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00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:04,010
When I stepped out of the cab
in Brooklyn, I didn't know it

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00:01:04,030 --> 00:01:06,890
but I was about to
meet Glinda The Good

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00:01:06,910 --> 00:01:09,270
you know, the witch who
pranced through

4
00:01:09,290 --> 00:01:11,650
enchanted poppy fields
in the north of Oz,

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00:01:11,670 --> 00:01:17,558
and get a pair of ruby slippers.

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00:01:21,580 --> 00:01:29,450
Hi, Darius.
Nice to meet you.

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00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:23,600
Her real name was
Val Jeanty.

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00:02:23,620 --> 00:02:25,930
And she was raised
on the island of Haiti,

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00:02:25,950 --> 00:02:31,740
not with a litter of
prune-faced Munchkins.

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00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:34,680
Val fused the ancient skills
of the ritual drummer

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00:02:34,700 --> 00:02:38,140
with the tools of the DJ
in the Digital Age.

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She was a sorcerous shamanic
talent

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00:02:40,390 --> 00:02:46,248
with a gift for speaking to
both the living and the dead.

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00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:51,530
I was impressed.

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00:02:51,550 --> 00:02:54,040
But I also realized,

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this was just the first step
on my long journey.

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00:02:56,580 --> 00:03:01,040
It was initiation.
My ruby moment.

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00:03:01,060 --> 00:03:07,920
You have to cue me,
because I can go on and on.

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00:03:16,700 --> 00:03:20,020
This space is totally
energized.

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00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:25,858
I mean, I have experienced that
in certain other circumstances.

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But I only know energy
like this,

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00:03:29,853 --> 00:03:32,940
like walking into very
old churches.

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00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:38,840
I mean, it's electric, it's like
very electric, very calming.

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00:03:38,860 --> 00:03:41,781
And of course, there is
a whole thing about

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art, spirituality,
religion, magic.

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00:04:12,570 --> 00:04:14,915
If you put your hands close
to a speaker

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00:04:14,935 --> 00:04:17,280
while there is some
heavy bass,

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you gonna feel something in
your hands - that's frequency,

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00:04:20,580 --> 00:04:23,280
that's the physical

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00:04:23,300 --> 00:04:25,990
manifestation of
frequency, right?

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So there is some energy
coming out of there that

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you can't see but you feel it
in your hands, sort of thing,

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so frequencies coming from
the Haitian culture

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00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:41,370
- Haitian voodoo culture,

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we're dealing with
specific rhythm patterns,

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specific chants.

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So it's already kind of
pre-coded.

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And certain songs
you don't sing

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after three p.m.
on Thursdays,

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00:05:11,390 --> 00:05:12,930
you just don't.

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00:05:12,950 --> 00:05:14,480
And everyone knows
not to sing it

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because there is a frequency
in that song

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that you don't want
to manifest.

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00:05:18,790 --> 00:05:24,653
So pretty much the sound
manifests in physical reality.

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So the sound that
I am creating in here

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is also what you are feeling.

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00:05:31,390 --> 00:05:35,730
So when you walk into
the church or the temple,

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00:05:35,750 --> 00:05:38,940
because the frequency
is still there,

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00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:42,500
there is a reminiscence of it
that is in the space,

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00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:44,050
that stays there,

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00:05:44,070 --> 00:05:46,990
you can't really get rid of it

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- it becomes part of
the fabric of that space.

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00:05:57,710 --> 00:06:00,060
This is the house
I grew up in.

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It sits on a patch of
overly-taxed landfill

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00:06:03,030 --> 00:06:05,960
in Hamden, Connecticut.

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00:06:07,380 --> 00:06:09,170
I've sailed to South
and Central America.

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00:06:09,190 --> 00:06:12,120
I've lived in Los Angeles,
New York, and Montreal.

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00:06:12,140 --> 00:06:15,078
Finally, I settled in Berlin.

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00:06:16,498 --> 00:06:19,230
After ten amazing years
in that city of ravens,

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a place I felt
was my natural home,

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Hamden was the last place

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I ever imagined
I would end up in life.

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I'd rather fight
flesh-eating zombies

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00:06:31,390 --> 00:06:35,260
in a isolated pocket
of Pennsylvania.

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00:06:41,390 --> 00:06:43,540
My name is Darius James.

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00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:45,330
If you're familiar
with me at all,

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its because I published
two books

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- "Negrophobia" and

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00:06:49,620 --> 00:06:53,070
"That's Blaxploitation:
Roots of the Baadasssss'Tude"

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00:06:53,090 --> 00:06:57,940
back in the nineties.

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I came back to this house
in January of 2007.

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My time in Berlin had come to
an abrupt end.

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My father had died.

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He was 81 years old.

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All that remained of my father
was his mask collection

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and a cardboard box filled with
ashes.

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I have not touched either since
my return.

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My childhood home had
become a mausoleum.

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I live in this house with
my younger sister, Jeri.

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00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:47,120
She is the sweetest person
I know

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and she is the only reason
why I am still here.

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00:09:02,560 --> 00:09:05,840
In an early stage of my search
I went to an exhibition

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at the Caribbean
Cultural Center in Manhattan,

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00:09:08,630 --> 00:09:13,280
titled "Standing with Papa Legba
- Vodu at the crossroads".

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00:09:13,300 --> 00:09:17,130
It was an unusual look at
Haitian spiritual traditions

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through the lens of
contemporary art.

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00:09:22,310 --> 00:09:26,690
That's where I met its
young curator, Shantrelle Lewis.

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00:09:26,710 --> 00:09:29,960
Shantrelle reminds me of
a young Muhammad Ali.

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00:09:29,980 --> 00:09:32,900
She has the distinct lines

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00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:36,850
and grace of a dancer
and the mind of a boxer.

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00:09:39,070 --> 00:09:41,570
I wanted to know more about her.

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I had a feeling she was more
than professionally involved

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with the themes of
her exhibition.

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So a few weeks later

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00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:55,170
I dropped by
at her home in Brooklyn.

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00:10:02,470 --> 00:10:08,293
Hey - welcome to mi casa.

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So, I practice Lukumi,

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00:10:16,170 --> 00:10:20,090
which is a derivative
of Yoruba spirituality.

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00:10:21,510 --> 00:10:26,600
A part, a basic part of that is
the understanding of the role

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00:10:26,620 --> 00:10:29,370
that ancestors play in
your existence

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00:10:29,390 --> 00:10:32,130
and the way you move
about the world

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00:10:32,150 --> 00:10:36,810
on a daily basis and you know.
Ancestors walk with you...

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00:10:36,830 --> 00:10:39,740
They're not just off somewhere
in this random kingdom

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00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:42,270
but they protect you
every single day

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00:10:42,290 --> 00:10:47,360
and so on basic altars you may
see glasses of water

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00:10:47,380 --> 00:10:49,965
and again each glass
representing

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00:10:49,985 --> 00:10:52,570
a different group
of ancestors...

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00:10:52,590 --> 00:10:57,220
What is what you actually
acknowledge in your ancestors?

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This is a daily practice.

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I try to acknowledge them
on a daily basis.

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I generally try to
refresh my altar,

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00:11:05,250 --> 00:11:08,130
the glasses of water
on Sundays.

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Maybe this has something to do
with my Catholic upbringing,

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00:11:11,110 --> 00:11:13,850
the Christian upbringing but
that's the day

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where I kind of starting
my week of so

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I like to do that
on a Sunday.

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I understand that.

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It's kind of interesting, too,
cause there is a wall,

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in my home is surrounded
by masks

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and things which is my family,

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of the paternal side
in my family...

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although my father insisted that

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he wasn't influenced
by voodoo at all.

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Everything that I've discovered

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since moving back in the house
seems to contradict that.

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On another visit to New York

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I happen to be invited
to spend the afternoon

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in the home of
Danny Simmons.

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00:12:01,470 --> 00:12:04,080
Danny is a worldly and
unpretentious man

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00:12:04,100 --> 00:12:06,600
who is much more than
the sum of his parts

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- painter, writer, art collector
and,

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with his brother Russell,

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00:12:12,850 --> 00:12:15,773
producer of HBO's
"Def Poetry-Jam".

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He is a system of refuge and
support for a broad artistic

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and intellectual community
in New York and beyond.

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00:12:28,070 --> 00:12:31,980
Thinking about my father

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- this is an extraordinary
collection.

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00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:39,670
My father collects masks
from all over

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00:12:39,690 --> 00:12:43,610
and he has got some
good pieces.

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00:12:46,100 --> 00:12:50,010
But when I've tried to talk
with him about it in the past

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00:12:50,030 --> 00:12:54,970
in terms of spiritual powers
of Africa

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- he was kind of blind
to that,

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00:13:00,570 --> 00:13:03,340
he was looking at it purely...

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00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:05,560
For aesthetic reasons?

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00:13:05,580 --> 00:13:08,440
That's what he was telling me
- you know what I am saying?

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00:13:08,460 --> 00:13:10,900
Which kind of let to
this project.

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00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:16,570
That there are these African
influences in peoples lives...

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Sure.

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00:13:17,990 --> 00:13:20,280
...that they don t want to
acknowledge.

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00:13:20,300 --> 00:13:24,160
And I am - obviously, based on
what I know about you,

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00:13:27,140 --> 00:13:32,760
you recognize those powers
and you respect them.

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00:13:32,780 --> 00:13:37,680
Well, yeah. We've been taught,
and people have been taught,

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00:13:37,700 --> 00:13:42,080
especially these generations
prior to ours have been taught

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00:13:42,100 --> 00:13:44,050
that anything associated
with Africa was bad.

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Unless it was
an aesthetic thing.

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00:13:46,100 --> 00:13:48,880
You can relate to the aesthetic
of a mask

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00:13:48,900 --> 00:13:50,610
or you can relate to

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the aesthetic of fabric
or the aesthetic

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- but the actual culture,

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00:13:54,410 --> 00:13:56,460
the actual people
that was eshewed.

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You can go to any museum and
you can see African masks.

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But they don't concentrate.

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00:14:01,060 --> 00:14:04,220
They call it art
and it's not really art.

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00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:06,680
These are ritual items
and objects

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00:14:06,700 --> 00:14:10,330
that people use for
points of power

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00:14:10,350 --> 00:14:13,610
and for points of
spiritual reference.

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00:14:13,630 --> 00:14:16,370
They don't talk about that
and it s eshewed,

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00:14:16,390 --> 00:14:20,070
anything that's non-christian
in this society is looked at

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00:14:20,090 --> 00:14:22,820
You can look at the same object
as a European

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00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:24,540
and say this is a great mask.

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00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:26,840
Let me put some wax on it
and shine it up

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00:14:26,860 --> 00:14:30,600
and put it next to
a Picasso or something.

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00:14:30,620 --> 00:14:32,140
Once if you start
talking about it

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00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:35,420
in its natural setting as
a religious object,

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00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:37,680
people get upset and
that s what we were taught.

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00:14:37,700 --> 00:14:40,160
You are
one hundred percent right.

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00:14:40,180 --> 00:14:42,080
They're afraid because they
really don't know it.

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00:14:42,100 --> 00:14:44,920
But if we look at
what we have here

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00:14:44,940 --> 00:14:47,360
we will see what the truth
is in that.

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00:14:47,380 --> 00:14:49,720
People have walked in here
and looked at this stuff

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00:14:49,740 --> 00:14:51,680
and turned around
and walked out.

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00:14:51,700 --> 00:14:54,080
People talk a lot of
black stuff and say:

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00:14:54,100 --> 00:14:56,470
Oh no no, I can't be in a
room with that stuff.

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00:14:56,490 --> 00:14:58,280
No its doen't work that way.

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00:14:58,300 --> 00:14:59,850
It's the absence of faith.

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00:14:59,870 --> 00:15:02,980
To begin with...

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00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,930
The more we look at what
we have here - from Africa -

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00:15:05,950 --> 00:15:08,480
the more we look
and get to understand

189
00:15:08,500 --> 00:15:11,140
and let some of it
be revealed to you

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00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:13,730
than you really see
how fortunate you are.

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00:15:13,750 --> 00:15:15,250
And you see where
your power lies

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00:15:15,270 --> 00:15:16,650
Absolutely.

193
00:15:16,670 --> 00:15:18,050
The Power lies
in your history...

194
00:15:18,070 --> 00:15:21,610
For me I started collecting
African art.

195
00:15:21,630 --> 00:15:24,800
My father taught Black History.

196
00:15:24,820 --> 00:15:30,693
But when I started painting
years and years and years ago

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00:15:32,113 --> 00:15:34,320
and I started looking
at the European Masters,

198
00:15:34,340 --> 00:15:38,530
immediately I was attracted to
Picasso and his cubist stuff

199
00:15:38,550 --> 00:15:43,120
not knowing that that time he
had been referencing African Art

200
00:15:43,140 --> 00:15:46,550
or African objects to create
this paintings

201
00:15:46,570 --> 00:15:47,980
and to create this stuff.

