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ARTS Wednesday, 28 August, 2013
How mahalia jackson defined the ‘i Have a dream’ speech
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IFTY years ago, Martin Luther King’s speech defined America’s civil rights struggle. And it was a song by soul singer Mahalia Jackson that stole the show. Mahalia Jackson took America to church 50 years ago. Minutes before her friend Martin Luther King Jr. announced “I have a dream” to cap the March on Washington DC on 28 August 1963, Sister Mahalia reminded the 250,000 citizens spread out in front of the Lincoln Memorial of the long road they had travelled. “You know my soul looks back in wonder, how I got over,” she sang, praising the heavens for allowing her people to make it this far. But their struggle was far from over. A Hammond organ simmered, and rhythmic handclapping broke out as the singer closed her eyes and rhapsodised. In the past, the gospel classic had allowed her to cut loose for 10, even 15 minutes at a time as she worked church aisles and reached into the pews to grasp hands and anoint foreheads. She had recorded several versions of the song, but they were relatively tame compared to the heights she could reach in front of a congregation. Now, in the minutes before King was to speak, it was once again Holy Ghost time – the type of performance where Jackson surrendered not just her voice but her body to the moment, bending and twisting her robust frame as she reached for the notes. The legendary singer would be the final musical performer on a day in which the civil rights movement mingled with folk music and gospel in front of a national audience – not just the quarter-million assembled to hear King speak about job equality and voting rights, but millions more watching on television and listening on the radio. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Odetta, the Freedom Singers and Marian Anderson also had performed, but it was Jackson who seized the day with a song that had particularly deep resonance in the African-American community. PIONEER OF PROTEST: There is some dispute about the exact origins of How I
Got Over. Reverend William Herbert Brewster is often credited with writing the song, though it was reinterpreted and popularized by Clara Ward and her family gospel group, the Famous Ward Sisters. In a memoir written by Ward’s sister, Willa, she claims the song was inspired by a racial incident in Georgia during the early ‘50s while the family was travelling between performances. The Wards rode in a Cadillac, which drew unwanted attention from a group of whites, who blocked the road and viciously taunted the passengers. Only a feigned speaking-in-tongues seizure by the family matriarch, Gertrude Ward, prevented the incident from turning even uglier, and possibly deadly, Willa wrote in How I Got Over: Clara Ward and the World-Famous Ward Singers. The whites scattered when they saw Gertrude writhing, shaking and babbling. The song offers a prayer of thanks, but as the civil rights era dawned, it took on broader connotations – implicitly addressing how African-Americans “got over” for centuries in the face of racism. How I Got Over turned into a huge gospel hit for
Clara Ward and her family, and became a church standard, frequently performed by Jackson and other gospel singers when they wanted to “shout” an audience – bring worshippers out of their seats. At the March on Washington, the song was particularly meaningful because of the context. earlier in the day, Baez performed the gospel standard We Shall Overcome; Odetta declared I’m on my Way; Dylan sang Only a Pawn In Their Game, about the slaying of ; and Peter, Paul and Mary harmonised on their hit version of Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind, itself based on the spiritual No More Auction Block. The music of the black church was now infusing and inspiring the political consciousness of folk music; gospel was no longer just for the religious but the foundation for much ‘60s protest music. The music that day presaged a decade in which the sound of protest, of discontent, of outsiders raising their voices to plead for and finally demand equality became the foundation of national hits. The Impressions (People Get Ready, Keep on Pushing), the Staple
Singers (Why? (Am I Treated So Bad)), James Brown (Say it Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud) and Sam Cooke hit the pop charts with songs that, in Cooke’s words, predicted that A Change is Gonna Come. NEW RESONANCE: King’s speech, too, was musical, it’s most famous passage essentially an improvisation based on the “dream” he had of “an America where my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”. He had been developing the theme in previous public statements, and was reminded on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial of the “dream” riff by Mahalia Jackson herself, who had seen King speak many times. Jackson, the reigning queen of gospel, would continue to perform and adapt How I Got Over the rest of her life. When she suffered a difficult divorce and a series of heart attacks a few years later, the song took on new shades of resonance in marking her return to public performance. It would also become a cornerstone of Aretha Franklin’s return to gospel music in a live recording at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts, Los Angeles in January 1972. How I Got Over anchored what would become the best-selling gospel album of all time, Amazing Grace, the song’s impact undiminished by the decades. At the time of the recording, Mahalia Jackson was in ill health, and two weeks later she would be dead (Franklin would travel to Chicago to sing at her mentor’s funeral). The congregation at New Temple included Clara Ward and her mother, but Franklin didn’t slavishly imitate her guests’ version. Much like Sister Mahalia did in 1963, Franklin made the song her own. She sings it in a higher key, and moves beyond the wrenching sense of hard-won – if temporary – emancipation in Jackson’s version. Instead, Franklin turns How I Got Over into a celebration of a dream that refuses to fade. COURTESy BBC
