The Revolution Will NOT Be Televised

Gil Scott-Heron wrote the song from which this column was born. The revolution metaphor exhorts us to get off our rusty-dusty and do something about the state of the world... "You will not be able to... Skip out for beer during commercials... because the revolution will not be televised..."

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

by William H. Snyder
July 14, 2023

Introduction“April is the cruelest month... “ so begins The Burial of the Dead section of T. S. Eliot's 100-year-old poem. “The Waste Land" laments the decline of culture in the world after World War I. In April of 2023, we lost Harry Belafonte and Ahmad Jamal. The loss of these two men is part of contemporary culture's decline. Burying the dead is a theme in “The Waste Land," but rebirth is also present. Great human spirits need to be kept ...

Gil Scott-Heron: Paean To The Spirit Of One Of The Last Poets

by William H. Snyder
June 27, 2022

IntroductionWhat does it take to be a griot? According to the dictionary, griots are a 'member of a hereditary caste among the peoples of western Africa whose function is to keep an oral history of the tribe or village and to entertain with stories, poems, songs, dances, etc.' Gil Scott-Heron did not grow up in West Africa so he wasn't born a griot caste member like Youssou N'Dour was. But there is another word that has been used to describe ...

MONK! Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution

by William H. Snyder
February 10, 2022

Introduction A butterfly met a monk in 1954. In the wake of an almost 30 year friendship they left behind some of the best music of the 20th century—Thelonious Monk the creator, Pannonica de Koenigswarter an enabler. The story of their friendship has been told before, but never quite in this way. Youssef Daoudi is the author-illustrator of a 2018 genre-bending historical graphic novel. If you know the story don't let it stop you from reading Daoudi's work; it is ...