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Mary Ann Pollar
Mary Ann Pollar (1927–1999) was a California-based concert promoter and founder of the Rainbow Sign, a prominent African American cultural center in Berkeley that operated from 1971 to 1977. Later she was also a transit administrator. Early life Pollar "descended from a family of Baptist preachers". She was raised first in Texas, near the Mexican border, and at age twelve, she moved with her family to Chicago, where she later attended Roosevelt College, studying labor education. Her husband Henry Pollar worked for Bechtel as an engineer. Concert promotion Pollar began promoting concerts in the 1950s in the San Francisco Bay Area. Pollar had an enduring friendship with the folk singer Odetta, for whom she named her daughter Odette in 1955. ''Rolling Stone'' reported that Pollar was responsible for Bob Dylan's first appearance on the West Coast, in 1964 at the Berkeley Community Theater. Odette Pollar reported that before booking Dylan's first West Cost concert, her mother h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Rainbow Sign
The Rainbow Sign was an African-American cultural center in Berkeley, California, that operated from 1971 to 1977. Future Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris frequently attended the center as a child, and described it as influential on her. ''The Guardian'' stated that "Rainbow Sign was a little bit of everything to the black community.... The space provided discounted meals to children, staged concerts for Nina Simone and held book signings for Maya Angelou and Alice Walker." Background ''Slate'' characterized Rainbow Sign as ''Slate'' also stated that Rainbow Sign had been "brainstormed into existence" by Mary Ann Pollar, who took the center’s name from the verse of a spiritual ("God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water the fire next time!"), a verse also alluded to by James Baldwin in his book ''The Fire Next Time'' (1963). Pollar "envisioned an art gallery, cultural center, meeting place, and restaurant. She scoured Oakland and Berkeley for a property ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning seven decades. An Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Award-winning recording artist, she is known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records (which has included folk music, country, show tunes, pop music, rock and roll and standards), for her social activism, and for the clarity of her voice. Her discography consists of 36 studio albums, nine live albums, numerous compilation albums, four holiday albums, and 21 singles. Collins' debut album, '' A Maid of Constant Sorrow'', was released in 1961 and consisted of traditional folk songs. She had her first charting single with "Hard Lovin' Loser" (No. 97) from her 1966 album ''In My Life'', but it was the lead single from her 1967 album '' Wildflowers,'' "Both Sides, Now" – written by Joni Mitchell – that gave her international prominence. The single reached No. 8 on the ''Billboard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; decades later, ''Time'' magazine included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005. His first essay collection, ''Notes of a Native Son'', was published in 1955. Baldwin's work fictionalizes fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures. Themes of masculinity, sexuality, race, and class intertwine to create intricate narratives that run parallel with some of the major political movements toward social change in mid-twentieth century America, such as the civil rights movement and the gay liberation movement. Baldwin's protagonists are often but not exclusively African American, and gay and bisexual men frequently feature prominently in his liter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Don't You Weep
"Mary Don't You Weep" (alternately titled "O Mary Don't You Weep", "Oh Mary, Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn", or variations thereof) is a Spiritual that originates from before the American Civil War – thus it is what scholars call a "slave song," "a label that describes their origins among the enslaved," and it contains "coded messages of hope and resistance." It is one of the most important of Negro spirituals. It is listed as number 11823 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The song tells the Biblical story of Mary of Bethany and her distraught pleas to Jesus to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead. Other narratives relate to The Exodus and the Passage of the Red Sea, with the chorus proclaiming ''Pharaoh's army got drown-ded!'', and to God's rainbow covenant to Noah after the Great Flood. With liberation thus one of its themes, the song again became popular during the Civil Rights Movement. Additionally, a song that explicitly chronicles the victories of the Civil Rights ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spirituals
Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with Black Americans, which merged sub-Saharan African cultural heritage with the experiences of being held in bondage in slavery, at first during the transatlantic slave trade and for centuries afterwards, through the domestic slave trade. Spirituals encompass the "sing songs," work songs, and plantation songs that evolved into the blues and gospel songs in church. In the nineteenth century, the word "spirituals" referred to all these subcategories of folk songs. While they were often rooted in biblical stories, they also described the extreme hardships endured by African Americans who were enslaved from the 17th century until the 1860s, the emancipation altering mainly the nature (but not continuation) of slavery for many. Many new derivative music genres emerged from the spirituals songcraft. Prior to the end of the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slate (magazine)
