By Ashley Salem

Gladys Knight and the Pips photo credit: Film stream

Summer, Summer, Summer Time

Make it stand out

**Examining music that touches the soul, the impact on the soul, and prompting the hard questions**.

Summer often elicits feelings of creativity, freedom, and unyielding fun. A time to think up new recipes for making DIY ice cream with dry ice, roller skating, and filling glass jars with water and tea bags so they can turn into sun tea on the front porch. Windows all the way down, the wind playing hide and seek with my locs. Flipping my sunglasses on and checking my rearview mirror while I'm driving, I see my son with his sunglasses on bobbing his head to the same beat I that I am, that is, “Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince”.

Music has always been something that can be used to bring people together, make you laugh, make you cry, and remind you that you're not alone. In this reflective piece, I will be reflecting on my experience viewing the documentary, “Summer of Soul (...or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”.

Black Boy Joy and Black Girl Magic, forgotten?

Not today.

Many know about Woodstock, the 1960s music celebration. What you may not know about, is that in the summer of 1969, there was a more melanated music celebration happening in New York City.

About a hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was an exuberant celebration for families and open to everyone.

The Harlem Cultural Festival was offered at no charge. It was colorful, with big names, and dare I say, it was Funky! With so much Black Boy Joy and Black Girl Magic, how is it that I hadn’t heard of this? The documentary, “Summer of Soul (...or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” explores Blackness at its best. To amp me up even more, Ahmir Thompson, known by most by “Questlove”, the drummer of The Roots, is the director of this masterpiece.

His eye for Black culture and ear for amazing music was the perfect pairing and backdrop as I began to research the festival. The rare, almost forgotten footage went unground for over 50 years. The festival drew 300,000 people over a 6 week period. The elephant in the room was staring me down, legs crossed, and drinking tea. I waved it off but acknowledged the prompting. How can something so special, with so many people, be just now released? Absolutely intrigued, it was important to me to watch and fully experience this documentary.

my Experience

Dundee Film streams Photo credit: Ashley Salem

Walking into Film Streams, I was absolutely ready. Donning a summer dress, mango body oil, and an eager spirit, I strolled through the doors of the Dundee location with finesse. After getting snacks it hit me, this was the first time in over a year plus that I had been to a physical theatre due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I took a moment to honor that. It brought a smile to my face. The atmosphere of Film Streams is always a vibe. I visited with the staff and after getting some snacks, I found my seat: smack dab in the middle of the theatre. Accompanied by a friend on my right, and my little one on my left, we exchanged cheeky smiles with other excited folks as the theatre began to fill before the lights went low.

You ever have that moment when looking at an old video of a family member you only knew as an older adult? You know what I mean? Looking at the family video like, “Oh my goodness, look at uncle Charles as a teen.” Crazy right? Well that was what I kept thinking about early on. Seeing the greats like Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Staples Singers, The 5th Dimension, Ray Barretto, B.B. King, The Temptations' former frontman David Ruffin, and so many others, felt nostalgic in a way. I had never seen my favorite performers so young. And then there’s the crowd, a sea of smiling faces of families, young and old, many of who match my same hue. No fighting or violence, It felt like a big family bbq. If I listened through the jubilee of music, I could almost hear a faint welcome of somebody's auntie, telling me to “come on and get a plate.”

I had such a good time! I went from tapping my feet, to bobbing my head, to shimmying in my seat. The performances, vibrancy, artistic flair, and the excitement of the festival attendees was wholesome and contagious. The documentary did a tremendous job bringing performers and attendees of the original festival back to watch the recording of the event. To see their faces as they watched the festival’s recording, they looked so happy. They looked proud to have been a part. One clip in particular, was an attendee by the name of Barbara Bland-Acosta speaking about how she left her very strict home, and lied to her mother about where she would be going, and made it to the very front row of the festival with her friend Ethel Beatty-Barnes to see their loves, Sly & The Family Stone.

There were some performers that I had never seen or heard of. There was a very strong Afro-Caribbean feel to some of the performances; drums, trumpets, and a big band. Herbie Hancock’s - Watermelon Man is where Cuban music meets jazz. Musa Jackson, an actor, and producer, from Protector of the Gods and CBS News Sunday Morning, said “It smelled like Afro Sheen and chicken.” During the documentary, there was mention of funding for the festival being hugely supported by the coffee brand Maxwell House, who sponsored the event.

It was also mentioned that originally the police would not provide security for the festival. So, The Black Panther’s protected and oversaw everything about security for the event. As the festival went on, police showed up but the Black Panthers continued to manage security, protecting their people.

But it was when Mahalia Jackson, a well-known gospel singer, sang from the pit of her soul with Mavis Staple, that made me forget about the theatre I was sitting in. You couldn't tell me, I wasn’t at the performance myself. The music so filled me with exuberance and passion, I had to remind myself to not throw my shoe.

