West 58th Street, New York, 10019. And I like to say that tonight's program,

I dedicate to my mother and my father and to the beloved memory of my sister Janet and her son, John. And I just like to read you one thing which will be my good night words to you. And Charles Wright writes this and absolutely nothing to get alarmed about. He says, but I always thought I was simply Charles Stevenson Wright. I protest desperately, then raw with mad laughter, knowing that whitey too has great problems, nightmares. At this stage of the gamey racial American events, it is impossible for whitey to produce good niggas, but he is still capable of producing Uncle Tom's. But always remember, Horted prejudices begot slaves who impale their masters on the arrow of time. Good night. Oh!

So, a production of WNET -13.