Rest In Peace, Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron, one of my fave poets, musicians, 'bluesologist' and authors of the 70's and 80's died yesterday in New York at age 62 after becoming ill after returning from a European trip..

Scott-Heron is considered the 'Godfather of Rap' by some and many of the themes he explored in his music and poetry were expounded on later by Talib Kweli and Common   

In addition to his music which included songs such as Home Is Where The Hatred Is', 'Johannesburg', 'Angel Dust', 'Shut 'Um Down', 'We Almost Lost Detroit', 'Space Shuttle', 'Re-Ron',and 'B-Movie', he's best known for his 1970 spoken word piece 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'.



He broke down what he was talking about when he said 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' in a 1991 interview:.

"What that was all about, 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,' was that the first change that takes place is in your mind. You have to change your mind before you can change the way you live and the way you move. 

So, when we said that 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,' we were saying it like--that the thing that's going to change people is something that no one will ever be able to capture on film. It'll just be something that you see and all the sudden you'll realize: 'I'm on the wrong page,' or 'I'm on the right page but I'm on the wrong note--and I've got to get in synch with everyone else to understand what's happening in this country."

As you can tell by the song titles 'Re-Ron' and 'B-Movie', Scott-Heron was not a fan of Ronald Reagan or his conservafool policies.   He had his battles with drug addiction and the legal trouble it spawned over the last  two decades.   In February 2010 he released his first new studio album in sixteen entitled I'm New Here to critical acclaim.    

But there is no denying that Gil Scott Heron's work influenced rap and neo soul artists and even a certain trans blogger from H-town.       

Rest in power and peace brother Gil.   You will be missed.

Oprah's Last Broadcast

After 25 years and over 5000 shows, today is the day that Oprah fans all over the country have dreaded since she made the announcement that 2011 was going to be the last year of this show.

This is the day her last show will be broadcast.

I remember the first time I was introduced to Oprah Winfrey.     It was in August 1986, and I was in Chicago for the funeral of my great uncle Leon.     My Aunt Ruth told us while me and my family was sitting down eating breakfast told us about a sister talk show host she said we just had to watch called  AM Chicago.

We did, fell in love with the show and like everyone else in Chicago watched until it was time for us to fly back to Houston.  The sister hosting that local talk show was Oprah Winfrey

Well, you know the rest of the story.  Former beauty queen from Mississippi after stops in Nashville and Baltimore ends up in Chicago.    The show me and my family watched one month later gets syndicated,  renamed the Oprah Winfrey Show, does its first broadcast on September 8, 1986 and blows up.

Oprah makes enough cheddar to become a billionaire, build a studio on a street renamed for her, buy a magazine, start her own network and become an icon.

She's been a major influence on our culture, our lives, and our politics.   Writers are thrilled when they are selected for Oprah's Book Club because they get a ginormous boost in sales.   A certain African American resident of Hyde Park and his family are now living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because of her endorsement.

Michael Jackson made a 1993 appearance on her show watched by 62 million people in which he revealed he had vitiligo.  Ellen DeGeneres came out in 1997 on Oprah.  The Little Rock Nine on her stage confronted the white students who heckled them back in 1957.  Recently her stage was the venue for a 50th anniversary reunion of the Freedom Riders.  

Of course she has her critics and straight up haters.   There are some right wing women still mad at her because she strictly enforced her 'no political interviews until after the election' rule and wouldn't do one with Sarah Palin in 2008.   Some rappers can't stand and still hate on her.

While I like her and the show, I still had problems with the fact that when Oprah finally started doing shows tackling the topic of transsexuality, she hasn't interviewed transpeople who looked like her and wrote open letters to her and a few blog posts on that topic.

Despite the fact that we African descended transpeople weren't included in the long list of guests who have appeared on her show over the last 25 years, like everyone else in this country I'm going to be tuned in to the last show.

According to sources, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith will be the last people to ever sit on Oprah's interview couch and close a historic and remarkable Emmy winning television run.

Happy Birthday Again Alexandra!

The Alexandra I'm talking about is multitalented actress Alexandra Billings, who was born on this date in 1962.  

So yeah sis, you got me by a few weeks.

Thanks for your blog, all you do and have done as one of our iconic trans women to ably represent yourself and our community.   May you have a blessed and low stress birthday with much continued success and blessings in your carreer and your life.

 Happy birthday Alexandra!

Goodbye Larry King

After doing over 50,000 conversational style interviews between his radio and television gigs and 25 years at CNN, talk show host Larry King is leaving the airwaves after his final show later tonight..

In a New York Times story,  he expressed no regrets about leaving his how which will be taken over by Piers Morgan, but noted the current state of the industry and his 9 PM ET competitors.    

“If you look at media now,” he said in a telephone interview, “all the hosts of these other shows are interviewing themselves. The guests are a prop for the hosts on these cable networks. The guest to me was always paramount.”

And the one thing I liked that some of the 50,000 people that he's interviewed on the show included trans people and transpersons of color. 

Larry, you are a class act.  We Americans and others who crave intelligent discourse on TV are definitely going to miss you.

'Hate Has No Place In God's House'

TransGriot Note: 2003 Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote this commentary for Essence.com that also appears in its November 2010 issue entitled 'Hate Has No Place In God's House.'   
It is a timely one in light of the anti GLBT hate rising in many African nations that was instigated and egged on by US based Reich wing fundies.

 ***

Today I pray for people in Africa and throughout the world who long for freedom because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. It grieves me to be retiring at this crucial moment in history, so I write to you in this open letter, to invite you to pick up the work that remains to be done. More than 70 countries still imprison or execute gay and transgender people, and bullying and murders are all too common. This must change.

Each of you is called to respond to God's urgency for love and life. So whether you are in South Africa, the United States or anywhere else, humanity needs to accept its own diversity as a gift from our Creator. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are part of our family of God.

I have always striven for a life of love in action. Many told me to stop. They called me a communist or they told me that I might be killed. Now, I have lived long, and one choice that comes with age is how to deal with our own mortality. Should we be more careful or be more bold? Should we rest on our laurels or respond to the urgency of justice?

Boldly, I urge all faith leaders and politicians to stop persecuting people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Every day people live in fear because of who they love. We are talking about our family members, our flesh and blood, our humanity. LGBT people are in our villages, towns, cities, countries -- and our whole world.

 

In South African churches we have sung, "Oh freedom! Freedom is coming, oh yes, I know." We sang this chorus at the lowest points of our journey toward freedom against the racist and colonialist system of apartheid, and we still sing it to this day. Freedom is coming -- and those of us who have freedom must speak out for those whose freedom is under attack. We can and must make a difference.