Arts and Culture

Book Review: “In Remembrance of Emmett Till”

Published

10 years ago

September 8, 2014

What can you say about tragedy? When it’s imminent, you brace yourself and hope to come out unscathed. In its aftermath, you mourn and, eventually, you move on, healed… but not quite ever the same.

Still, what, exactly, can you say about tragedy? Plenty, as you’ll see in the book “In Remembrance of Emmett Till” by Darryl Mace, and the strongest words come from influential places.

Mamie Till-Mobley was born in Mississippi but, when she was just two years old, her family joined the Great Migration and settled in Chicago . They left a state where lynching was “an all-to-common experience for blacks” and segregation was a way of life.

Things were different in Illinois ; there was still racism, but it wouldn’t likely kill anyone.

In this less-tumultuous place, Emmett Louis Till was born and raised and, due to his Chicago upbringing, “could not understand what it was like to be Black in Mississippi.”

Still, as was the habit of many Midwestern African American families at that time, 14-year-old Emmett was sent to spend the summer with an uncle in the south.

It was a tragic mistake.

In the days following Aug. 31, 1955, when Emmett Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, “print media outlets… sprang into action” to report “yet another senseless murder of a Black male…”

Publications – both mainstream and Black – leaped on the story in days to follow, reporting on “indifference” from Mississippi officials, lack of outrage from white Mississippians at the murder, and the ensuing trial at which the defendants were observed laughing.

Interestingly, Mace says that mainstream Midwestern newspapers covered the story differently than did papers in the West and Northeast. African American publications, particularly from the Midwest, also had understandably different angles.

They were, he says, the ones to keep the story alive long after the trial ended.

“At the time,” Mace further adds, “whites in the Deep South could not see that with his death Emmett Till sowed the seeds of change that would sprout forth into the modern civil rights movement.

Regardless of race, Americans… and these members of the Emmett Till generation would change the very nature of race relations in the United States.”

I struggled some with “In Remembrance of Emmett Till.”

Part of the problem is that this book is more academic than I expected; there were times when I was riveted by the information author Darryl Mace uncovered, while other pages made me want to just shelve it awhile.

There’s a good sense of time and context here, though, and that helped.

Mace gives readers ample opportunity to understand why Till’s violent death wasn’t just “another senseless murder;” why the U.S. was ripe for Civil Rights progress made in the decade after his slaying; and how the press, especially 60 years ago, served its public.

Scholars and historians may appreciate more from this book than most, but Mace’s thoroughness will get you through if you casually want to tackle it anyhow. Try “In Remembrance of Emmett Till,” and see what you have to say.

“In Remembrance of Emmett Till” by Darryl Mace, c. 2014, University Press of Kentucky, $40.00, 214 pages.

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Arts and Culture

Faces Around the Bay Dr. Carl Blake, Pianist

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999. One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Published

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Oakland Post

Dr. Carl Blake

By Barbara Fluhrer

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999.

One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Blake obtained a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and continued post-baccalaureate studies in Jamaica before earning a Master of Arts in Music at San Jose State University. He was the recipient of two Fulbright residencies in Honduras and completed a third residency at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Cornell University.

At age 19, Blake, then an undergraduate piano major at Boston University, was “discovered” by Impresario Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams, who is the Founder and Director of Today’s Artists/Four Seasons Arts.

Williams honored Blake by awarding him the first Marian Anderson Young Artist Award. Anderson personally presented the award at the Masonic Auditorium in S.F. Subsequently, Blake was presented by Dr. Williams in his San Francisco debut at The Herbst Theatre. Williams subsidized a year of study abroad for Blake at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Additionally, Williams sponsored Blake’s New York Weill Hall debut, where he has performed twice since. Blake performed several times at the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon.

Blake continues to perform nationally and abroad. His hobbies are reading, baking and travel. He says, “I’m still pumping ivories, as Belgian pianist Jeanne Stark described the disciplined practice of concert piano.”

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Arts and Culture

Oakland Jazz Great Offers Master Class as City Declares “John Handy Day”

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city. Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

Published

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Oakland Post

(L-R) Del Handy, John Handy, Roger Glenn, and Joe Warner celebrate John Handy Day at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, Oakland. Photo by Lady Bianca.

By Conway Jones

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city.

Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

“John Handy is a jazz icon and an inspiration to musicians everywhere,” said Ayo Brame, a 16-year-old Oakland tenor saxophone player who is enrolled at the Oakland School for the Arts.

In celebration of this day, the reception in downtown Oakland at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle was a gathering of artists, young and old, coming together in his honor and celebrating his 91st birthday.

Handy presented a Saxophone Colossus free masterclass for musicians. This class afforded a rare opportunity to learn about the saxophone from an aficionado. The class was free and open to all – saxophonists, vocalists, aficionados, students, and casual listeners.

“As a longtime friend for over 60 years, and fellow musician who has had numerous opportunities to share the stage with John, it has always been a pleasure performing with him and hearing his creative interpretations of the music and his gift of ease inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians,” said Roger Glenn, a multi-instrumentalist.

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Arts and Culture

Musical Chronicling Life of Betty Reid Soskin Set for Bay Area Debut

Betty Reid Soskin’s storied 102 years includes time spent as a WWII defense worker, activist, business owner, songwriter, National Park Service park ranger and so much more. Now the Richmond icon is the subject of a musical based on her incredible life.

Published

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Oakland Post

Betty Reid Soskin. Photo courtesy of Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond.

The Richmond Standard

“Sign My Name to Freedom,” a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) production which will focus on the life, music and writing of Ms. Soskin, will premiere at San Francisco’s Z Space Friday, March 29 and continue through Saturday, April 13. Tickets range from $15–$65 and can be purchased online at https://www.sfbatco.org/smntf

The musical is directed by Elizabeth Carter, while playwright Michael Gene Sullivan integrates Ms. Soskin’s own music throughout dialogue between what SFBATCO calls “The Four Bettys” as they progress through a century of experiences of this awe-inspiring American woman.

The cast of “Sign My Name to Freedom” features Tierra Allen as Little Betty, Aidaa Peerzada as Married Betty, Lucca Troutman as Revolutionary Betty and Cathleen Riddley as Present Betty Reid Soskin, according to Artistic Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. and Managing Director Adam Maggio. Other casting will be announced in the future.

Jackson said that having Soskin’s blessing to steward her life’s story is an honor and career highlight for him and that her journey stands as “a beacon for Black Americans, women and people of color all across the world [and] is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.”

San Francisco’s Z Space is located at 450 Florida St. in San Francisco. Check out the trailer here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ap9N2XBB0