202
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,570
You know I am a self-taught
artist and as I looked deeper,

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00:15:50,590 --> 00:15:53,660
I started looking at where did
he get this from?

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00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:55,890
Where did all these Europeans
who are considered Masters

205
00:15:55,910 --> 00:15:57,290
getting this stuff from?

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00:15:57,310 --> 00:15:59,700
So I moved beyond that and

207
00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:01,420
started looking at things
that were closer.

208
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:05,300
Like this painting here
by Wifredo Lam,

209
00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:08,320
an Afro-Cuban painter
and the way he painted it.

210
00:16:08,340 --> 00:16:11,130
It has deeper spiritual meaning
than what Picasso put out there.

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00:16:11,150 --> 00:16:13,820
Picasso put figures out there

212
00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:16,500
-Wifredo Lam tapped into
spirits of Santeria.

213
00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:21,860
And I had a natural affinity
for that beyond the surface

214
00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:26,320
to this actual spiritual of
what an object is.

215
00:16:26,340 --> 00:16:28,820
You mentioned the Cubans.

216
00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:31,430
Okay. The Cubans
they were able to maintain

217
00:16:31,450 --> 00:16:34,030
a lot of their
African heritage.

218
00:16:34,050 --> 00:16:36,390
My godfather in my religion,

219
00:16:36,410 --> 00:16:38,760
I m a Palo Mayombe,
here did he ome from?

220
00:16:38,780 --> 00:16:42,420
Cuba. What he brought
came from Africa.

221
00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:45,600
I felt when I walked
into this house.

222
00:16:45,620 --> 00:16:49,600
I thought:
Man, I am amongst my people.

223
00:16:49,620 --> 00:16:51,050
That's how I feel.

224
00:16:51,070 --> 00:16:54,840
That's how I feel.
I am a mongst my people.

225
00:16:54,860 --> 00:16:58,740
I am glad we are now, some of
us are looking a little deeper.

226
00:17:06,620 --> 00:17:10,840
Together
with my friend Kanene

227
00:17:10,860 --> 00:17:14,080
I went to join our ancestors
occupying Wall Street.

228
00:17:14,100 --> 00:17:17,080
They weren't pounding drums in
Zuccotti Park, though.

229
00:17:17,100 --> 00:17:20,080
They took their movement
underground;

230
00:17:20,100 --> 00:17:24,080
camping out in silent protest
underneath lower Broadway

231
00:17:24,100 --> 00:17:26,840
since the 1690s.

232
00:17:28,260 --> 00:17:29,840
Kanene is a dedicated

233
00:17:29,860 --> 00:17:32,050
New York City
public school teacher;

234
00:17:32,070 --> 00:17:35,300
actress; and
Zora Neale Hurston scholar.

235
00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:37,321
Talking to her is like staring
into

236
00:17:37,483 --> 00:17:40,080
the high beams of
a speeding, on-coming car.

237
00:17:41,500 --> 00:17:43,890
Do you know much about
the African burial ground?

238
00:17:43,910 --> 00:17:48,050
Ironically
I do and I don't and I do.

239
00:17:48,070 --> 00:17:50,500
But it was like breaking news.

240
00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:53,130
Because they were busy building
some building.

241
00:17:53,150 --> 00:17:55,820
That was the goal.
Some financial building

242
00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:57,980
- whatever building
they were trying to build

243
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:01,500
and you just have to go,
dig up the ground

244
00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:04,890
and in that process of
building the foundation

245
00:18:04,910 --> 00:18:06,840
this became breaking news
like oh oh

246
00:18:06,860 --> 00:18:10,050
- we can't just build
the foundation on these graves

247
00:18:10,070 --> 00:18:13,740
and so it really started to
come out. Was it like 95 or 96?

248
00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:15,840
I think it was 95.

249
00:18:15,860 --> 00:18:19,430
Yeah, it was 95, so I was in
the fifth grade, so yeah, 95.

250
00:18:19,450 --> 00:18:23,300
And they were like wow, shuut
- we can't just build on this land

251
00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:27,050
and the whole notion of
the fact that these are slaves

252
00:18:27,070 --> 00:18:29,840
it's not just any random grave.

253
00:18:29,860 --> 00:18:32,050
These are the slaves that
actually built New York City.

254
00:18:32,070 --> 00:18:33,410
They literally build this city

255
00:18:33,571 --> 00:18:35,860
and they were buried underneath
rock and granite.

256
00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:38,780
And the whole notion of it,
you can't erase it.

257
00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:40,180
And that's funny

258
00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:42,430
because even now me
as a social studies teacher,

259
00:18:42,450 --> 00:18:46,000
I taught fifth grade
social studies two years ago

260
00:18:46,020 --> 00:18:49,300
and I had to prepare them for
a fifth grade states test,

261
00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:52,110
it's all this stuff about
New York history

262
00:18:52,130 --> 00:18:55,430
they need to know,
fifth graders should know

263
00:18:55,450 --> 00:18:58,860
- the difference between rural,
suburban, and urban -

264
00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:02,110
they need to know about
the Niagra falls

265
00:19:02,130 --> 00:19:07,450
and the New Trade routes,
that were developed

266
00:19:07,470 --> 00:19:10,530
they need to know these things.

267
00:19:10,550 --> 00:19:12,780
And I usually feel like

268
00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:15,860
because it's all war, it's all
the glorification of war.

269
00:19:15,880 --> 00:19:18,000
War of 1812, French
and Indian War.

270
00:19:18,020 --> 00:19:22,290
It's war, war, war and it
never talks about the people,

271
00:19:22,310 --> 00:19:25,130
it never talks about the
real stories about people

272
00:19:25,150 --> 00:19:27,420
and the rebellion
and the revolution.

273
00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:30,360
And so they gave me this book,
and it was like this thick

274
00:19:30,380 --> 00:19:33,558
just to prep them for the test,
the test is in November,

275
00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:35,210
school starts in September

276
00:19:35,230 --> 00:19:37,601
and they had maybe
two paragraphs

277
00:19:37,763 --> 00:19:40,060
on slavery
in this entire book.

278
00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,410
It's the stuff on the
Constitution

279
00:19:42,571 --> 00:19:45,660
they had to learn,
stuff on the Supreme Court,

280
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:48,055
the judicial branch,
legislative branch,

281
00:19:48,216 --> 00:19:49,610
branches of government,

282
00:19:49,630 --> 00:19:51,850
all this stuff.

283
00:19:51,870 --> 00:19:53,630
The Industrial Revolution

284
00:19:53,650 --> 00:19:57,410
- all this stuff these little
fifth graders need to know...

285
00:19:57,430 --> 00:20:00,430
Wow, which is interesting
because knowing about slavery

286
00:20:00,450 --> 00:20:03,920
would put everything else
in the perspective.

287
00:20:03,940 --> 00:20:06,100
It would, because
the whole capitalistic structure

288
00:20:06,120 --> 00:20:08,280
of New York City
and all of America

289
00:20:08,300 --> 00:20:10,790
New York was the hub
of capitalism at that time

290
00:20:10,810 --> 00:20:14,860
and still is was all based on
all of the slave labour.

291
00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:17,490
The whole notion of
Wall Street, Bank of New York

292
00:20:17,510 --> 00:20:21,120
they all either insured slaves,
invested in slaves.

293
00:20:21,140 --> 00:20:23,201
The East India Company,
West India Company,

294
00:20:23,363 --> 00:20:24,280
all these companies

295
00:20:24,300 --> 00:20:28,150
that we do or do not know, we
do or do not recognize,

296
00:20:28,170 --> 00:20:31,010
a lot of them, Lehmann Brothers,
all of these companies

297
00:20:31,030 --> 00:20:35,600
which are on Wall Street today
- not all of them obviously,

298
00:20:35,620 --> 00:20:37,360
but some of them still have a
legacy

299
00:20:37,521 --> 00:20:39,360
and wouldn't be
the companies they were

300
00:20:39,380 --> 00:20:42,640
if they weren't investing in
slave labor back in the day.

301
00:20:42,660 --> 00:20:47,080
The burial ground is at the
heart of American capitalism.

302
00:20:47,100 --> 00:20:48,830
Exactly!

303
00:20:48,850 --> 00:20:52,010
Which was an interesting thing
because as I was going

304
00:20:52,030 --> 00:20:57,370
through the rotunde here
they had a symbol from Legba...

305
00:20:57,390 --> 00:21:00,100
Yes, the crossroads, yes!

306
00:21:00,120 --> 00:21:02,000
The crossroads.

307
00:21:02,020 --> 00:21:07,030
Which told me that the
crossroads wasn't about

308
00:21:07,050 --> 00:21:10,660
deciding what direction
you are going to take,

309
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,350
what faded decision
you are going to make

310
00:21:13,370 --> 00:21:16,040
but rather it was
about contradictions.

311
00:21:16,060 --> 00:21:17,440
Hmhm.

312
00:21:17,460 --> 00:21:20,405
Which is probably the reason

313
00:21:20,425 --> 00:21:23,680
why Legba is considered
a trickster.

314
00:21:23,700 --> 00:21:26,140
Exactly, and I love Legba,

315
00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:28,610
I mean Legba is Bugs Bunny.
You know.

316
00:21:28,630 --> 00:21:30,010
Yeah.

317
00:21:30,030 --> 00:21:32,690
That whole notion of
what is reality

318
00:21:32,710 --> 00:21:35,490
and I can shift it
based on perception

319
00:21:35,510 --> 00:21:38,930
and what you are beholding to
as reality.

320
00:21:38,950 --> 00:21:44,810
That s existentialism, that can
become nihilism and denial.

321
00:21:44,830 --> 00:21:49,600
Because what is reality?

322
00:21:49,620 --> 00:21:52,000
I mean New York
would not be New York

323
00:21:52,020 --> 00:21:54,400
without the backs of slaves.

324
00:21:54,420 --> 00:21:58,600
Just like in a book by
Zora Neale Hurston about Moses.

325
00:21:58,620 --> 00:22:00,400
The whole story starts of
with the fact

326
00:22:00,420 --> 00:22:02,200
that there are these
slaves in Egypt.

327
00:22:02,220 --> 00:22:05,160
All the slavers on our back and
we can't do anything about it.

328
00:22:05,180 --> 00:22:06,990
We learn nothing but sorrow.

329
00:22:07,010 --> 00:22:10,810
If nothing else, that's that
lasting legacy that this leader,

330
00:22:10,830 --> 00:22:13,930
this pharao wants to sit there
and impart to us...

331
00:22:13,950 --> 00:22:18,130
You mean nothing other
than your labour.

332
00:22:18,150 --> 00:22:20,140
Right, you see these
beautiful temples,

333
00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:22,160
you see these
beautiful pyramides, right,

334
00:22:22,180 --> 00:22:24,740
but that lasting legacy of
the blood,

335
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,330
the sweat and the tears is
still in everything that we see

336
00:22:27,350 --> 00:22:31,420
and ironically that's the path
that we must choose.

337
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:33,830
And the path that a lot of
history books choose

338
00:22:33,850 --> 00:22:37,240
is in one direction which is ah,
erase that, it doesn't matter,

339
00:22:37,260 --> 00:22:41,930
again nihilism,
denial of the truth.

340
00:22:41,950 --> 00:22:45,450
And I would literally sitting
there, looking at this book,

341
00:22:45,470 --> 00:22:48,060
under the pressure of preparing
fifth graders -

342
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:50,770
seventy percent can not read
on a fifth grade level.

343
00:22:50,790 --> 00:22:53,710
This is in 2008 - so if you can't
read on a fifth grade level

344
00:22:53,730 --> 00:22:56,650
you really can't read.

345
00:22:58,070 --> 00:23:01,530
And I have two month
to prepare these kids.

346
00:23:01,550 --> 00:23:03,548
And I am looking at the history
again,

347
00:23:03,710 --> 00:23:05,920
and I am really thinking
to myself and say:

348
00:23:05,940 --> 00:23:09,450
Wait a minute, did slavery
not happen?

349
00:23:09,470 --> 00:23:12,040
And so I had to go back and
find other books

350
00:23:12,060 --> 00:23:17,130
and other resources and teach
that whole portion of history.

351
00:23:17,150 --> 00:23:20,590
It s interesting, because
you talked about lines

352
00:23:20,610 --> 00:23:21,990
and here is a circle...

353
00:23:22,010 --> 00:23:24,770
In the middle of
Manhattan's financial district

354
00:23:24,931 --> 00:23:26,000
is a sacred space.

355
00:23:26,020 --> 00:23:28,123
It seems to exists as if some

356
00:23:28,285 --> 00:23:30,840
mysterious happenstance
of history

357
00:23:30,860 --> 00:23:33,790
has joined forces with
all the world's religions,

358
00:23:33,810 --> 00:23:35,750
including Vodu,

359
00:23:35,770 --> 00:23:38,363
to confront the very powers
of Mammon

360
00:23:38,525 --> 00:23:40,540
that Wall Street
represents.

361
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:42,990
And I find, even here,
we all must ask Legba

362
00:23:43,010 --> 00:23:46,440
for his permission
to pass through the gates.

