17 minute read
Religion & Spirituality
By HERB BOYD
Special to the AmNews
Mulling over how to deal with the passing of Robert Farris Thompson, the famed “guerilla scholar,” as he termed himself—he was 88 when he died on Nov. 29 in a nursing home in New Haven, Conn.—I turned to the recently departed Greg Tate (he died on Dec. 7). In his essay in 1984 on Thompson among several in “Flyboy in the Buttermilk,” Tate posited this: “Now understandably some of the brothers and sisters out there got problems with Thompson, seeing how he’s a white guy. Several from your heritage by slavery and oppression and all that shit, how do you put up with one of your oppressors progeny trying to come off hip reclaiming it for you? Regardless, I have to give it up to Thompson on three counts: his perspective is Afrocentric rather than Western academic; it’s more informed by genuine reverence and enthusiasm than by the savage arrogance we’ve come to expect as the Anglo-Saxon norm when pondering Africa; and he knows too much to be ignored. Period.”
Tate’s nimble thought, the variety of cultural, musical, and linguistic references that compete and merge in one sentence, approximates Thompson’s versatility and flare. To Tate’s way of thinking, Thompson “was loaded down with the tools of Western scholarship…” and in possession of the “incantatory powers of Yoruba priest.” In his appraisal of Thompson as a “believer in the Black Atlantic tradition,” Tate, a self-described Black Bohemian Nationalist, situates him rightfully in the caravan of iconic griots such as
W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, Cheikh Anta Diop, Chancellor Williams, Ivan Van Sertima, and Yosef Ben-Jochannan. Much too much to quote here is the extensive interview Tate conducted with Thompson, where he extolled his young mentee with his early years in El Paso, Texas, to his intrepid journey as anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, and most eminently as a “guerilla scholar” around the globe and beyond, and even with the promise of a book that would show New York City what it really is, “an incredible African city.”
Both Tate and Thompson were incredible and matchless interpreters of our cultural complexities, finding where they converged and presented the most remarkable possibilities, be they accidental or Oriental. In his closing comments on Thompson, Tate allowed Thompson to speak of himself in the third person: “You have people who say that Thompson seems wedded to the notion of cool, because he wants to be popular or vulgar even. Well, man, I take that as a compliment because what I really hear them saying is ‘don’t mess up our art history with street nigger talk.’ But there’s no way they’re going to stop the attempt to fuse socalled high art history with so-called street. Because I’m a guerilla scholar, and I take my cues from what I hear and so if someone tells me to stop emphasizing cool, then perhaps I’ll start emphasizing chill, if they like.”
To fully grasp the essences, the essential lessons of their conversation you must read Tate’s essay, or any of his profiles in the Village Voice, and then turn to Thompson’s “Flash of the Spirit.” Listening to them in metaphorical flight would be akin to a duet between Charlie Mingus and Eric Dolphy, with a choir of Yoruba drums or kora underlying their exchange of parlance. In effect, their books and articles are only intimations of what they did on the lecture tour, and to catch just one presentation from Thompson, as so many of his students enjoyed during his long tenure at Yale University, must have left an indelible imprint.
Greg Tate reading at New York University in 2013 (File:Lozgregtate.png: Alex Lozupone derivative work: Innisfree987 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Greg_Tate_2013.jpeg), “Greg Tate 2013”, https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode)
Russell Maroon Shoatz passes after compassionate release
By AUTODIDACT 17 Special to the AmNews
Just 52 days of freedom, after spending nearly five decades of imprisonment, Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, 78, became an ancestor Friday, Dec. 17, at his sister’s home. A judge had granted his compassionate release on Oct. 26 due to declining health, and he was relocated from a Pennsylvania state prison to an area hospice care for cancer treatment.
“What’s in the transcripts are the evidence that the prisons don’t have the capabilities to take care not just of their healthy prisoners, they definitely don’t have the ability to take care of their geriatric prisoners, and that they have effectively killed my father,” Russell Shoatz III told media at his father’s release.
Shoatz was convicted for allegedly ambushing a Philadelphia police station in 1970, resulting in the death of one cop and the serious wounding of another, then sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
He escaped prison in 1977, and again in 1980, thus earning his nickname “Maroon.” In 1983 he became president of the Pennsylvania Association of Lifers (PAL), which lobbied to abolish life-without-parole sentences, and solitary confinement.
The outspoken Black Panther and Black Liberation Army activist also founded the Black Unity Council and participated with the New Afrikan liberation movement. Plus, he was an influential advocate for prisoner’s rights.