Flipping the channel

Stevie Wonder had to be in his early twenties when he performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival. The documentary wove in clips of Wonder’s interviews over the years and present-day showing how he made very intentional choices, against some of the producers and styles, to usher in change. He used his growing fame as a light to address racism. There were clips of him at rallies and even an excerpt of him encouraging people to vote. From interviews and news footage, it becomes obvious what was going on socially and politically at the time. The assassinations of Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. One account went on to say, The Harlem Cultural Festival was in response to King's death. To think all of this footage wouldn’t be possible if not for someone who believed it to be special. Hal Tulchin, who was a television director, was the saving grace of this footage. He originally documented all six concerts in his mind knowing it would be of value. Despite the many hours of footage available, only two hours of footage saw the WNEW Channel 5 in New York City. The sad, almost eerie reality was, there was just no interest in the concert. Hal retooled the marketing of the footage to be Black Woodstock. Even then, no takers. It would behoove anyone to not ask, why? Woodstock had a movie made about those performances only 1 year after the event. An event, again, only 100 miles from this one. So off into the shadows, 40 hours of what would become this film’s backdrop, faded into the background.

Elephant in the room photo credit: Vicnt

Thank God, Tulchin kept all 47 of the reels he shot in his basement. And 50 years later, it was edited, cleaned up and served as the foundation to this documentary.

During this time Apollo 11’s moon landing happened. Every news outlet covered it. Yet, at The Harlem Cultural Festival, attendees couldn’t be more unbothered. A young Black man at the festival was Interviewed about how he felt about the Apollo 11 mission landing. He noted that although it's very important, it's not more important than The Harlem Cultural Festival. Another Black man was interviewed who shared similar sentiments. He went on to say,

”As far as science goes, and everybody that's involved with the moon landing and astronauts. It's beautiful, you know. Like me, I couldn't care less.” The gentleman went on to say, “The cash that you wasted, as far as I'm concerned, could have been used to feed poor Black people in Harlem, all over the place. All over this country.”

Redd Foxx, a brilliant comedian, attended the festival. When asked his thoughts, he replied, “Well, here's the way I look at it. Like that. Black man wants to go to Africa. White man’s going to the moon. I'm going to stay in Harlem with the Puerto Ricans, And have me some fun.” This Festival was not simply something to do on the weekend. It's magnitude, opportunity for connectedness and celebration, was something that was felt and acknowledged for everyone who attended. Remember that bougie elephant in the room I mentioned earlier? Well he demands to be acknowledged. Again, I'll ask a question, how is it that something 100 miles away from Woodstock, with over 300,000 attendees, be nearly forgotten? One answer lies in one's ability to simply change the channel. Meaning, for those who had no interest or reverence for Black culture, Black experience, Black joy, Black resilience, Black food, Black music and cultural celebration; simply chose not to acknowledge it. The issue with the “changing the channel mentality,” is it attempts to erase importance, impact and relevance to someone, in this case over 300,000 people. Gaslighting the memories of what meant so much to so many is hurtful and does a disservice to those involved and the generations to follow.

Black and Absolutely, Beautiful

Charlayne Hunter-Gault was working as a journalist for the New York Times in 1969. She listened to her community and wrote the word “Black” instead of “Negro” in a story. But the editor, changed the wording back to Negro. Charlayne Hunter-Gault went on to write an 11 page memo calling for the change. From that point on at the New York Times, people of color who once would be called Negro, were now to be referred to as Black. A podcast from Film Streams entitled Back Row, Diana Martinez, the Artistic Director chats with Kenneth Laster, the Programming Assistant. As they both conversed, Kenneth’s remarks on his experience of the film. He references seeing the film first at Digital Sundance in January, and that it would be the hot release when it comes out! As a historian and someone interested in pop culture and Black history, he says this film has it all. While building his personal playlist using an app to let him know of the artist names of those he may not have known, he reflected on the dynamic of the moon landing happening in the same time frame of the festival. Diana reflects on an interview where Questlove speaks about finding out how the late artist Prince was heavily impacted by Woodstock. And how impactful it may have been for Prince to have seen THIS footage.

Having seen this film, I am honored to have experienced it. Summer of Soul (...or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is available for viewing and will be at Filmstreams through July 22nd. For those unable to catch it on the big screen, it is now streaming on Hulu. The documentary ends with a conversation between Questlove and Musa Jackson, who was a little boy when he had been to the festival. He was overcome with emotion as he told Questlove that he knew he wasn’t crazy. The documentary was confirmation for him. Right before the credits roll, he says how beautiful it was. And it was just that, absolutely beautiful. Black is a verb. Black is the undergerth of resilience. A quiet confidence that can’t be smoked out. A musing of culture, music, dance, fashion, technology, love, care, provision and attitude. Although at times we have felt abandoned, we will never, ever be forgotten.

Summer of Soul: A Melanated Reflection On Music And Culture