363
00:23:47,860 --> 00:23:49,240
And I think it's beautiful,

364
00:23:49,260 --> 00:23:52,640
the way they designed
this entire burial ground.

365
00:23:52,660 --> 00:23:55,320
In terms of it does actually
reference a lot

366
00:23:55,340 --> 00:23:57,990
of the Sankofa symbols.

367
00:23:58,010 --> 00:24:00,680
This is a monument
to give these people

368
00:24:00,700 --> 00:24:03,430
some form of a voice.

369
00:24:03,450 --> 00:24:06,930
The thing that I am thinking
about: past and present coexist.

370
00:24:06,950 --> 00:24:08,330
Yes.

371
00:24:08,350 --> 00:24:09,730
Past, present.

372
00:24:09,750 --> 00:24:11,130
They're parallel.

373
00:24:11,150 --> 00:24:12,530
Yeah.

374
00:24:12,550 --> 00:24:15,090
And sometimes when
you ask questions

375
00:24:15,110 --> 00:24:17,540
they can become perpendicular
and that's the power,

376
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:18,640
that's the power of
asking questions:

377
00:24:18,660 --> 00:24:23,680
Why? How? Where? Who? And then
they also notice, it's raining.

378
00:24:23,700 --> 00:24:25,080
Yeah.

379
00:24:25,100 --> 00:24:26,480
I am noticing that.

380
00:24:26,500 --> 00:24:28,740
I kind of like the image.

381
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:30,360
Hm?

382
00:24:30,380 --> 00:24:32,250
I like the image.

383
00:24:44,700 --> 00:24:47,180
My father never
really understood

384
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:49,690
why I prefered
living abroad.

385
00:24:49,710 --> 00:24:52,280
I once wrote him a letter and
explained the reasons

386
00:24:52,300 --> 00:24:56,490
why I vowed I would never live
again in the United States.

387
00:24:56,510 --> 00:24:59,810
His only reply was that he
didn't understand.

388
00:24:59,830 --> 00:25:04,700
For me, why was simple.
This place had nothing for me.

389
00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:08,270
Or at least that's what
I thought until

390
00:25:08,290 --> 00:25:10,410
I was struck by
a cold realization.

391
00:25:10,430 --> 00:25:11,810
I was wrong.

392
00:25:11,830 --> 00:25:15,210
There was something,
maybe something unique.

393
00:25:15,230 --> 00:25:18,150
One of the reasons
I started this journey was

394
00:25:18,170 --> 00:25:22,090
to find out
what that something is.

395
00:25:36,540 --> 00:25:39,070
Outside of a couple of trips
to New Orleans,

396
00:25:39,090 --> 00:25:42,430
this is my first visit
to the deep south.

397
00:25:42,450 --> 00:25:45,610
We rolled passed
the manicured lawns

398
00:25:45,630 --> 00:25:47,800
of Greenwood's
middle class,

399
00:25:47,820 --> 00:25:50,780
literally crossing the tracks,
over into ''Baptist Town''.

400
00:26:12,120 --> 00:26:14,770
As we arrived, we were greeted
by an unexpected surprise

401
00:26:14,790 --> 00:26:17,210
- Pastor McArthur McKinley -

402
00:26:17,230 --> 00:26:20,750
Baptist Town's gold-tooth
and gheri-curled reverend

403
00:26:20,770 --> 00:26:22,300
in a Stacy Adam's suit.

404
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:26,010
Homeboy knew he was clean.
I shook his hand and asked,

405
00:26:26,030 --> 00:26:28,280
"Where can I get me
a suit like that?"

406
00:26:28,300 --> 00:26:31,010
"Are you a married man,
son?", he asked.

407
00:26:31,030 --> 00:26:32,410
"No, why?"

408
00:26:32,430 --> 00:26:34,820
"Well, that's good, because
if you were married,

409
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:37,320
and you wore a suit like mine,

410
00:26:37,340 --> 00:26:40,380
it would only lead you
into temptation",

411
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:43,220
he said, gold tooth glittering
in the mississippi sun.

412
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:48,330
As you noticed I just read a
scripture where Jesus promised

413
00:26:48,350 --> 00:26:52,930
that he would go and
prepare a place for us.

414
00:26:52,950 --> 00:26:55,860
And I am going to do
at this time

415
00:26:55,880 --> 00:27:00,800
Sweet Home...
it's a beautiful home.

416
00:27:00,820 --> 00:27:04,200
♪ Sweet Home,

417
00:27:04,220 --> 00:27:10,600
♪ Sweet Home,

418
00:27:10,620 --> 00:27:14,410
♪ Lord I know

419
00:27:14,430 --> 00:27:19,210
♪ Lord I wonder

420
00:27:19,230 --> 00:27:24,010
♪ will I ever

421
00:27:24,030 --> 00:27:28,610
♪ get home.

422
00:27:28,630 --> 00:27:33,510
♪ Sweet Home

423
00:27:33,530 --> 00:27:39,460
♪ it's a beautiful home,

424
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:43,940
♪ Sweet Home

425
00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:48,420
♪ Lord I know

426
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:51,220
♪ Lord I wonder...

427
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,830
I'm feeling really ambivalent

428
00:27:54,850 --> 00:27:56,450
for a lot of reasons.

429
00:27:56,470 --> 00:27:58,120
I'm not in New York.

430
00:27:58,140 --> 00:28:01,540
I'm among solid church-going
folks who pay taxes to god

431
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:04,450
and have barbecues
after service.

432
00:28:04,470 --> 00:28:07,120
But the deep south is also
Hoodoo country

433
00:28:07,140 --> 00:28:09,080
where two-heads lay tricks,

434
00:28:09,100 --> 00:28:11,940
sprinkle goofer dust
and work mojos.

435
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:14,800
And this is stuff people don't
talk about openly here

436
00:28:14,820 --> 00:28:16,570
unless they're telling tales

437
00:28:16,590 --> 00:28:19,940
about the one-eyed man deep in
the woods makin' gris-gris bags

438
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:23,840
or singing about it in songs
by Robert Johnson.

439
00:28:23,860 --> 00:28:27,920
To them, asking the kind
of questions I asked,

440
00:28:27,940 --> 00:28:33,810
I'm just talking about
"The Devil". Period.

441
00:28:37,810 --> 00:28:40,600
Right here, right now
we are in Baptist town.

442
00:28:40,620 --> 00:28:43,650
Baptist town is like the save
haven for the blues singer

443
00:28:43,670 --> 00:28:45,771
like Robert Johnson,
Honeyboy Edwards,

444
00:28:45,933 --> 00:28:46,600
Guitar Slim.

445
00:28:46,620 --> 00:28:48,563
All those guys would live
in this area,

446
00:28:48,725 --> 00:28:49,890
they live in this area,

447
00:28:49,910 --> 00:28:52,610
so they wouldn't go to
the cotton field and go to work

448
00:28:52,630 --> 00:28:54,580
cause they live
across the river

449
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:57,080
where the balls man would make
sure they would be at work.

450
00:28:57,100 --> 00:28:58,500
But they lived over here

451
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:00,640
and hide out in the houses
and wouldn't go to work

452
00:29:00,660 --> 00:29:02,740
and that's what guys like
Robert Johnson

453
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:04,850
or guys like Honeyboy Edwards
would do

454
00:29:04,870 --> 00:29:06,770
because they can make
more money

455
00:29:06,790 --> 00:29:08,680
playing music on
the corner

456
00:29:08,700 --> 00:29:11,570
then they would picking cotton
in the fields...

457
00:29:28,950 --> 00:29:33,640
Robert Johnson would have been
one hundred years old today.

458
00:29:33,660 --> 00:29:39,515
And Greenwood
was throwing the party.

459
00:29:47,300 --> 00:29:50,740
But I really honestly
didn't understand

460
00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:54,610
who or what
was being celebrated

461
00:29:57,420 --> 00:29:59,990
If what Mr. Hoover
said was true,

462
00:30:00,010 --> 00:30:03,370
how was it that a man
who played the blues

463
00:30:03,390 --> 00:30:08,253
was being celebrated in
a cotton museum?

464
00:30:16,770 --> 00:30:20,090
So I thought I'd go talk
with Steve LaVere.

465
00:30:20,110 --> 00:30:23,560
Steve is a big presence in
Greenwood's blues community.

466
00:30:23,580 --> 00:30:26,510
And he plays an
even bigger part

467
00:30:26,530 --> 00:30:29,455
keeping the legacy of
Robert Johnson alive.

468
00:30:48,898 --> 00:30:51,880
Greenwood is the world's
first long-stapled Cotton market

469
00:30:51,900 --> 00:30:55,240
and it moved to Memphis
about 1900.

470
00:30:55,260 --> 00:30:59,040
So things don't move to quickly
in the Delta as you know.

471
00:30:59,060 --> 00:31:01,970
Things have a tendency
to maintain

472
00:31:01,990 --> 00:31:07,848
and retain and be retained and
so that's what that's all about.

473
00:31:09,268 --> 00:31:11,780
But as far as who owns
Robert Johnson is concerned

474
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:14,710
which I think was
one of the early posits

475
00:31:14,730 --> 00:31:17,650
that you set for us
in your question.

476
00:31:20,460 --> 00:31:26,320
Robert Johnson and what is
considered country blues

477
00:31:29,860 --> 00:31:32,780
and really I think that's just

478
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:36,800
a small portion of all
indiginous American music:

479
00:31:36,820 --> 00:31:41,600
Jazz, American black gospel,
white gospel

480
00:31:41,620 --> 00:31:44,520
- it all has its roots
in two primary cultures

481
00:31:44,540 --> 00:31:47,440
that the world has produced:

482
00:31:47,460 --> 00:31:50,800
the European culture
and the African culture

483
00:31:50,820 --> 00:31:53,460
and they came together
on this continent.

484
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:55,810
Okay, I understand
that aspect of the story

485
00:31:55,830 --> 00:31:58,920
but that from what I
understand there

486
00:31:58,940 --> 00:32:02,510
is this whole generation
of British musicians

487
00:32:02,530 --> 00:32:08,363
who had discovered blues,
you know American blues

488
00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:14,420
and which was discarded by

489
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,430
and large but they picked it up

490
00:32:17,450 --> 00:32:20,250
and created this whole
sensation in rock music

491
00:32:20,270 --> 00:32:23,060
in the 60s and the 70s.

492
00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:26,930
When British musicians (who)
were looking for songs to play

493
00:32:26,950 --> 00:32:29,060
rather than write their own.

494
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,540
Why write your own when there
is a guy like Robert Johnson

495
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:33,610
and has written the great song
that we can do?

496
00:32:33,630 --> 00:32:35,250
Let's do "Dust my broom",

497
00:32:35,270 --> 00:32:36,650
lets do "Sweet Home Chicago",

498
00:32:36,670 --> 00:32:38,050
let's do "Come on in my
kitchen"

499
00:32:38,070 --> 00:32:39,450
Right.

500
00:32:39,470 --> 00:32:43,690
You know and so they got
their energy behind that

501
00:32:43,710 --> 00:32:45,090
and sold it back to America.

502
00:32:45,110 --> 00:32:47,890
Yeah, I understand.
I can see that.

503
00:32:47,910 --> 00:32:51,460
Actually I heard a tape,
it was an acoustic tape

504
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,990
that Keith Richards had done
covering Robert Johnson songs.

505
00:32:55,010 --> 00:32:59,560
That's when I began to have
respect for Keith Richards,

506
00:32:59,580 --> 00:33:03,710
knowing that he was a serious
student of the music.

507
00:33:03,730 --> 00:33:07,580
He said so on numbers
of occasions.

508
00:33:35,035 --> 00:33:39,680
We are here at the site
where Robert Johnson is buried.

509
00:33:39,700 --> 00:33:42,250
Let's go. It's right out here.

510
00:33:42,270 --> 00:33:45,190
Most of the people
do not have stones.

511
00:33:45,210 --> 00:33:48,128
Lot of em early 1900s.

512
00:33:49,548 --> 00:33:51,220
And you see some of them
handmade

513
00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:55,730
and a lot of them where just
made with wood,

514
00:33:55,750 --> 00:33:59,280
a cross made out of wood and
they stuck it in the ground.

515
00:34:00,700 --> 00:34:02,600
And Robert Johnson

516
00:34:02,620 --> 00:34:05,720
he died right across
this field over here

517
00:34:05,740 --> 00:34:08,880
because he followed
a girl home that night.

518
00:34:08,900 --> 00:34:11,810
You'd be in this cotton field,

519
00:34:11,830 --> 00:34:14,780
picking and jumping cotton
all way down

520
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:17,740
to where you see them trees.

521
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:21,200
You would hear music
coming from here.

522
00:34:21,220 --> 00:34:24,890
Do you hear that singing,
do you hear that singing?

523
00:34:24,910 --> 00:34:28,770
And you would hear sound
coming from this graveyard.