He spent 22 years in solitary confinement prior to being released back into general prison population in 2014. He sued the Department of Corrections for “cruel and unusual” punishment, describing the inhumane conditions and mental health issues as horrid. He won the lawsuit in 2017 and was awarded $99,000 and a permanent reprieve from solitary confinement.
Shoatz also described enduring severe depression and anxiety. “I was infantilized for so long,” he added in his deposition. Supporters say it was done as retaliation for Shoatz’s efforts to organize other “lifers” in combating “death by incarceration,” a.k.a. life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Shoatz’s relatives contend prison officials allowed his health to progressively worsen to stage four colorectal cancer, prior to releasing him, as intentional medical neglect.
Speaking on his recent visit with Shoatz, former political P.O.W., Kagi Toure says: “I visited him over the ‘no thanks forgiving day of mourning.’ He was happy to finally be home, but they let him go into hospice just to die. His mind is still sharp, although the cancer is eating away at his body. He remains strong and steadfast. We wound up watching ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ and talked about ‘the tribunal,’ where the U.S. was found guilty of genocide against New Afrikan people. We were making moves to save his life and keep him out of jail, but he ran out of time.”
In Maroon’s own words (1995): “Rest easy Fighting Maroons. There are many now and to come who will derive inspiration from your valorous examples, inspiration that will ‘arm their spirits’ to fight the good fight…’til victory or death!!!”
Maroon Shoatz’s janazah (Muslim funeral) was yesterday at a Philly mosque and his body was interred yesterday at a local cemetery.
(Family photograph)
Hip hop pioneer, Kangol Kid from UTFO, passes
By AUTODIDACT 17 Special to the AmNews
One of the initial contributors to hip hop culture’s early commercial success became an ancestor this weekend. U.T.F.O.’s Kangol Kid, 55, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in February, and courageously battled the ailment, until passing peacefully at a Manhasset, N.Y. hospital Saturday, Dec. 18, around 3 a.m., according to his publicist, Lion Lindwedel.
“The new look for hip hop and cancer is to go get yourself checked out before it happens,” he urged during an interview with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, earlier this year.
Shaun Shiller Fequiere was a Haitian American born in Brooklyn Aug. 10, 1966, and raised in East Flatbush. His father, Andre, drove taxi cabs, while his mother, Jean, worked as a housekeeper.
He took on his name after his popular headwear and wound up receiving a lifetime sponsorship from the company. Before MC-ing, he and fellow UTFO [UnTouchable Force Organization] member, Doctor Ice, initially embraced another of hip hop’s elements, B-Boying. They performed as the ‘Keystone Dancers,’ touring with fellow Brooklynite hip hop trio, Whodini. The Educated Rapper and the D.J. Mix Master Ice comprised the quartet.
“We don’t want to be labeled as a rap group,” he explained in a 1985 Washington Post interview. “We want to be labeled as a group that can rap.”
UTFO also performed on “The Phil Donahue Show” in 1984, exposing hip hop to a mainstream audience. In 1985, they were one of the first hip hop acts to perform at the Apollo Theater, and also did the Fresh Fest @MSG. They helped popularize the urban
The last bill is the youth right to remain silent act. “This bill says no longer will officers be able to interrogate a young person and have them waive their Miranda rights until they have spoken to their attorney. Under this bill any evidence obtained without counsel present will be dismissed.”
One of the sponsors of the bills present was Assemblyman Clyde Vanel from Queens. He pointed out that, “It’s a shame that here in New York State that an innocent person can spend even one day in jail, and most times those who are wrongly convicted look a certain way.”
He vowed to work with others in both houses in Albany to make sure that these three bills get passed and signed by the governor.
Newly elected State Sen. Cordell Cleare spoke and gave her support behind the pending legislation to protect our youth from being wrongfully incarcerated, “This is a serious situation where these young men were vilified, demonized, and their families were disrespected. This has to stop.” She went on to reminisce about the connection of a similar case in the past, “From Emmett Till to the days of the Exonerated 5, some people used threats and intimidation to threaten our youth to confession. We as a community must continue to stand with these young men, and others like them, from being tricked into confessions.”
