The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975: A Review

I started my schooling at an Afro-centric elementary school in Boston and  finished by earning a bachelor’s degree at Howard University. While I am no  black history expert, I have a spent a fair amount learning about the usual  facts and figures presented about African-American history makers. While grainy  pictures of Martin Luther King Jr’s march on Washington, Marion Anderson singing  at the Lincoln Memorial and Harriet Tubman posing for the camera are all  powerful and important images, we as a nation have come to rely on them too much  as a short cut to quickly cover some of the more poignant and painful aspects of  our past. Their over usage often make my eyes glass over.

How refreshing to watch the documentary “The Black Power Mixtape 1967 –  1975,” which takes a look that the civil rights movement from the eyes of a  group of Swedish news journalists. Seems random. I could belabor the strangeness  of such eye-opening material on my community coming from Sweden, but that  doesn’t really matter. Nor is the exact reason why these journalists descended  on America pertinent. What is important is that they were touched by the  inequities of the everyday lives of everyday Americans; that they documented it;  and shared it. During the course of almost 10 years, they covered the marches,  speeches, and court trials of civil rights activists in order to shed light on  the plight and successes of the black community.

I was amazed at the amount of footage that I had never seen of some civil  rights icons. The clips of Stokley Carmichael interviewing his mother introduced  me to the softer side of his humanity and helped round him out as a person. From  her jail cell, Angela Davis bristles when a reporter asks her about the use of  violence in a freedom movement when violence was used to kill her neighbors, the  girls that were fire bombed in Birmingham, Alabama. “You ask me if I approve of  violence? I just find it incredible.” I can see her frustration from years of  struggle tempered with a fierce intellect as she tries to explain basic human  behavior. The footage of Black Panther leaders, schools and soup kitchens;  Herbert Hoover quotes; the backlash of the American media all brought home the  civil rights era from a fresh perspective that made me sit up and take  notice.

The approach of the production of “The Black Power Mixtape” was also  refreshing. Instead of traditional narration, the directors use audio interviews  from today’s well-know voices of black consciousness to give context to the  images on the screen. Sometimes the interviews were directly about the video  presented but there were also commentaries and remembrances. Erika Badu, Angela  Davis, QwestLove and Harry Belafonte did not recite from history books but  recounted the history from very personal and very thoughtful perspectives. Talib  Kweli says “What you don’t realize about these people is that none of these  people are evil or bad or even extra violent. It’s just to them common sense  meant that they had to speak and stand up for themselves. And it shows you the  power of those words – that they resonate even today.”

“The Black Power Mixtape” brought out the strength and pride of the black  community during those turbulent times. If it had been a fictional tale, it  would have ended with all Americans moving forward together to create a better  nation and a better world. Instead it ended with drugs thrust into black  communities, with families being disrupted and dreams being squashed. And it  also left us with the unasked question, what do we do now?

My Dream Interviews

As a non-fiction television producer, I get to meet and interview people that I would not normally cross paths with.  Sometime the are average people and sometimes they are famous.  Here is a list of well-known people that I would absolutely love to interview. They are in no particular order.

President Barack Obama – Self explanatory really. However, my husband is also half-Kenyan and my father-n-law knew Barack Sr. so at least there is some connection.

James Lipton – Besides interviewing artists who at are the top of their creative craft, Mr. Lipton has impressed me with his ability to sample all that life has to offer and not judge others for doing the same.  His friendship with Dave Chapelle is intriguing. I’d love to interview him despite some of my respected colleagues calling him the biggest sycophant ever.

Questlove – A pure musical genius.  If you ever get to see him live as a drummer or deejay, go!  If you ever get to hear him talk about music, get ready to get schooled!  Anyone who has converted a room into a music library then tasks his sister with managing it, must be given credit for dedication to his passion.

Phillipa Gregory – I almost hate to admit this in writing, but I love literature, television and film about the Tudor period.  I find the social stratification and people’s willingness to adhere to social rules as if they are hard and concrete things absolutely fascinating.  No one brings the Tudor period to life like Gregory.

Malcolm Gladwell – One of the most interesting “thinkers” of our time. I love the way Gladwell is able to connect ideas in new ways to shed light on old problems.  One question I’d like to ask him is why, when describing people he has interviewed, he always talks about their hair?

Toni Morrision – A pure literary genius.  There is no question that her books are among the best ever written but her Nobel Prize speech was also a work of art.  

Mira Nair – I actually got to speak to her on the telephone once for an extremely brief pre-interview for a documentary called “Understanding: Race” that aired on The Learning Channel (now TLC). I never got to meet her and have always wished that I did.  She has produced and directed some of the most luscious looking movies of our time including one of my all time favorites “Karma Sutra.”

But then again, perhaps I really DON’T want to interview these people.  In the past, I have interviewed people that I admired and is isn’t always all that it is cracked up to be.  Sometimes, being up close and personal with them takes some of the shine off their glow.  I won’t name names here in case I disrupt the glow for you.  I guess, you never really know until the interview happens.  I think I’ll take my chances with this group.