524
00:34:30,310 --> 00:34:32,885
Legend has it
Robert Johnson

525
00:34:32,905 --> 00:34:35,480
went down to the crossroads

526
00:34:35,500 --> 00:34:40,570
and gave the devil his guitar
and a fried-chicken sandwich.

527
00:34:40,590 --> 00:34:43,330
The devil tuned the guitar and
ate the sandwich, saying:

528
00:34:43,350 --> 00:34:47,200
"But your soul would taste a
hell of a lot better. Yum yum!"

529
00:34:47,220 --> 00:34:49,400
So Robert Johnson
shrugged his shoulders

530
00:34:49,420 --> 00:34:51,170
and handed over his soul.

531
00:34:51,190 --> 00:34:54,060
The devil gave him back his
guitar and belched.

532
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:56,770
Robert Johnson went on to

533
00:34:56,790 --> 00:34:59,480
impressed a lot of folks
with his singin'

534
00:34:59,500 --> 00:35:02,100
and playin' during
his short life.

535
00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:04,190
Within
African American culture,

536
00:35:04,210 --> 00:35:06,280
I think people are
leaving out,

537
00:35:06,300 --> 00:35:10,570
they miss a part of it in terms
of understanding

538
00:35:10,590 --> 00:35:13,200
where this whole notion of

539
00:35:13,220 --> 00:35:16,435
Robert Johnson going to
the crossroads

540
00:35:17,855 --> 00:35:19,520
to sell his soul to the devil.

541
00:35:19,540 --> 00:35:22,050
That is sort of a
Christian perspective.

542
00:35:22,070 --> 00:35:26,210
But in African American culture
we don't all buy into that

543
00:35:26,230 --> 00:35:30,540
because we know that there is a
larger culture related to that

544
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:35,410
such as understanding the
African perspective of that

545
00:35:36,830 --> 00:35:41,470
as that eventually came down to
African American culture as well

546
00:35:41,490 --> 00:35:44,400
and that was understanding

547
00:35:44,420 --> 00:35:47,330
the trickster of
the god figure Legba

548
00:35:49,150 --> 00:35:53,690
that was part of
African culture.

549
00:35:53,710 --> 00:35:56,670
And Legba himself
was not the devil

550
00:35:56,690 --> 00:35:59,640
- that's to strong of a term,

551
00:35:59,660 --> 00:36:02,590
but Legba was
really a trickster,

552
00:36:02,610 --> 00:36:05,533
that some people can call on.

553
00:36:06,953 --> 00:36:09,210
You said that people
should begin to

554
00:36:09,230 --> 00:36:15,060
acknowledge these African
presences in our lives.

555
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:18,850
That is something the culture
has largely ignored,

556
00:36:18,870 --> 00:36:21,160
the reason why of course
is that there

557
00:36:21,180 --> 00:36:23,480
is a lot of misinformation

558
00:36:23,500 --> 00:36:28,370
regarding African spiritual
practices in this country.

559
00:36:29,790 --> 00:36:32,360
It is a motive. We have
no proof for any of this.

560
00:36:32,380 --> 00:36:36,800
But I think its worth exploring
in terms of understanding

561
00:36:36,820 --> 00:36:42,690
as some would call it this
voodoo kind of mystique

562
00:36:44,110 --> 00:36:47,840
around Robert Johnson.

563
00:36:57,230 --> 00:37:02,940
♪ There's a Black Sun rising

564
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:07,810
♪ Underneath the water

565
00:37:07,830 --> 00:37:13,090
♪ There's a Black Sun rising

566
00:37:13,110 --> 00:37:17,780
♪ Under the bounding mane

567
00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:22,670
♪ Sit in motion by the greed

568
00:37:22,690 --> 00:37:26,770
♪ of Midas

569
00:37:26,790 --> 00:37:29,710
♪ And the arrogance

570
00:37:29,730 --> 00:37:32,650
♪ of Cain

571
00:37:36,100 --> 00:37:40,330
♪ A dark ritual of Moloch

572
00:37:40,350 --> 00:37:44,480
♪ Straight from
Bohemenian Grove

573
00:37:44,500 --> 00:37:50,363
♪ The Creamation of Dull Care

574
00:37:51,783 --> 00:37:56,380
♪ And the City
they could not hold

575
00:37:57,810 --> 00:38:04,250
♪ Fire on the water

576
00:38:04,270 --> 00:38:10,590
♪ Fire in the air

577
00:38:10,610 --> 00:38:16,550
♪ And below the
Black Sun burning

578
00:38:16,570 --> 00:38:21,800
♪ With an evil glare

579
00:38:46,340 --> 00:38:48,720
The thing that
always impressed me

580
00:38:48,740 --> 00:38:50,440
about New Orleans,

581
00:38:50,460 --> 00:38:53,650
the thing I really dug,
was that it's the city

582
00:38:53,670 --> 00:38:57,420
that gave the rest of the
United States its flavor,

583
00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:00,480
its spice.

584
00:39:00,500 --> 00:39:04,810
It is a city reknown for its
celebration of life through

585
00:39:04,830 --> 00:39:08,560
its food, music, dance
and sex.

586
00:39:08,580 --> 00:39:12,120
It was the city in America that
wasn't afraid of the body.

587
00:39:12,140 --> 00:39:15,330
It was the one place in America
that didn't outlaw the drum

588
00:39:15,350 --> 00:39:21,240
and permitted
black people to dance.

589
00:39:23,820 --> 00:39:26,240
New Orleans is Europe bathing

590
00:39:26,260 --> 00:39:29,685
with Africa in the
waters of the Carribean.

591
00:39:31,105 --> 00:39:34,390
And no, I am not
a "spiritual tourist" here.

592
00:39:34,410 --> 00:39:36,980
I'm not searching for a path
to "enlightenment"

593
00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:39,620
by gawking at
the Hindus of India

594
00:39:39,640 --> 00:39:42,690
or the Buddhists of Japan
or Tibet.

595
00:39:42,710 --> 00:39:47,650
I am an American
in an American city.

596
00:39:47,670 --> 00:39:51,090
I am not looking outside
of my culture.

597
00:39:51,110 --> 00:39:53,640
I am traveling along
a tributary,

598
00:39:53,660 --> 00:39:57,080
searching for a central spring

599
00:39:57,100 --> 00:40:00,530
that nourishes America
in a spiritual way.

600
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:08,560
Jesus Christ, It's
fucking hot. Miss Glasman...

601
00:40:09,980 --> 00:40:11,360
It's great to see you.

602
00:40:11,380 --> 00:40:12,760
How are you?

603
00:40:12,780 --> 00:40:15,705
You traded wonderful
New England spring

604
00:40:15,725 --> 00:40:18,610
like weather for
this heat, humidity...

605
00:40:18,630 --> 00:40:21,450
Yes, I must have been
out of my mind...

606
00:40:21,470 --> 00:40:26,130
You established that
long time ago. I need a chair.

607
00:40:26,150 --> 00:40:27,980
I know you need a chair.

608
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:30,780
And all the chairs are
covered in boxes

609
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:33,730
cause I am moving the shop.

610
00:40:33,750 --> 00:40:38,570
Let's... Let's... here is a
chair.

611
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:48,330
And I'll sit on the box of salt.

612
00:40:50,950 --> 00:40:53,950
That way I am cleansing myself
as we speak.

613
00:40:53,970 --> 00:40:57,040
Indeed.

614
00:40:57,060 --> 00:40:59,090
Yes, there you go.

615
00:40:59,110 --> 00:41:04,000
So, what's happening
and what you are doing?

616
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:09,010
Seriously?

617
00:41:11,900 --> 00:41:14,020
Hmhm.
Last time you were here

618
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:16,970
we were initiating people
in my temple

619
00:41:16,990 --> 00:41:19,360
in the miserable,
unbearable heat

620
00:41:19,380 --> 00:41:23,020
and Edgar, my papa from Haiti
was here.

621
00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:24,420
Yes.

622
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:27,130
And you were making
recordings of him

623
00:41:27,150 --> 00:41:29,520
and nobody was speaking
each others language

624
00:41:29,540 --> 00:41:31,880
but everybody understood
everything.

625
00:41:31,900 --> 00:41:36,970
Yeah, that's true. I wanted
to get to that a little later.

626
00:41:36,990 --> 00:41:39,005
Okay.

627
00:41:41,060 --> 00:41:43,990
Cause actually
since that time

628
00:41:44,010 --> 00:41:46,930
a couple of questions
occurred to me

629
00:41:48,350 --> 00:41:53,655
given the horrific nature of
the natural disasters

630
00:41:56,180 --> 00:42:02,045
that hit two of the major
voodoo centers in the west.

631
00:42:08,070 --> 00:42:13,938
How? I mean I don't
understand how one can...

632
00:42:34,190 --> 00:42:35,980
You look fabulous...

633
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:39,840
Happy Easter.

634
00:42:55,275 --> 00:42:59,490
Okay, natural disasters.

635
00:42:59,510 --> 00:43:02,420
In the face of
two horrific disasters

636
00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:05,353
of monstrous proportions

637
00:43:08,460 --> 00:43:14,293
that some might say
are acts of god.

638
00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:22,970
How do you retain
your faith in a religion

639
00:43:24,390 --> 00:43:29,643
that's disparaged by
the society we live in.

640
00:43:31,110 --> 00:43:34,610
I have so many things to say
about this.

641
00:43:34,630 --> 00:43:36,010
I was sure you did.

642
00:43:36,030 --> 00:43:37,570
I'll try to be succinct.

643
00:43:37,590 --> 00:43:40,510
First of all, when I hear

644
00:43:40,530 --> 00:43:43,443
disasters of monstrous
proportions

645
00:43:44,863 --> 00:43:49,740
and than I think these are
at least natural,

646
00:43:49,760 --> 00:43:52,890
these are mother earth rising up

647
00:43:52,910 --> 00:43:55,830
and when I think
about the proportion

648
00:43:55,850 --> 00:43:58,768
of the disaster
that was slavery,

649
00:44:01,710 --> 00:44:06,740
that was the supposedly
founding of this country

650
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:12,633
and the discovery
of the New World,

651
00:44:16,070 --> 00:44:18,990
I think at least there is

652
00:44:19,010 --> 00:44:21,933
something aligned
and that Haiti,

653
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:28,610
like New Orleans has somehow
become the conscience keeper

654
00:44:28,630 --> 00:44:32,540
for the western world
and the violence

655
00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:37,490
that was done upon humanity
at those times and

656
00:44:37,510 --> 00:44:41,240
in the same way that
people say to me that

657
00:44:41,260 --> 00:44:45,440
possession trance is this
terrifying demonic thing

658
00:44:45,460 --> 00:44:50,250
and I think instead that it's
exactly the opposite

659
00:44:50,270 --> 00:44:53,280
- our ego identities
having such control

660
00:44:53,300 --> 00:44:59,280
and such a lock hold on us
is really scary

661
00:44:59,300 --> 00:45:01,800
and that possession trance

662
00:45:01,820 --> 00:45:04,320
where you get to go beyond
those boundaries

663
00:45:04,340 --> 00:45:07,450
and become spirit for a while...

664
00:45:07,470 --> 00:45:11,090
I see things always at askew
and I always been that way.

665
00:45:11,110 --> 00:45:13,570
I mean from the time I was
first born

666
00:45:13,590 --> 00:45:16,050
I see things backwards,
I do things backwards and

667
00:45:16,070 --> 00:45:20,640
New Orleans is very much
that way...

668
00:45:20,660 --> 00:45:22,730
everything is backwards
and upside down.

669
00:45:22,750 --> 00:45:24,820
Haiti - everything is backwards
and upside down.

670
00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:28,650
When I was initiating
myself in Haiti,

671
00:45:28,670 --> 00:45:33,120
all through the initiation
which went on for a week,

672
00:45:33,140 --> 00:45:37,130
houngans, priests and
mambos, priestesses

673
00:45:37,150 --> 00:45:41,530
came into the chamber that
I was in and they would all say:

674
00:45:41,550 --> 00:45:44,680
Don't think that this will make
your life any easier, it's not.

675
00:45:44,700 --> 00:45:47,380
If anything it gonna
make it harder

676
00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:50,160
because you are
basically upside down

677
00:45:50,180 --> 00:45:54,130
and backwards compared to the
rest of the world and so what,

678
00:45:54,150 --> 00:45:57,290
you have entrée
into the invisible,

679
00:45:57,310 --> 00:45:59,930
it's gonna make it
hard for you

680
00:45:59,950 --> 00:46:02,560
in the physical mundane
material world.

681
00:46:02,580 --> 00:46:05,610
Don't think it's gonna make
anything easier for you.

682
00:46:05,630 --> 00:46:09,520
But what it does do it tells
you at what level

683
00:46:09,540 --> 00:46:12,440
and to what degree you can
engage in your own life

684
00:46:12,460 --> 00:46:18,330
and your own experience and how
we respond to spirit is

685
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:22,980
whether we gonna survive this
or not.

686
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:26,540
So I don't think that Haiti or
New Orleans is unique.