''Slate'' is an online magazine that covers current affairs, politics, and culture in the United States. It was created in 1996 by former '' New Republic'' editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. In 2004, it was purchased by The Washington Post Company (later renamed the Graham Holdings Company), and since 2008 has been managed by The Slate Group, an online publishing entity created by Graham Holdings. ''Slate'' is based in New York City, with an additional office in Washington, D.C. ''Slate'', which is updated throughout the day, covers politics, arts and culture, sports, and news. According to its former editor-in-chief Julia Turner, the magazine is "not fundamentally a breaking news source", but rather aimed at helping readers to "analyze and understand and interpret the world" with witty and entertaining writing. As of mid-2015, it publishes about 1,500 stories per month. A French version, ''slate.fr'', was launched in February 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, Virtuoso, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and ''musique concrète'' works, and produced almost all of the 60-plus albums that he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation. As a self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and pop. The sixth of eight children born from a poor family in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She then applied for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where, despite a well received audition, she was denied admission,Liz Garbus, 2015 documentary film, ''What Happened, Miss Simone?'' which she attributed to racism. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree. To make a living, Simone started playing piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She changed her name to "Nina Simone" to disguise herself ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon And Garfunkel
Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of " The Sound of Silence" (1965), "Mrs. Robinson" (1968), "The Boxer" (1969), and " Bridge over Troubled Water" (1970)—reached number one on singles charts worldwide. Simon and Garfunkel met in elementary school in Queens, New York, in 1953, where they learned to harmonize and began writing songs. As teenagers, under the name Tom & Jerry, they had minor success with "Hey Schoolgirl" (1957), a song imitating their idols, the Everly Brothers. In 1963, aware of a growing public interest in folk music, they regrouped and were signed to Columbia Records as Simon & Garfunkel. Their debut album, ''Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.,'' sold poorly; Simon returned to a solo career, this time in England. In June 1965, a new version of "The Sound of Silence" a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buffy St
Buffy is a pet form of the female given name Elizabeth. Buffy or Buffie may also refer to: People Given name * Buffie Carruth (born 1977), American model and fitness instructor * Buffy Tyler (born 1978), Playboy playmate * Buffy Wicks (born 1977), California State Assemblymember Nickname * Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002), the queen consort of Great Britain, who had the nickname Buffy as a child * Darren Robinson (rapper) (1967–1995), also called Buffy, a member of the rap trio The Fat Boys * Buffy Sainte-Marie (born 1941), indigenous Canadian-American musician, artist, and activist * Dorothy Buffum Chandler (1901–1997), a Los Angeles cultural leader, was nicknamed Buffy or Buffie or Buff * Elizabeth Williams (Rhondda politician) (born 1976), Welsh politician and Member of the Senedd, known as Buffy Stage name * Buffy (rapper) (born Kim Ju-hyeon, 1995) member of South Korean band MADTOWN Fictional characters * Buffy Summers, the title character in the 1997 TV series ''Bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Paul And Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary was an American folk group formed in New York City in 1961 during the American folk music revival phenomenon. The trio consisted of tenor Peter Yarrow, baritone Paul Stookey, and contralto Mary Travers. The group's repertoire included songs written by Yarrow and Stookey, early songs by Bob Dylan, and covers of other folk musicians. They were enormously successful in the early- and mid-1960s, with their debut album topping the charts for weeks, and helped popularize the folk music revival. After the death of Travers in 2009, Yarrow and Stookey continued to perform as a duo under their individual names. Mary Travers said she was influenced by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and the Weavers. In the documentary ''Peter, Paul & Mary: Carry It On — A Musical Legacy'', members of the Weavers discuss how Peter, Paul and Mary took over the torch of the social commentary of folk music in the 1960s. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. Peter, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably their recording of Lead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene", which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. In the 1960s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture, workers' rights, and environmental causes. A prolific songwriter, his best-known songs include "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (with additional lyrics by Joe Hickerson), " If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" (with Lee Hays of the Weavers), " Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" (also with Hays), and "Turn! Turn! Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement. "Flowers" was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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