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3 October 2014
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Slavery and Freedom


Jackie Kay Presenter: Jackie Kay

Burt Caesar Burt Caesar (reader)

Josette Simon Josette Simon (reader)

Presenter's Note

In my edition of Poetry of the Negro, edited by Langston Hughes, there is a section entitled Poetry by Non-negroes. I liked the idea of that. I wanted to choose poems by black and white writers to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.

I've chosen Robert Burns, The Slave's Lament, and an extract from Walt Whitman's wonderful Song of Myself, as well as early brilliant black writers like James Weldon Johnson and Paul Laurence Dunbar. I chose African writers like Wole Soyinka - whose Telephone Conversation I remembering making a huge impact on me at school. I chose the American poet Audre Lorde who I was so excited to discover in the early eighties. I wanted a mixture of contemporary poets and poets from the past to carry us through these two hundred years. I chose the Kreutzner Sonata because it was originally written for a black violinist to play.
Music and poetry for me walk like twins through my life.

The music and poetry we love forms part of our own biographies. Someone else is singing your story. There's a mixture of blues and jazz as well as Scottish folk and African music here. Music is one way that we all can really value our freedom. We can lose ourselves and find ourselves again in the music. I like the sassiness of Nina Simone's Mississippi Goddam and the raw unplugged voice of Bessie Smith and the bringing it all together voice of Bob Marley with his moving Redemption Song. Ah. I was spoilt for choice.

Playlist Information

00:03:20
SERGE HOVEY
The Slave's Lament
Jean Redpath
GREENTRAX CDTRAX 115

00:03:27
EMILY DICKINSON
No Prisoner Be
Josette Simon (reader)

00:03:57
LANGSTON HUGHES
Dream Deferred
Burt Caesar (reader)

00:06:50
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
O Black and Unknown Bards
Josette Simon (reader)

00:08:15
Go Down Moses
Paul Robeson
CONIFER TQ142

00:10:17
ALI FARKA TOURE
The Source - Cinquante Six
WORLD CIRCUIT WCD030

00:15:42
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
Sympathy
Burt Caesar (reader)

00:16:52
JUNE TABOR
Anthology - Lay This Body Down
MUSIC CLUB MCCD 126


00:19:46
BEETHOVEN
Kreutzer Sonata - Adagio sostenuto
Jascha Heifetz
NAXOS 8110990

00:23:41
ROBERT BURNS
The Slave's Lament
Jackie Kay (reader)

00:30:32
AIME CESAIRE
Notebook of a Return to My Native Land
Burt Caesar (reader)

00:32:25
ISMAEL LO
The Balladeer - Talibe
WRASSE WRASS031

00:36:38
HANDEL
Where'er you walk
Bryn Terfel
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Sir Charles Mackerras
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 453 480-2

00:41:57
MICHAEL TIPPETT
A Child of Our Time - O By and By
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Colin Davis
PHILIPS 4200752

00:41:10
Walt Whitman
From Song of Myself
Burt Caesar (reader)

00.43:04
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes (reader)


BARBARA HENDRICKS
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
Barbara Hendricks Sings Spirituals
Dmitri Alexeev - piano
EMI CDC7470262

00:47:00
Fred d'Aguiar
Mama Dot
Jackie Kay (reader)

00:47:25
AARON COPLAND
Lincoln Portrait
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Zubin Mehta - conductor
DECCA 473 146-2

00:54:27
Lucille Clifton
Homage to My Hips
Josette Simon (reader)

00:55:08
NINA SIMONE
Mississippi Goddam
Feeling Good - The Very Best of Nina Simone
MERCURY 522 747-2

00:59:49
Audre Lorde
A Litany for Survival
Jackie Kay (reader)

01:01:31
Moniza Alvi
Arrival 1946
Josette Simon (reader)

01:01:02
BOB MARLEY
Legend - Redemption Song
TUFF GONG BMWCD1

01:05:34
DUKE ELLINGTON
Black, Brown and Beige - Come Sunday
Ray Nance - violin
NAXOS 8.120809

01:10:05
Wole Soyinka
Telephone Conversation
Burt Caesar (reader)

01:12:14
Gwendolyn Brooks
To an Old Black Woman, Homeless and Indistinct
Josette Simon (reader)

01:14:26
BESSIE SMITH
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
CLASSICS 897

01:17:23
Langston Hughes
I Too Sing America
Burt Caesar (reader)

01:17:54
BEETHOVEN
Overture - Fidelio
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Kurt Masur - conductor
RCA 74321 25278 2

01:24:11
James Weldon Johnson
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Josette Simon (reader)

01:25:55
WYNTON MARSALIS
Blood on the Fields - Freedom is in the Trying
COLUMBIA CXK 57694




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