687
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:29,140
I don't think we're being
punished by anybody,

688
00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:34,280
Voodoo is not about judging
good and bad,

689
00:46:34,300 --> 00:46:38,470
so that whole premise
that this is great evil

690
00:46:38,490 --> 00:46:41,400
and god is going to punish

691
00:46:41,420 --> 00:46:44,330
doesn't make any sense
in the context of voodoo

692
00:46:45,755 --> 00:46:47,540
but what does matter is balance

693
00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:52,540
and consciously creating
a balance in your life,

694
00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:54,560
in your well being, in your
community,

695
00:46:54,580 --> 00:46:56,900
in how you address spirit

696
00:46:56,920 --> 00:46:59,250
and no wonder all these
amazing people

697
00:46:59,270 --> 00:47:01,470
are collecting in New Orleans

698
00:47:01,490 --> 00:47:07,350
and creating a front line and
preserving what is unique.

699
00:47:07,370 --> 00:47:11,850
You talk about going beneath
the surface.

700
00:47:11,870 --> 00:47:15,240
The waters of the invisible.

701
00:47:15,260 --> 00:47:21,118
What do you mean
when you say that?

702
00:49:18,950 --> 00:49:22,610
In the voodoo world view
we could say

703
00:49:22,630 --> 00:49:27,540
and actually the way I perceive
and always have perceived,

704
00:49:27,560 --> 00:49:30,890
there is a surface level
in the world.

705
00:49:30,910 --> 00:49:33,240
That's the physical,
that's the visible.

706
00:49:33,260 --> 00:49:35,390
And there is also
simultaneously within,

707
00:49:35,410 --> 00:49:37,530
beyond,throughout,

708
00:49:37,550 --> 00:49:40,430
around all of the physical

709
00:49:40,450 --> 00:49:43,600
- there is an invisible
ocean of spirit.

710
00:49:43,620 --> 00:49:49,040
By spirit I mean basically
intelligent energy

711
00:49:49,060 --> 00:49:51,990
and this intelligent
energy to me

712
00:49:52,010 --> 00:49:54,930
radiates from the presence
of the divine.

713
00:49:57,270 --> 00:50:01,510
And spirit is in everything.

714
00:50:01,530 --> 00:50:04,800
It is literally the water that
we bath in,

715
00:50:04,820 --> 00:50:08,460
the earth that we walk upon,
the air that we breathe.

716
00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:13,740
The entire world is
enrolled with spirit

717
00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:16,410
and is contained
within god's life force.

718
00:50:16,430 --> 00:50:21,170
And these two worlds interact
and interpenetrate each other.

719
00:50:21,190 --> 00:50:23,450
They reveal things about
one another

720
00:50:23,470 --> 00:50:28,330
and they affect one another and
we can say that they...

721
00:50:29,750 --> 00:50:32,440
The visible world is influenced
by the invisible world

722
00:50:32,460 --> 00:50:35,360
in ways that are invisible.

723
00:50:37,340 --> 00:50:39,760
So we think of them as magic.

724
00:50:39,780 --> 00:50:41,670
They appear to us

725
00:50:41,690 --> 00:50:43,570
on the physical side
of things as magic.

726
00:50:43,590 --> 00:50:46,420
To me they are just mere images

727
00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:51,320
that the physical world is a
mirror of the invisible world.

728
00:50:51,340 --> 00:50:56,560
And so we can act in ways
in the physical

729
00:50:56,580 --> 00:50:59,280
that will effect
the invisible world, too.

730
00:50:59,300 --> 00:51:02,230
We can open the doors between
these two realms

731
00:51:02,250 --> 00:51:05,173
and invite them to dance.

732
00:51:32,650 --> 00:51:38,358
a Legba qui garde la porte

733
00:51:53,590 --> 00:51:59,478
a Legba qui garde la porte

734
00:52:06,908 --> 00:52:10,250
au tambour

735
00:52:10,270 --> 00:52:13,480
de l'homme à l'homme dans le
Ashè

736
00:52:13,500 --> 00:52:15,870
I didn't really
understand the

737
00:52:15,890 --> 00:52:18,250
deeper meanings of friendship
until I met Sallie.

738
00:52:18,270 --> 00:52:20,160
We met in high school.

739
00:52:20,180 --> 00:52:22,420
She had recently
lost her mother.

740
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:25,590
I had lost my own
the year before.

741
00:52:25,610 --> 00:52:29,090
It's a loss I've never really
recovered from, either.

742
00:52:29,110 --> 00:52:32,610
It remains the most painful
experience of my life.

743
00:52:32,630 --> 00:52:35,568
The world fell from beneath
my feet and

744
00:52:35,588 --> 00:52:38,528
I tumbled into
infinite darkness.

745
00:52:39,948 --> 00:52:43,640
Sallie was the one person then
who understood those feelings.

746
00:52:43,660 --> 00:52:49,243
We formed a bond of
empathetic intensity.

747
00:53:05,060 --> 00:53:10,923
La famille de ma mère,
la famille de mon père

748
00:53:12,343 --> 00:53:17,013
Nous dansons ici et
en Guinèe on danse

749
00:54:49,310 --> 00:54:51,980
When you are dancing
in the ceremony

750
00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:54,880
and the drums are beating
and there is lots of vibration

751
00:54:54,900 --> 00:54:57,780
and frequency happening.

752
00:54:57,800 --> 00:55:00,930
Every colour you see, every
gesture that there is,

753
00:55:00,950 --> 00:55:03,480
every song, every beat is
focusing the mind

754
00:55:03,500 --> 00:55:05,020
in a
particular way

755
00:55:06,700 --> 00:55:10,620
and accentuating
a particular vibration,

756
00:55:10,640 --> 00:55:12,560
a particular frequency.

757
00:55:12,580 --> 00:55:17,420
And it allows ordinary,
everyday people

758
00:55:17,440 --> 00:55:21,850
in the ordinary,everyday
world to suddenly

759
00:55:21,870 --> 00:55:24,790
break through that
ordinary world into

760
00:55:24,810 --> 00:55:27,738
this realm of spirit
and become spirit.

761
00:55:29,158 --> 00:55:31,480
It is interesting
you described

762
00:55:31,500 --> 00:55:34,160
the spirit as like
intelligent energy

763
00:55:34,180 --> 00:55:39,040
as opposed to these personified
forces of nature.

764
00:55:40,460 --> 00:55:42,710
Through our interaction
with them

765
00:55:42,730 --> 00:55:45,220
we start to perceive
beyond our own boundaries

766
00:55:45,240 --> 00:55:47,740
and what happens
in possession trance

767
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:50,280
is not that you are being
shut out or shut down

768
00:55:50,300 --> 00:55:54,040
and being taken over by
some force out there.

769
00:55:54,060 --> 00:55:57,480
Instead you just going past

770
00:55:57,500 --> 00:56:00,923
what you think of as
your limitations.

771
00:58:27,130 --> 00:58:31,128
Cigar!

772
01:00:10,880 --> 01:00:15,130
What goes on here is that
my family is together again.

773
01:00:15,150 --> 01:00:18,500
I didn t grow up here
but I've been here long

774
01:00:18,520 --> 01:00:21,120
and I been here
seven years living.

775
01:00:21,140 --> 01:00:24,350
And I'm really interested
in African spirituality

776
01:00:24,370 --> 01:00:30,210
as it is practiced in Africa
and was historically.

777
01:00:30,230 --> 01:00:32,860
What I found out is
that it works

778
01:00:32,880 --> 01:00:34,740
and that is why the why
the French lost their colonies

779
01:00:34,760 --> 01:00:36,140
because they thought
it was entertainment,

780
01:00:36,160 --> 01:00:38,100
but it was really working.

781
01:00:38,120 --> 01:00:42,520
So I come here to take part
in African spirituality,

782
01:00:42,540 --> 01:00:44,680
connect with my
ancestors directly

783
01:00:44,700 --> 01:00:46,760
and it's really nice because
I go to another church

784
01:00:46,780 --> 01:00:49,780
which is a catholic church and
the people on the walls,

785
01:00:49,800 --> 01:00:51,880
on the murals they
don't look like me,

786
01:00:51,900 --> 01:00:53,820
they look like somebody else

787
01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:55,770
and some of like
my great grandmother,

788
01:00:55,790 --> 01:00:57,470
but they don't look like me.

789
01:00:57,490 --> 01:01:00,660
So when I come here I see
representations of spirits

790
01:01:00,680 --> 01:01:06,628
that look like me and that is
easier to connect with.

791
01:01:10,790 --> 01:01:14,800
The ceremony was
generous in more than one way.

792
01:01:14,820 --> 01:01:17,430
It gave me the gift of
a new friend

793
01:01:17,450 --> 01:01:20,070
in the person of
Hassan Sekou Allen?

794
01:01:20,090 --> 01:01:23,010
a charming man with an
incredible breath of knowledge

795
01:01:23,030 --> 01:01:25,760
concerning New Orleans'
complex history

796
01:01:25,780 --> 01:01:31,730
and its ongoing parade
of surprises.

797
01:01:33,153 --> 01:01:37,560
He is very much an ambassador
of New Orleans magic,

798
01:01:37,580 --> 01:01:43,538
even if he is actually from L.A.

799
01:02:15,013 --> 01:02:17,610
I am really interested
in knowing

800
01:02:17,630 --> 01:02:23,603
how the voodoo that bloomed
here in New Orleans

801
01:02:25,023 --> 01:02:30,295
contributed to the evolution of
the different musical genres

802
01:02:32,860 --> 01:02:36,810
that came out of that city.
Can you give me some insight.

803
01:02:38,230 --> 01:02:41,850
Okay, you know that
fundamentally African music

804
01:02:41,870 --> 01:02:44,848
is a rhythmic music,

805
01:02:46,920 --> 01:02:50,520
it's polyrhythmic whereas
European music is,

806
01:02:50,540 --> 01:02:53,500
we speak of polyphonic music,

807
01:02:53,520 --> 01:02:56,180
more than one phonic going on
at a time.

808
01:02:57,600 --> 01:02:59,720
Well, here it is more than
one rhythm going on at a time.

809
01:02:59,740 --> 01:03:03,690
Polyrhythmic democracy,

810
01:03:03,710 --> 01:03:07,680
this democracy of rhythm
which is intrinsic

811
01:03:07,700 --> 01:03:10,960
not only to
African ritualistic music

812
01:03:10,980 --> 01:03:13,770
but also to social music.

813
01:03:13,790 --> 01:03:18,060
And these rhythms
being brought across

814
01:03:18,080 --> 01:03:20,560
I mean really fundamental

815
01:03:20,580 --> 01:03:25,740
to what becomes every strain of
popular music down to today.

816
01:03:25,760 --> 01:03:31,728
The rhythm of for example
the bambola rhythm.

817
01:03:39,148 --> 01:03:40,528
Well, you can hear that
all the way down

818
01:03:40,548 --> 01:03:43,670
to the washboard players on
royal street this afternoon

819
01:03:43,690 --> 01:03:48,620
or the lady that we met at
Sallie Anns place on Sunday

820
01:03:48,640 --> 01:03:51,510
also for a minute tapped into
that rhythm.

821
01:03:51,530 --> 01:03:54,330
You know just naturally, never
having drummed before

822
01:03:54,350 --> 01:03:57,980
she did that bambola rhythm,
isn't that very interesting?

823
01:03:58,000 --> 01:04:00,310
You know and there are
other fundamental rhythms

824
01:04:00,330 --> 01:04:02,030
like what we call the key.

825
01:04:02,050 --> 01:04:08,000
In Afro-Yoruba percussion
it is the clave,

826
01:04:09,220 --> 01:04:12,460
so it is a rhythmic pattern
which I learned is two ways:

827
01:04:12,480 --> 01:04:17,450
hair cut shave shampoo and
shave hair cut shampoo.

828
01:04:19,865 --> 01:04:22,010
Depending on the determination
of the phrase.

829
01:04:22,030 --> 01:04:25,000
Well that rhythm we know

830
01:04:25,020 --> 01:04:27,995
travels through many
different variations.

831
01:04:29,415 --> 01:04:32,400
Bizets Habanera from Carmen
is one variation of it

832
01:04:32,420 --> 01:04:38,370
or the second line beat of the
famous New Orleans bab bab bab..

833
01:04:39,790 --> 01:04:41,170
That is also
one variation of that

834
01:04:41,190 --> 01:04:44,470
one,two,three, one,two,three,
one, two,

835
01:04:44,490 --> 01:04:47,850
That is an important aspect
of the music.

836
01:04:47,870 --> 01:04:53,830
I remember reading about
this man who would sharpen

837
01:04:53,850 --> 01:04:56,280
and would go through
New Orleans neighbourhood

838
01:04:56,300 --> 01:04:59,300
and sharpen like knifes things

839
01:04:59,320 --> 01:05:02,690
like that who apparently carry
the same rhythms

840
01:05:02,710 --> 01:05:06,150
- a vegetable seller,
the ice man.