Three of the Exonerated Five were present and spoke on the injustices they had to endure. Yusef Salaam recalled when he was victimized and vilified for a crime that he did not commit, that here in this park is a crime scene that displayed him and his friends as the scum of the Earth. But he gave praise to Allah (God) that he doesn’t look like what he went through over the years. Raymond Santana, one of the Exonerees, said, “This is an opportunity for us to step forward, make our voices heard until we get these bills passed for those who it has affected, those who are oppressed and those who have passed away.” Kevin Richardson recalled the indignities and living with the label from the press, called a “wolf pack,” and how they deserved to be hung from a tree in Central Park. He said, “I can’t imagine another fragile young person to go through what we went through. We have had enough of this and this we must change.”
Sharonne Salaam, mother of Yusef Salaam, held back the emotions to not recount the travesty of justice that her family suffered over the years but riled up the crowd to fight for victory until these bills are passed for not only the wrongfully convicted and those who are grossly incarcerated youth but, “to fight for our people and start fighting with me until the wrongs are made right.” Student Minister Arthur Muhammad from the historic Muhammad Mosque No.7 in Harlem said, “It is profoundly fitting for these victims of the systemic injustice that NYC police and courts are infamously known for, to be advocates for changing the laws that will potentially benefit others to avoid what injustices they suffered from. I have known Yusef Salaam since he was 14 years old. I pray that these three bills are passed expeditiously so that no other Black, Brown or any other youth can be wrongfully convicted and to have their young lives damaged by an inhumane system of justice and degradation like the Exonerated Five had to go through for all of those years.”
Senator Myrie pointed out that, “The legislative calendar is from January to June 2022, and we have until that time to get these bills passed. It is our goal to get the public’s attention and support. We want our colleagues in the State Senate and the State Assembly to get on board with these bills that have already been introduced and get this criminal reform bill done in that time. We expect it to be passed so that in 2022—the 20th anniversary of the Exonerated Five’s freedom—we can celebrate with the new legislation being passed.”
Kangol
Continued from page 26
music genre to millions during a time when it received airplay on major radio stations only on Friday and Saturday nights.
“She wouldn’t give a guy like me no rap. She was walking down the street so I said, ‘Hello I’m Kangol from UTFO.’ And she said ‘So?’ And I said ‘So? Baby don’t you know? I can sing, rap and dance in just one show, cause I’m Kangol, Mr. Sophisticator. As far as I’m concerned, ain’t nobody greater,’” he rhymed.
His verse kicked off their influential 1984 classic track “Roxanne, Roxanne,” which sparked over two-dozen response tracks and the legendary rap-rivalries gave life to careers for several female MCs, mainly Marley Marl’s protégé, Roxanne Shante’s “Roxanne’s Revenge.” Both tracks made Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs of All Time list.
It sold several hundred-thousand copies and reached No. 10 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart, and No. 77 on their Hot 100.
“The Real Roxanne” by the Real Roxanne, was another popular answer-track, with both acts often performing on the same shows.
“When you think of hip hop, hip hop is a sport,” Kangol told AllHipHopTV in 2017. “A lot of breakdance is battle, rap is battle, DJs battle, but we were the first to battle on wax.”
The innovative MC explained his creativity in the book, “The Rap Attack” (1985): “Another new thing is Z-rap. It’d be like a code language. I would talk to him and his name’s Doctor Ice. I would say, ‘Dizoctor Izice. Yizo hizo bizoy wizon’t youza kizoy mesover herezere?’ — that’s just saying, ‘Yo, homeboy, why don’t you come over here?’ and what I did is make a rap out of that language.”
They released their debut album “UTFO” in 1985, and four more albums followed.
In later years, Kangol Kid produced and wrote for other artists, including the group Whistle, also did voiceovers, and penned columns in Black Beat
Magazine and AllHiphop.com. As co-founder of the Mama Luke Foundation, he supported cancer charities, and was honored in 2012 by the American Cancer Society. He’s survived by his parents; brothers, Joel, Andy and Alix; three sons, T.Shaun, Andre and Giovanni; a daughter, Amancia; and seven grandchildren. Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J and The Roots’ ?uestlove were among the many who expressed condolences on but they let him go into hospice just to social media. die. His mind is still sharp, although the cancer is eating away at his body. He remains strong and steadfast. We wound up watching ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ and talked about ‘the In NYC you can get anything delivered. tribunal,’ where the U.S. was found - Now, that includes COVID-19 vaccines! kan people. We were making moves to save his life and keep him out of jail,
In Maroon’s own words (1995): “Rest easy Fighting Maroons. There are many now and to come who will derive inspiration from your valorous examples, inspiration that will ‘arm their spirits’ to fight the good fight…’til
Maroon Shoatz’s janazah (Muslim funeral) was yesterday at a Philly mosque and his body was interred
“We don’t want to be labeled as a rap group,” he explained in a 1985 Washington Post interview. “We want to be labeled as a group that
UTFO also performed on “The Phil Donahue Show” in 1984, exposing hip hop to a mainstream audience. In 1985, they were one of the first hip hop acts to perform at the Apollo Theater, and also did the Fresh Fest @MSG. They helped popularize the urban
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clocked in at 1,023.09 (84% of Manhattanites above the age of five are fully vaccinated). Kings County (Brooklyn) stands at 648.27 and Bronx County stands at 427.02. Staten Island (aka Richmond County) had a 715.33 case rate per 100,000.
