Talisman Philanthropy

Say their names

September 30, 2020 at 1:19 pm Barbara Talisman, CFRE Leave a comment

Listening to RadioLab podcasts – this episode – “Nina” – stopped me in my tracks. It aired on  June 5, 2020 and available for replay anytime. It hit me and brought me back to the time of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nina Simone performed on April 7, 1968, three days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  RadioLab Producer Tracie Hunte talks and cried (I cried with her) about Nina’s concert and wonders what Nina would think about where we are today at another boiling point, repeating history,  waiting for release.

And I think about Dr. King, what would he think about America today? What would/could he advise – non-violence?

And Malcolm X?

During a 1968 concert while singing “Mississippi Goddamn”, Nina said,

“Good God, you know, the King is dead, King of love is dead. Ain’t about to be nonviolent honey.

What’s going to happen

now in all of our cities?

People are rising.”

Then there is Backlash Blues

Lyrics by with Langston Hughes
Music by Nina Simone

“Who do you think I am? Second class houses, second class schools?

You think that all colored people are second class fools?

Mr Backlash gonna leave you with the blues.”

What’s changed from 50 years ago?

Entry filed under: Fundraising. Tags: Black Lives Matter, BLM, Civil rights, Nina Simone, RadioLab, Tracie Hunte.