841
01:05:06,170 --> 01:05:08,610
But even down to the
second line marches

842
01:05:08,630 --> 01:05:13,640
you go to a Mardi Gras parade,
there are 47 crews in row,

843
01:05:13,660 --> 01:05:16,200
most of them use
- highschool,

844
01:05:16,220 --> 01:05:18,550
junior highschool,
elementary school -

845
01:05:18,570 --> 01:05:20,960
bands from the area

846
01:05:20,980 --> 01:05:23,030
and one of the big things is

847
01:05:23,050 --> 01:05:26,310
that these bands have
to have a drum cadence

848
01:05:26,330 --> 01:05:28,150
that is distinctly their own

849
01:05:28,170 --> 01:05:31,270
and if you don't hear bits of
Africa, Haiti and Brazil

850
01:05:31,290 --> 01:05:33,590
through all of that and Cuba,

851
01:05:33,610 --> 01:05:36,340
you aren't listening
because it's out there

852
01:05:36,360 --> 01:05:42,313
and it's happening on the
streets every day in this city.

853
01:06:06,340 --> 01:06:08,540
I've known
David Goat Carson since

854
01:06:08,560 --> 01:06:12,050
my boho days in a now-vanished
New York.

855
01:06:12,070 --> 01:06:14,740
David is a novelist
and songwriter.

856
01:06:14,760 --> 01:06:17,290
He studied with the
blues legend Skip James

857
01:06:17,310 --> 01:06:21,550
and shares a Grammy with
musical collaborator Dr. John.

858
01:06:21,570 --> 01:06:23,930
It wasn't until after he left

859
01:06:23,950 --> 01:06:26,320
New York for New Orleans,
however,

860
01:06:26,340 --> 01:06:29,300
I learned he was
a respected shaman

861
01:06:29,320 --> 01:06:32,290
of the White Buffalo tribe.

862
01:06:34,840 --> 01:06:38,790
You see, this is the most
sacred spot for me.

863
01:06:38,810 --> 01:06:42,470
This is the oldest tree
in New Orleans.

864
01:06:42,490 --> 01:06:45,990
This tree is obviously over a
thousand years old which means

865
01:06:46,010 --> 01:06:49,180
it was a baby when
the crusaders marched

866
01:06:49,200 --> 01:06:51,480
into Jerusalem.

867
01:06:51,500 --> 01:06:55,690
And you see the roots are as
big as the trunk of the trees

868
01:06:55,710 --> 01:06:58,310
and every time I have something

869
01:06:58,330 --> 01:07:00,920
to do that's I feel
life changing

870
01:07:00,940 --> 01:07:03,870
this is where I come to pray.

871
01:07:03,890 --> 01:07:08,840
Look at this, what
a comfortable chair.

872
01:07:13,600 --> 01:07:18,850
I was actually interested in
how Native American practice

873
01:07:18,870 --> 01:07:22,080
merged with African spirituality

874
01:07:22,100 --> 01:07:28,048
that's been a repeating theme
in many of the people

875
01:07:29,468 --> 01:07:32,630
I've talked to
all over this trip.

876
01:07:32,650 --> 01:07:37,140
Here is the story
as it has come to me.

877
01:07:37,160 --> 01:07:39,530
When they moved the slaves here,

878
01:07:39,550 --> 01:07:44,530
when they moved the Africans
their gods became like them.

879
01:07:44,550 --> 01:07:48,560
Powerful gods like Legba would
suddenly be a cripple,

880
01:07:48,580 --> 01:07:53,160
a drunkard, living in rags.

881
01:07:53,180 --> 01:07:57,730
But what happened is that
when they came here,

882
01:07:57,750 --> 01:08:01,360
two peoples with a very similar
understanding of the earth,

883
01:08:01,380 --> 01:08:03,670
the relationship
with the planet,

884
01:08:03,690 --> 01:08:05,980
the relationship
with trees, everything

885
01:08:06,000 --> 01:08:10,940
and they were both being
oppressed by the same guy.

886
01:08:10,960 --> 01:08:12,900
So they came together

887
01:08:12,920 --> 01:08:15,940
and they did this in the hills
and mountains of Haiti.

888
01:08:15,960 --> 01:08:18,130
The natives there, that
Columbus hadn't killed

889
01:08:18,150 --> 01:08:21,720
had run off to the mountains.

890
01:08:21,740 --> 01:08:24,810
So the Africans would do
their religion

891
01:08:24,830 --> 01:08:26,480
which was a devil worship

892
01:08:26,500 --> 01:08:29,090
according to
the catholic church.

893
01:08:29,110 --> 01:08:30,940
They would go up in the woods

894
01:08:30,960 --> 01:08:32,730
and when they was in the woods,

895
01:08:32,750 --> 01:08:34,400
they ran into
the Native Americans.

896
01:08:34,420 --> 01:08:35,800
And they got together,

897
01:08:35,820 --> 01:08:37,370
they began to Powwow,

898
01:08:37,390 --> 01:08:40,660
Powwow originally meant
healing ceremony.

899
01:08:40,680 --> 01:08:43,760
That's what Powwow means.

900
01:08:43,780 --> 01:08:47,840
And they came together
and from this merging,

901
01:08:47,860 --> 01:08:52,710
the Petra, the fire ceremonies,
New Orleans voodoo,

902
01:08:52,730 --> 01:08:56,540
Haitian voodoo came about
through this blend.

903
01:08:56,560 --> 01:09:00,560
Which is where the Mardi Gras
Indian tradition comes from

904
01:09:00,580 --> 01:09:04,640
and I think it is
very telling that

905
01:09:04,660 --> 01:09:08,800
the Mardi Gras Indians
use the Indian.

906
01:09:08,820 --> 01:09:12,450
Cause they gotta had somebody
who fight the Gods of Europe

907
01:09:12,470 --> 01:09:14,330
and so they started talking
to the Indians,

908
01:09:14,350 --> 01:09:17,430
and the Indians fell in love
with the black people

909
01:09:17,450 --> 01:09:19,120
because they thought
they were pretty.

910
01:09:19,140 --> 01:09:21,200
Totally different view,
you know,

911
01:09:21,220 --> 01:09:23,090
white folks they found them
ugly, stupid,

912
01:09:23,110 --> 01:09:25,370
like monkeys but the Indians
thought:

913
01:09:25,390 --> 01:09:30,730
Oh, beautiful, oh, fearless,
powerful.

914
01:09:30,750 --> 01:09:32,980
They had no problem
in falling in love,

915
01:09:33,000 --> 01:09:37,550
not at all and the thing
they had to consider

916
01:09:37,570 --> 01:09:39,600
because the Indians had
no slavery.

917
01:09:39,620 --> 01:09:42,760
If you married, if your slave
married an Indian woman,

918
01:09:42,780 --> 01:09:44,630
that Indian woman was not
your slave,

919
01:09:44,650 --> 01:09:47,130
nor were their children.

920
01:09:47,150 --> 01:09:49,780
They would live
on your plantation

921
01:09:49,800 --> 01:09:51,740
and they would help
their husband

922
01:09:51,760 --> 01:09:53,620
but they would have
their own garden

923
01:09:53,640 --> 01:09:58,540
and they would eventually
buy their husbands freedom

924
01:09:58,560 --> 01:10:01,110
and this is where you get this

925
01:10:01,130 --> 01:10:03,560
whole thing of
free people of colour.

926
01:10:03,580 --> 01:10:05,610
That's like one of the
big New Orleans things,

927
01:10:05,630 --> 01:10:08,050
that's one of the
few places in the south

928
01:10:08,070 --> 01:10:10,290
where there were
free people of color.

929
01:10:10,310 --> 01:10:12,290
It was the only place
in the South

930
01:10:12,310 --> 01:10:14,190
where the Africans were
allowed to drum

931
01:10:14,210 --> 01:10:16,270
cause they were afraid
of the African drum

932
01:10:16,290 --> 01:10:18,450
because it was to much like
the Native American drum.

933
01:10:18,470 --> 01:10:22,290
"They're talking to the Indians,
what are they saying?"

934
01:10:22,310 --> 01:10:25,260
And they would freak out.

935
01:10:42,290 --> 01:10:48,250
I am in my Easter Sunday best.

936
01:10:50,360 --> 01:10:55,220
My brother. How is it going?

937
01:10:55,240 --> 01:11:00,690
Guess what... we have got
a date this evening...

938
01:11:00,710 --> 01:11:04,950
for the opening of Treme.

939
01:11:04,970 --> 01:11:09,330
What time will it be on?
Around 9,9:30?

940
01:11:09,350 --> 01:11:11,950
Something like that.

941
01:11:11,970 --> 01:11:14,560
I don't remember.
It's been so long.

942
01:11:14,580 --> 01:11:18,400
They said, my episode was
on last Thursday.

943
01:11:18,420 --> 01:11:24,090
I've got royalties from the
first Treme episode I shot

944
01:11:24,110 --> 01:11:26,970
That song?
The revelator...

945
01:11:26,990 --> 01:11:28,745
The revelator.
You heard that.

946
01:11:28,765 --> 01:11:30,520
I gave you a copy

947
01:11:30,540 --> 01:11:32,360
Yeah, I heard a copy of it.

948
01:11:32,380 --> 01:11:35,700
♪ John the Revelator knocked
a song to me.

949
01:11:35,720 --> 01:11:39,540
♪ We were given a peek into
the future you see.

950
01:11:39,560 --> 01:11:43,420
♪ What we saw words
can't explain.

951
01:11:43,440 --> 01:11:46,810
♪ No, we just sending pictures
from the astral plane -

952
01:11:46,830 --> 01:11:50,760
♪ visions and riddles
- you connect the dots...

953
01:12:08,540 --> 01:12:11,145
Its hot.
All I can think about is

954
01:12:11,165 --> 01:12:13,770
air conditioning

955
01:12:13,790 --> 01:12:15,890
and the end of the civil war.

956
01:12:15,910 --> 01:12:18,090
And how the newly freed needed
to celebrate.

957
01:12:18,110 --> 01:12:20,890
So they picked up
the brass instruments

958
01:12:20,910 --> 01:12:22,700
discarded in the streets

959
01:12:22,720 --> 01:12:26,170
by the military's departing
marching bands.

960
01:12:26,190 --> 01:12:30,320
A new music evolved out of the
ashes of slavery and war.

961
01:12:30,340 --> 01:12:33,000
This new music was called
a lot of things

962
01:12:33,020 --> 01:12:36,000
but eventually it was called
Jazz.

963
01:12:36,020 --> 01:12:38,880
Jazz is played for all
occassions in New Orleans,

964
01:12:38,900 --> 01:12:44,873
including funerals,
especially funerals.

965
01:12:59,270 --> 01:13:01,870
I am just glad to see
everybody out here,

966
01:13:01,890 --> 01:13:05,330
because I always knew my father
was an icon here in this city

967
01:13:05,350 --> 01:13:08,810
and from the likes
of Jimi Hendrix,

968
01:13:08,830 --> 01:13:10,210
you can name it.

969
01:13:10,230 --> 01:13:12,760
If you wanna go on Youtube
and look at it,

970
01:13:12,780 --> 01:13:15,500
it's all there about my father,
you know.

971
01:13:15,520 --> 01:13:17,270
And my brothers are right here.

972
01:13:17,290 --> 01:13:20,210
I am glad to see them.

973
01:13:20,230 --> 01:13:23,160
Because with our father's legacy

974
01:13:23,180 --> 01:13:26,930
we are all glad to share
with everybody.

975
01:13:26,950 --> 01:13:30,060
Right here. Especially for
this week of Jazzfest.

976
01:14:00,350 --> 01:14:04,120
The technical name is
a traditional funeral

977
01:14:04,140 --> 01:14:05,920
and it comes in two sections:

978
01:14:05,940 --> 01:14:08,420
the first line and
the second line.

979
01:14:08,440 --> 01:14:09,930
The second line is the part

980
01:14:09,950 --> 01:14:11,440
that most people
are familiar with.

981
01:14:11,460 --> 01:14:14,120
But you need a first line
to have a funeral

982
01:14:14,140 --> 01:14:17,290
and in the first line
you have the deceased,

983
01:14:17,310 --> 01:14:20,410
the grand marchall, the band,

984
01:14:20,430 --> 01:14:23,840
and some very close members
of the family

985
01:14:23,860 --> 01:14:28,800
and the person who will
release the spirit.

986
01:14:35,810 --> 01:14:38,240
Once the casket or the urne

987
01:14:38,260 --> 01:14:41,520
or whatever is placed
inside the vault

988
01:14:41,540 --> 01:14:46,110
it is the responsibility and
the honour of this spouse,

989
01:14:46,130 --> 01:14:49,490
partner, child, husband,
whoever is the closest to

990
01:14:49,510 --> 01:14:51,950
the diseased to take
their index finger

991
01:14:51,970 --> 01:14:54,280
and make a gesture
just like this.

992
01:14:54,300 --> 01:14:55,680
And when they do that

993
01:14:55,700 --> 01:14:58,960
they have cut through
an imaginary tether

994
01:14:58,980 --> 01:15:02,520
which has bound
that soul to earth.