Drug pharmacies have worked to keep up with customer requests for at-home tests. Zoe Krey, manager, retail & merchandising communications for Walgreens, told the AmNews that due to the demand for at-home rapid testing, they’ve put a four-item purchase limit on at-home COVID-19 testing products in stores and online. They’re hoping to improve their inventory in the process.
“We’ve seen an unprecedented increase in demand for rapid OTC COVID-19 tests and are working with our suppliers to ensure customers have access to self-test kits through the holidays,” Krey told the AmNews. “Some stores may experience a temporary shortage in rapid OTC testing solutions. For consumers looking for specific items, Walgreens.com updates with the latest available store inventory information frequently throughout the day.”
A spokesperson for CVS told the AmNews that they’re committed to providing families with protection and peace of mind during the holiday season.
“We continue to work around the clock to provide our stores with inventory of the five over-the-counter at-home COVID-19 tests we offer: Abbott BinaxNOW, Acon FlowFlex, Quidel Quickvue, Ellume, and Pixel by LabCorp.,” said a CVS spokesperson. “In the event a store experiences a temporary shortage, our teams have a process in place to rapidly replenish supply. Due to a recent surge in demand, and to retain community-based access to tests in our stores, there may be temporary out-of-stocks for these products on CVS.com.”
Other businesses, however, struggled to keep their promise of a 48hour wait for results.
LabQ, a medical diagnostic company, pushes the story that they can get COVID test results back to patients within 48-hours. That hasn’t been the case. One person who used their service told the AmNews that she’s still waiting for her results, and it’s been over 96 hours.
“We should’ve been told that it was going to take like 4-6 (days) to get our results,” the patient, who wanted us to refer to her by her initials, A.U., told the AmNews. “I could’ve gone somewhere else. Mine still says ‘pending.’”
The inability to meet their deadline brought the ire of New York State Attorney General Letitia James down on LabQ: she took to social media to give her opinion on LabQ’s situation.
“We’re demanding Brooklyn-based @LabQ247 stop giving false information about turnaround times on #COVID19 results,” said James. “@ LabQ247 has dozens of testing sites across New York City, and despite advertising a 48-hour turnaround time, some New Yorkers have waited 96 hours for results.”
“It’s absurd that anyone should have to wait that long for a test result,” tweeted James.
The AmNews wasn’t able to contact LabQ Brooklyn Laboratory officials, but this message plays when anyone calls their business: “Please be aware due to the increased volume of testing this holiday season, we are experiencing longer than normal processing times,” the message stated. “Please allow 48 to 96 hours for our lab to process your results. Thank you for understanding as we are currently unable to expedite samples, we are working diligently to return to our quick turnaround policy. If you have been waiting for longer than 48 hours for the results, please reach out to us online at helpdesk@labq.com.”
Another person told the AmNews that they took their test on an early Thursday afternoon and didn’t get their results until late Monday morning. She did say, however, that they were good communicators by texting her on where to go online to get her results.
On Tuesday CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky approved of people being tested, but also promoted people taking the booster shot. She told CNBC that vaccination and booster shots are the best prevention against death. According to the CDC, vaccinated people infected with the coronavirus are 20 times more likely to survive than an unvaccinated person.
The U.S. government is looking to speed along the process. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration plans on making 500 million athome tests available for free to the American public. They will distribute them through the mail while simultaneously opening new testing sites around the country––including one in New York.
A.U. told the AmNews a story about the day she took her test. Once she was done, she and her partner went to a bodega nearby. They were masked up and safe. The bodega’s cashier, however, was maskless, gloveless and picking his nose. “This is absurd.”
At press time, A.U. was still waiting for her test results.
Just over a week ago Manhattan’s East Village and Lower East Side felt like old times. People were outside smoking cigarettes, bars were open, restaurants were open, SantaCon was wreaking havoc around the city. But for now, places like the East Village will remain a ghost town.