Book revieW
aoife and demon: Cursed be the syhlain by shamila ghyas & humeira kazmi A magical plunge into a parallel universe KUNWAR KHULDUNE SHAHID
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N most fantasy novels’ case you really need to have a taste for the genre to extract any joy out of the reading. This is precisely why as someone who isn’t exactly a fantasy aficionado I wasn’t quite sure I’ll cherish it as much as my friend – a fantasy fiction buff – who recommended the book to me. My apprehensions were erased about halfway through the first chapter of this
book. Once you start reading the book, it’d take a massive conspiracy by Mother Nature for you to put it down, before you’re done reading it. It will easily be one of the fastest reads of your life, one that keeps you hooked to it with doses of adventure coming your way at over 200 mph! Aoife Edwards, a college freshman and the principal protagonist of the story, is
troubled by your stereotypical stepmother who has full control over the fortune of Aoife’s father, and in turn practical control over our heroine’s life. With skating pretty much on top of Aoife’s ‘to do’ list and worrying about her stepmother on the bottom, her life takes an adventurous turn when a peculiar, blue-skinned man helps her push open the door to her origin, her past and a parallel universe full of magic and power struggle – The Realm. Aoife’s first encounter in The Realm is with the Demon – our supercilious, yet good-at-heart, hero – and the pair’s encounters form the quintessence of the book. The dialogue exchanges between the duo, the humour, witty banter, clever puns all come together when the two chief characters take centre stage. Following the rather awkward initial encounter with the Demon, numerous intriguing characters queue up to enter the spotlight and leave their own mark on the tale. Mentors, counsellors, witches, unique creatures all play their part, majestically
adding to the genius of the script. Each character is a gem that augments the overall value of the book. The storyline is engrossing, the characterisation masterful and the imagination of the authors is thoroughly captivating. A concern readers have regarding books written by multiple authors is that the writing style might fluctuate. However, one can trace no variations and the coherence in style matches the overall coherence in the storyline, and a big thumbs-up to the authors for pulling it off so seamlessly. It takes a blend of writing dexterity and ingenious imagination to weave together a book that has a meticulously narrated script, regular bursts of magic and adventure, comprehensively detailed characters and yet manages to remain a light-hearted story at the end of it all. Anyone who wants to add fantasy to their readings and a little magic and adventure to their lives, they’d find few better books than Aoife and Demon: Cursed be the Syhain to start their journey. In fact it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see a Hollywood movie being made on the book one day, and if the movie is half as entertaining as the book, it is a shoo-in to be a hit.
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no trace of om puri, police continues search
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CTOR Om Puri’s married life has hit troubled waters as his wife Nandita Puri has reportedly filed a case against him at a police station in Mumbai alleging domestic violence. Speaking to the media persons, a police official revealed that an official complaint was filed by Puri’s wife on August 23. But when the police reached Om Puri’s residence to arrest him, he was clearly found missing. The investigation officer said, “The police had gone to the actor’s house to arrest him on Friday, but he was not there. Currently the police are tracing the actor through his cellphone.” The complaint was filed at the Versova Police Station and in her statement, Nandita said that she was beaten-up by a stick by Puri. “When Nandita Puri had come to the police station, we sent her to Cooper Hospital and she also submitted a medical report post the check up,” the police officer from Versova Police station told the reporters. However, the news of the couple facing marital troubles is not new. Back in 2009, Nandita had miffed her husband Om Puri when she released a biography on him, titled `Unlikely Hero: The Story Of Om Puri`, which highlighted some of his private sexual rendezvous. Om Puri was embroiled in a controversy when in 2011, a breach of privilege notice was issued against him in Parliament for allegedly making derogatory remarks against politicians during the fast carried out by Anna Hazare for Jan Lokpal Bill at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi. The actor is a Padma Shri awardee and has made his mark in the film industry with movies like ‘Ardh Satya’. On the other hand, Nandita is a journalist-columnist and has a son named Ishaan with Puri. COURTESy ZEENEWS
veet celebration of beauty awards 2013
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VENT held at the Expo Center on Saturday night, Veet paid homage to beauty and femininity with a pink carpet replete with candles and flowers. Unlike many big events, the pink carpet was well-managed in terms of celebspotting, crowd management and refreshments. Trays laden with sumptuous cupcakes, tarts, open sandwiches and soda were passed around for guests to feast on while they mingled with bloggers, models and celebs. The downside, however, was time management. When will event organisers realise that punctuality needs to be respected? The pink carpet, which was scheduled to start at 6:30, opened at around 8:00pm. Furthermore, the show started at about 10:40pm and went on past midnight. NEWS DESK