995
01:15:02,540 --> 01:15:05,290
When that occurs, generally
those people fall out

996
01:15:05,310 --> 01:15:07,060
cause it's so intense.

997
01:15:07,080 --> 01:15:09,070
But once this gesture is made,

998
01:15:09,090 --> 01:15:11,330
that's when the high steppin,

999
01:15:11,350 --> 01:15:14,350
the baton twirlin,
the umbrella spinning,

1000
01:15:14,370 --> 01:15:19,320
dancing takes place and
that's the second line.

1001
01:15:32,750 --> 01:15:35,130
The living cuts
the teather,

1002
01:15:35,150 --> 01:15:39,040
the spirit breaks free and,
so too, the music breaks,

1003
01:15:39,060 --> 01:15:42,990
reaffirming life,
reaffirming freedom.

1004
01:16:06,490 --> 01:16:08,710
But it's still too hot.

1005
01:16:08,730 --> 01:16:11,700
I love this city,
but after two weeks

1006
01:16:11,720 --> 01:16:14,685
I'm ready for cooler climes.

1007
01:16:48,300 --> 01:16:51,210
I was first introduced
to the work of Ishmael Reed

1008
01:16:51,230 --> 01:16:55,030
by one of my creative writing
instructors in high school.

1009
01:16:55,050 --> 01:16:59,170
Mr. Reed has remained an
influence in my life ever since.

1010
01:16:59,190 --> 01:17:01,390
Slightly more than
ten years later,

1011
01:17:01,410 --> 01:17:04,530
while trying to establish
my own voice as a writer,

1012
01:17:04,550 --> 01:17:06,980
I found myself part of
a group of writers

1013
01:17:07,000 --> 01:17:10,030
and other artists on the
Lower Eastside of Manhattan

1014
01:17:10,050 --> 01:17:12,440
who had descended from
The Umbra Workshop;

1015
01:17:12,460 --> 01:17:15,210
an arts collective Mr. Reed
had been involved

1016
01:17:15,230 --> 01:17:20,810
with in the very early sixties.

1017
01:17:20,830 --> 01:17:23,370
During Mr. Reed's frequent
visits to New York

1018
01:17:23,390 --> 01:17:27,340
I was able to establish a
growing friendship with him.

1019
01:17:28,760 --> 01:17:32,150
What I love most about Mr. Reed

1020
01:17:32,170 --> 01:17:34,880
is his absolutely grotesque yet
incisive sense of humor.

1021
01:17:34,900 --> 01:17:36,280
For example,

1022
01:17:36,300 --> 01:17:38,400
we were discussing
Basquiat's fate

1023
01:17:38,420 --> 01:17:41,780
at the hands of
Andy Warhol.

1024
01:17:41,800 --> 01:17:43,760
"It was like
Renfield's encounter

1025
01:17:43,780 --> 01:17:47,090
with Count Dracula" he said,

1026
01:17:47,110 --> 01:17:52,060
"In the end, Warhol had him
cowering eating flies."

1027
01:18:02,100 --> 01:18:06,020
We've been on the road for
quiet a few weeks.

1028
01:18:06,040 --> 01:18:09,100
We've absorbed a lot

1029
01:18:09,120 --> 01:18:11,680
and we've realized I am just

1030
01:18:11,700 --> 01:18:14,880
scratching the surface
of my subject.

1031
01:18:14,900 --> 01:18:19,200
I think that is the essential
element of all of this,

1032
01:18:19,220 --> 01:18:21,600
that this is a process
that can absorb.

1033
01:18:21,620 --> 01:18:25,720
Unlike Protestantism
where you are with them

1034
01:18:25,740 --> 01:18:27,760
or you are not with them.

1035
01:18:27,780 --> 01:18:32,410
If you want a summary, an
abstract of African religion,

1036
01:18:32,430 --> 01:18:35,290
you can say that it is something

1037
01:18:35,310 --> 01:18:40,160
that always was able to
incorporate new ideas,

1038
01:18:40,180 --> 01:18:44,860
incorporate religions that are
hostile to it.

1039
01:18:44,880 --> 01:18:47,500
Like Christianity.

1040
01:18:47,520 --> 01:18:49,990
I went to a funeral at
The Church of God in Christ.

1041
01:18:50,010 --> 01:18:53,930
This is a church,
a 19th century church,

1042
01:18:53,950 --> 01:18:57,190
they keep the
African tradition going.

1043
01:18:57,210 --> 01:19:02,330
They got the drums,
they got the whole thing.

1044
01:19:02,350 --> 01:19:04,710
Middle class people,
the strivers,

1045
01:19:04,730 --> 01:19:07,650
bourgeoise Afro-Americans
look down upon them.

1046
01:19:07,670 --> 01:19:11,940
In the situation that we are in
in this hemisphere,

1047
01:19:11,960 --> 01:19:17,030
our religions always had to be
one step ahead of the law.

1048
01:19:17,050 --> 01:19:20,160
Our cultures always had to be
one step ahead of the law.

1049
01:19:20,180 --> 01:19:22,890
Always had to improvise.

1050
01:19:22,910 --> 01:19:27,750
Improvisation is something that
we have used as a tool.

1051
01:19:27,770 --> 01:19:30,130
The spiritual force
was able to

1052
01:19:30,150 --> 01:19:34,950
incorporate elements from
other religions and practices.

1053
01:19:34,970 --> 01:19:37,500
If you look at Haitian art.

1054
01:19:37,520 --> 01:19:42,070
I saw a show in Paris and
I saw a show in New York

1055
01:19:42,090 --> 01:19:45,650
where people use scraps,

1056
01:19:45,670 --> 01:19:49,980
they use scraps to
assemble these collages.

1057
01:19:50,000 --> 01:19:52,290
Which is what I do in my work.

1058
01:19:52,310 --> 01:19:54,520
I mean my work is not influenced

1059
01:19:54,540 --> 01:19:58,000
by other writings as much as
by the collage.

1060
01:19:58,020 --> 01:20:01,070
Because that's what the people
I knew in New York were doing.

1061
01:20:01,090 --> 01:20:03,680
The painters were
doing collages,

1062
01:20:03,700 --> 01:20:05,850
the musicians were
doing collages,

1063
01:20:05,870 --> 01:20:07,840
in the sense that if you listen
to John Coltrane,

1064
01:20:07,860 --> 01:20:09,550
Miles Davis and all of them

1065
01:20:09,570 --> 01:20:12,870
they take bits and snatches
from popular tunes.

1066
01:20:12,890 --> 01:20:15,000
They were mixing and sampling

1067
01:20:15,020 --> 01:20:17,670
before these kids had these
machines and everything.

1068
01:20:17,690 --> 01:20:20,060
The blues players
were doing that also.

1069
01:20:20,080 --> 01:20:23,050
Absolutely, so we had
to improvise

1070
01:20:23,070 --> 01:20:26,048
in order to stay alive.

1071
01:20:27,490 --> 01:20:33,458
When we talk about reclaiming
a African based religion

1072
01:20:35,460 --> 01:20:40,960
and how that religion
has informed the identities

1073
01:20:40,980 --> 01:20:46,920
of a lot of Afrocentricists
for example.

1074
01:20:48,340 --> 01:20:53,253
What I find interesting
is that the idea

1075
01:20:54,850 --> 01:20:59,780
of identity becomes meaningless
in the face

1076
01:20:59,800 --> 01:21:03,120
of a genuine voodoo experience.

1077
01:21:03,140 --> 01:21:07,540
You need an interpretation
of religion that is modern.

1078
01:21:07,560 --> 01:21:10,490
That doesn't involve
a lot of paraphernalia.

1079
01:21:10,510 --> 01:21:13,160
I got Eshu (Legba) up there.

1080
01:21:13,180 --> 01:21:16,350
But it doesn't involve a lot
of paraphernalia and ritual,

1081
01:21:16,370 --> 01:21:21,360
and I don't consider myself
a follower of any religion.

1082
01:21:21,380 --> 01:21:24,590
All these saints require
gifts...

1083
01:21:24,610 --> 01:21:26,250
Sustenance

1084
01:21:26,270 --> 01:21:28,570
I think the mind is like that

1085
01:21:28,590 --> 01:21:34,563
and what one does is
to feed the mind.

1086
01:21:39,190 --> 01:21:41,150
I don't feel religion

1087
01:21:41,170 --> 01:21:45,140
can answer complex questions
of the universe.

1088
01:21:47,300 --> 01:21:49,900
The mind is the house
of the spirit unencumbered by

1089
01:21:49,920 --> 01:21:52,790
trappings of ritual and dogma.

1090
01:21:52,810 --> 01:21:56,040
This is the last thought
Ishmael Reed had left me with.

1091
01:21:56,060 --> 01:21:59,000
I ponder this as I leave
Oakland to explore

1092
01:21:59,020 --> 01:22:04,970
how this view might play itself
out in contemporary art.

1093
01:22:40,070 --> 01:22:42,710
With his gifts of sewing
and dance combined

1094
01:22:42,730 --> 01:22:45,010
with a sharp eye
for found objects,

1095
01:22:45,030 --> 01:22:47,050
visual artist Nick Cave
has made

1096
01:22:47,070 --> 01:22:51,120
a unique contribution
to American culture,

1097
01:22:51,140 --> 01:22:53,780
clearly influenced
by the religious customs

1098
01:22:53,800 --> 01:22:59,768
and ritual traditions of
West African masquerade.

1099
01:23:08,390 --> 01:23:13,440
We spent a day looking
at your exhibition in Seattle.

1100
01:23:13,460 --> 01:23:16,070
What I would like to know is

1101
01:23:16,090 --> 01:23:21,710
how you make the transition
from fabric to movement.

1102
01:23:21,730 --> 01:23:24,280
You went to an art school

1103
01:23:24,300 --> 01:23:28,130
but you also have this
interest in dance

1104
01:23:28,150 --> 01:23:33,580
and you manages somehow to find
a way to combine the two.

1105
01:23:33,600 --> 01:23:38,250
What was that process,
that growth process?

1106
01:23:38,270 --> 01:23:41,710
Well, I went to art school
to study art.

1107
01:23:41,730 --> 01:23:45,300
And at the same time
I studied dance.

1108
01:23:45,320 --> 01:23:50,320
So I had these dual majors
at the same time

1109
01:23:50,340 --> 01:23:56,293
and was interested at some point

1110
01:23:57,713 --> 01:24:01,120
in this sort of collaboration
of these two disciplines.

1111
01:24:01,140 --> 01:24:03,320
I can look at it as
a sculptural object

1112
01:24:03,340 --> 01:24:08,260
but then I also can
think about it as something

1113
01:24:08,280 --> 01:24:11,170
that can be brought to the body.

1114
01:24:11,190 --> 01:24:16,390
And then how does the body
inform that object?

1115
01:24:16,410 --> 01:24:18,480
May it be through performance,

1116
01:24:18,500 --> 01:24:20,470
may it be through photography,

1117
01:24:20,490 --> 01:24:26,430
may it be through
a collaborations.

1118
01:24:39,858 --> 01:24:41,460
I read an
interesting story about

1119
01:24:41,480 --> 01:24:46,950
how you came upon
the twig sound suit.

1120
01:24:46,970 --> 01:24:52,930
You were gone through
a period of questioning yourself

1121
01:24:54,350 --> 01:24:57,650
or more importantly
questioning the idea

1122
01:24:57,670 --> 01:25:01,010
what it meant to be
a black male in this society

1123
01:25:01,030 --> 01:25:06,080
around the time of
the Rodney King beating.

1124
01:25:06,100 --> 01:25:10,620
You know that horrific incident
was very sort of emotional.

1125
01:25:10,640 --> 01:25:13,320
Particularly for me
as a black male.

1126
01:25:13,340 --> 01:25:17,130
To think about the role
of racial profiling.

1127
01:25:17,150 --> 01:25:21,260
What I was responding to
was the sort of readings

1128
01:25:21,280 --> 01:25:24,560
and how they brought
description to his character.

1129
01:25:24,580 --> 01:25:29,180
Larger than life, worked out
with prison weights.

1130
01:25:29,200 --> 01:25:33,050
Six men me to bring him down,
scary.

1131
01:25:33,070 --> 01:25:34,930
and just trying to visualize

1132
01:25:34,950 --> 01:25:37,960
what that would look like
as an image.

1133
01:25:37,980 --> 01:25:41,710
And then I created this sort of
suit in response

1134
01:25:41,730 --> 01:25:47,690
to looking at materials
that were discarded.

1135
01:25:49,110 --> 01:25:52,210
And then I realized that
I saw this as sculpture

1136
01:25:54,480 --> 01:25:57,030
and I didn't even think that

1137
01:25:57,050 --> 01:26:00,600
I could physically
put this thing on.

1138
01:26:00,620 --> 01:26:03,160
Then I put it on and
then I was thinking:

1139
01:26:03,180 --> 01:26:07,010
am I making a sort of
second skin?

1140
01:26:07,030 --> 01:26:08,730
A suit of armor?

1141
01:26:08,750 --> 01:26:11,570
Something to protect my spirit.

1142
01:26:11,590 --> 01:26:15,060
And then I started
to think about, you know,

1143
01:26:15,080 --> 01:26:19,340
the role of a Persona and
hidden identity

1144
01:26:19,360 --> 01:26:23,840
and the fact that the sound
suits hide

1145
01:26:23,860 --> 01:26:26,410
gender, race, class and so

1146
01:26:26,430 --> 01:26:28,350
you are forced to reckon

1147
01:26:28,370 --> 01:26:31,680
with something
without judgement.

1148
01:26:31,700 --> 01:26:34,720
It made me think about myself
as an artist differently.

1149
01:26:34,740 --> 01:26:40,695
That there is something more
behind this than I realized.

1150
01:27:15,820 --> 01:27:18,190
My exploits may have
taught me a few things

1151
01:27:18,210 --> 01:27:22,260
but the Hoodoo road is still
a lonely place.

1152
01:27:22,280 --> 01:27:24,680
So it was good to be back
in New York

1153
01:27:24,700 --> 01:27:26,890
with my gumbo of friends;

1154
01:27:26,910 --> 01:27:29,670
who, by the way,
were celebrating my return

1155
01:27:29,690 --> 01:27:35,630
by preparing a pot of gumbo.

1156
01:27:40,020 --> 01:27:46,000
Do we have all the celery
and everything together?

1157
01:27:50,640 --> 01:27:53,750
Who first taught you
how to do Gambo?

1158
01:27:53,770 --> 01:27:56,080
My mother.

1159
01:27:56,100 --> 01:27:57,480
And she learned it from...

1160
01:27:57,500 --> 01:28:03,440
..a book...

1161
01:28:05,310 --> 01:28:09,740
A year a ago I called
all my friends

1162
01:28:09,760 --> 01:28:13,740
and I asked for their
gumbo recipe and I mixed them...

1163
01:28:13,760 --> 01:28:16,860
I mixed them all together.

1164
01:28:16,880 --> 01:28:22,490
So we are using her roux
and her fond

1165
01:28:22,510 --> 01:28:25,410
but the sauteeing of the shells

1166
01:28:25,430 --> 01:28:28,330
comes from a friend
in Mississippi

1167
01:28:28,350 --> 01:28:30,250
and the use of okra

1168
01:28:30,270 --> 01:28:35,870
is the staple of my aunt
and my cousins.

1169
01:28:35,890 --> 01:28:40,610
You use fishheads in yours?

1170
01:28:40,630 --> 01:28:44,040
I use fishheads, shrimp
shells,

1171
01:28:44,060 --> 01:28:50,003
and vegetables for the fond and
I cook it over night...

1172
01:28:51,423 --> 01:28:56,898
Here's the folklore: when I
went to Togo several years ago.

1173
01:28:58,980 --> 01:29:02,140
I wanted to get okra stew,
right?

1174
01:29:02,160 --> 01:29:06,390
In Ghana, okra stew is like a
really important dish.

1175
01:29:06,410 --> 01:29:11,170
Obviously, Ghana is anglophone
and Togo is francophone,

1176
01:29:11,190 --> 01:29:12,960
so I was having a hard time.

1177
01:29:12,980 --> 01:29:14,800
No one knew what I meant
when I said okra.

1178
01:29:14,820 --> 01:29:17,450
Like: okra! Like: okra stew!

1179
01:29:17,470 --> 01:29:20,140
And they were like, oh, Gambo!

1180
01:29:20,160 --> 01:29:22,840
Ca c'est gambo en francaise.

1181
01:29:22,860 --> 01:29:25,190
So I found out then

1182
01:29:25,210 --> 01:29:30,170
that the word for okra in
francophone West Africa,

1183
01:29:31,590 --> 01:29:33,990
in the Dahomé region, is gambo.

1184
01:29:34,010 --> 01:29:36,980
And basically that's
how Gumbo became Gumbo

1185
01:29:37,000 --> 01:29:40,320
in the Louisiana basin,
in that area,

1186
01:29:40,340 --> 01:29:46,288
because the principle
ingredient was okra.

1187
01:29:47,708 --> 01:29:51,000
But then there was
the Native American

1188
01:29:51,020 --> 01:29:53,510
influence with the sassafras.

1189
01:29:53,530 --> 01:29:56,540
That's what I came about.

1190
01:29:56,560 --> 01:29:58,050
And I was just curious.

1191
01:29:58,070 --> 01:29:59,670
The reason why I brought that up

1192
01:29:59,690 --> 01:30:02,180
was that I was just curious

1193
01:30:02,200 --> 01:30:06,300
if the two of you had
the okra/gumbo argument...

1194
01:30:06,320 --> 01:30:10,710
We just had an argument about
how to make Gumbo,

1195
01:30:10,730 --> 01:30:15,240
because I asked her if
I'm partially using her recipe

1196
01:30:15,260 --> 01:30:16,930
and she said:

1197
01:30:16,950 --> 01:30:19,630
"No, I don't make it like that"
and I am just like:

1198
01:30:19,650 --> 01:30:22,360
"What's Gumbo without ocra?".

1199
01:30:22,380 --> 01:30:23,760
I mean: Gumbo IS okra!

1200
01:30:23,780 --> 01:30:25,160
So I understand that

1201
01:30:25,180 --> 01:30:27,090
you want to deny
a whole line of tradition

1202
01:30:27,110 --> 01:30:29,870
where there's a lot of people
who make gumbo not with okra.

1203
01:30:29,890 --> 01:30:31,270
And that's okay?

1204
01:30:31,290 --> 01:30:34,500
But Gumbo is okra and it
wouldn't be called Gumbo

1205
01:30:34,520 --> 01:30:36,480
when it didn't have okra in
it...

1206
01:30:36,500 --> 01:30:40,880
That's okay... there is
lots of kinds of Gumbo.

1207
01:30:40,900 --> 01:30:42,830
I agree.

1208
01:30:42,850 --> 01:30:45,540
Would you like to way in
on this discussion.

1209
01:30:45,560 --> 01:30:47,160
We always use okra.

1210
01:30:47,180 --> 01:30:51,460
I think the idea of Gumbo,
the metaphor,

1211
01:30:51,480 --> 01:30:56,590
is that it's a stew that
combines

1212
01:30:56,610 --> 01:30:59,760
a lot of different cultural
elements and blends them.

1213
01:30:59,780 --> 01:31:01,160
Absolutely.

1214
01:31:01,180 --> 01:31:02,560
Okay.

1215
01:31:02,580 --> 01:31:06,690
And your technique can be drawn
from a lot of different regions.

1216
01:31:06,710 --> 01:31:10,390
I think that's the point of
Gumbo.

1217
01:31:10,410 --> 01:31:14,700
What I understand is that
okra wasn't native to this area

1218
01:31:14,720 --> 01:31:17,990
and it was brought over in the
hair of the enslaved women.

1219
01:31:18,010 --> 01:31:19,450
That's the folklore.

1220
01:31:19,470 --> 01:31:22,910
It would be interesting to be
really like research.

1221
01:31:22,930 --> 01:31:28,890
Yeah, to do the research...

1222
01:31:35,490 --> 01:31:38,480
I'm not playing
on this dinner party.

1223
01:31:38,500 --> 01:31:41,180
I just want to get
something to eat.

1224
01:31:41,200 --> 01:31:42,920
Why didn't you just
put that in this.

1225
01:31:42,940 --> 01:31:45,540
Cause it was
too hot to handle.

1226
01:31:45,560 --> 01:31:48,210
But you can handle me,
can't you?

1227
01:31:53,810 --> 01:31:59,800
- Diverse Voices -

1228
01:32:06,230 --> 01:32:07,610
That was amazing.

1229
01:32:07,630 --> 01:32:10,690
Tell me what you think
of the magazine...

1230
01:32:10,710 --> 01:32:12,090
Yes Baby.

1231
01:32:12,110 --> 01:32:14,660
I see you all on facebook...

1232
01:32:14,680 --> 01:32:17,060
Please somewhere else!

1233
01:32:17,080 --> 01:32:18,460
I'm free.

1234
01:32:18,480 --> 01:32:20,350
That's why you've got
to make me

1235
01:32:20,370 --> 01:32:22,890
the mixtape with the free songs.
I'm free...

1236
01:32:22,910 --> 01:32:25,880
Allright, got you...

1237
01:34:01,220 --> 01:34:03,570
I know I've only
scratched the surface

1238
01:34:03,590 --> 01:34:05,520
of what I what I've been
looking for.

1239
01:34:05,540 --> 01:34:07,050
But the one thing I learned

1240
01:34:07,070 --> 01:34:09,580
standing among the tombs
of New Orleans is,

1241
01:34:09,600 --> 01:34:11,490
that the spirits of
the dead must be

1242
01:34:11,510 --> 01:34:13,790
set free to do their work

1243
01:34:13,810 --> 01:34:17,180
in order for the living
to continue their own.

1244
01:34:18,903 --> 01:34:22,500
Its no wonder my home
feels like a mausoleum.

1245
01:34:24,923 --> 01:34:28,200
I know now what I must do.

1246
01:37:50,780 --> 01:37:55,080
Glinda looms large,
drizzling a rain of star dust.

1247
01:37:55,100 --> 01:38:01,020
I can hear the beat of her
electronic drum.

1248
01:38:01,040 --> 01:38:05,480
I click my ruby heels.

1249
01:38:07,900 --> 01:38:09,280
♪ Hey my man,

1250
01:38:09,300 --> 01:38:11,940
♪ You know, who's cooking
up that jive,

1251
01:38:11,960 --> 01:38:14,370
♪ selling it to these
folks 'round town,

1252
01:38:14,390 --> 01:38:17,620
♪ makin 'em have them
funny dreams.

1253
01:38:17,640 --> 01:38:19,020
♪ Well, you ve got them.

1254
01:38:19,040 --> 01:38:20,420
♪ That s right.

1255
01:38:20,440 --> 01:38:22,980
♪ Somebody done hoodoo'd
the hoodoo man

1256
01:38:23,000 --> 01:38:25,650
♪ Ol' Joe Hannah
from Lousiana,

1257
01:38:25,670 --> 01:38:27,940
♪ A hoodoo king
in every manner

1258
01:38:27,960 --> 01:38:30,350
♪ But I found out
without a doubt,

1259
01:38:30,370 --> 01:38:32,840
♪ The tables had turned on him

1260
01:38:32,860 --> 01:38:35,950
♪ He ain't got a tooth
in his head,

1261
01:38:35,970 --> 01:38:37,940
♪ Poor Ol' Joe is almost dead

1262
01:38:37,960 --> 01:38:42,510
♪ Somebody done hoodoo'd
the hoodoo man

1263
01:38:42,530 --> 01:38:44,770
♪ 10, 10,
double 10, 45, 15,

1264
01:38:44,790 --> 01:38:47,120
♪ Joe cant drink no gin

1265
01:38:47,140 --> 01:38:49,330
♪ And nothing goes over
the devil's back

1266
01:38:49,350 --> 01:38:51,790
♪ that don't buckle
under his chin

1267
01:38:51,810 --> 01:38:54,040
♪ His face looks just like
gravel sand

1268
01:38:54,060 --> 01:38:56,900
♪ And everybody's got Joe
on the pan

1269
01:38:56,920 --> 01:39:02,490
♪ Somebody done hoodoo'd
the hoodoo man

1270
01:39:02,510 --> 01:39:08,500
♪ shabada, duu, bab

1271
01:39:08,520 --> 01:39:13,500
♪ shabada, dii, da da da

1272
01:39:13,520 --> 01:39:16,500
♪ shabada, bii, bii, du

1273
01:39:16,520 --> 01:39:21,000
♪ shaba, dup, di, di, da...

1274
01:39:21,020 --> 01:39:27,510
♪ shaba, dup, di, di, di...

1275
01:39:27,530 --> 01:39:32,085
♪ da, da, dab, ba, dap,
oh, ip, pi...

1276
01:39:43,540 --> 01:39:46,720
♪ Oh man, you re making
me hungry

1277
01:39:46,740 --> 01:39:49,330
♪ Somebody done cooked up
some stuff in a pot,

1278
01:39:49,350 --> 01:39:51,710
♪ Not too cold and not to hot

1279
01:39:51,730 --> 01:39:53,970
♪ They put a few drops in
Joe's beef stew

1280
01:39:53,990 --> 01:39:56,480
♪ Now he's blowing his top,
he don't know what to do

1281
01:39:56,500 --> 01:39:57,950
♪ They don't know who did it

1282
01:39:57,970 --> 01:39:59,350
♪ They can't find out

1283
01:39:59,370 --> 01:40:04,653
♪ But he's done hoodoo'd his last
hoodoo without a doubt

1284
01:40:06,073 --> 01:40:08,440
♪ Somebody done hoodoo'd -

1285
01:40:08,460 --> 01:40:12,440
♪ Done hoodoo'd the hoodoo man.