‘Something I Said’ Archives
Something I Said: Juneteenth
By DWIGHT HOBBES Dwight Hobbes This month, across America and a few other places around the world, black folk plan to jump for joy at Juneteenth celebrations of freedom from slavery. There’s a bittersweet aspect to that.The sweet, of course, is liberation. Early revelry presented opportunities for political rallies to give voting instructions to newly freed African Americans. Also, baseball games, fishing, rodeos, street fairs and, of course, cookouts. Much later, black people tied the holiday to fighting for civil rights. In 1968, called by Dr. Martin Luther King and, after his assassination, led by Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Coretta Scott King, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference made June 19 the Solidarity Day of the Poor People’s Campaign. Nowadays, in addition to a good time outdoors, there’s teaching African-American heritage, arts and literature showcases, and more. As Karen M. Thomas intoned in Emerge, “Community leaders have latched on to to help instill a sense of…pride in black youth”.The bitter is how it came to be named. Abe Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued January 1, 1863 (in Delaware and Kentucky slavery remained legal for another six months). There was no mass media except newspapers, which slaves had been forbidden to read. Consequently, most, still illiterate, had to get the news by word of mouth. Texas owners, slick as sin, pulled a fast one and simply didn’t let their slaves know. They went right on conducting business as usual, brutally abusing them. Typical conditions in which slaves subsisted, like the other chattel, were unsanitary. Nutrition was poor, the labor ceaseless. This environment rendered them susceptible to human disease which went inadequately treated. Texas had an estimated 250,000 slaves in 1865 when, on June 19th, Union Army Major General Gordon Granger marched his troops into Galveston, Texas and ruined the scam, liberating the last of the enslaved men, women and children. It bears [...]
Something I Said: Black Women’s Lives Matter
By DWIGHT HOBBES Dwight Hobbes Black women’s lives matter. Shouldn’t be necessary to say but consider. Rodney King, George Floyd and Tyre Nichols are names no one is likely to ever forget. Not so, the likes of Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland and scores more who are just as dead at the hand of ruthlessly racist so-called law enforcement. Don’t think so? Consider. St. Paul citizen Nekeya Moody, in 2020, died after Ramsey County deputies responded to a 911 call reporting her as having a panic attack. In a subsequent lawsuit her mother said it was due to excessive force and indifference to her medical needs. The medical examiner cited excited delirium, an excuse Minneapolis police tried with the murder of George Floyd but the American Medical Association debunks as unheard of outside cops trying to get off the hook. That same year, a half-dozen Louisville Metro Police officers forced their way into Breonna Taylor’s home, investigating drug dealing ten miles away, and shot the unarmed woman dead. This in response to her boyfriend firing a single shot at what he thought were intruders. They fired 32 rounds. In 2015, Sandra Bland of Naperville, Illinois was pulled over in Waller County, Texas for a traffic stop and, when she refused to be bullied and cowed by State Trooper Brian Encinia, was assaulted and hauled off to jail where she supposedly hung herself, something no one in his or right mind believes, especially since she’d exclaimed, “I can’t wait to go to court.” A person or persons went in her cell and saw to it she never got there. There is no earthly reason to be less incensed about these deaths, but, odds are you never heard of them because no groundswell drew the same media coverage and public attention as men. There’s no national registry, but the Washington Post has reported that 48 black women were killed by police since that publication started tracking police-involved deaths by shooting alone since 2015. Think about it: that’s [...]
Something I Said: Terry Bellamy – A Singular Presence
By DWIGHT HOBBESTerry Bellamy, who passed in January, was, to say the least, a singular presence. I met him in 1993 at the Playwrights Center for some sort of town hall meeting. He got up and raised three different kinds of hell, calling the organization out for being whites only. We chatted afterward but for the life of me I can’t remember a word either of us said. I do recall within weeks the Center had a black playwrights workshop led by the regrettably late actor Byrd Wilkins (Doctor Who, Running Scared). I joined. Next time I saw Bellamy was in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running at Penumbra Theatre Company. It wasn’t the last as that presence fueled several powerhouse performances at the Twin Cities answer to NYC’s fabled Negro Ensemble Company. The man was, hands down, an amazing actor who appeared all over America in productions at prestigious venues. He was not, however, like many actors, in the profession for the sake of ego, and helped local performance artist David Daniels develop Malcolm X Meet Peter Tosh. It had well received runs at Cedar Cultural Center, Minnesota Fringe Festival, Colorado State University in Denver at the Bug Theater. He was committed to black culture and odds are he wanted Penumbra to use its mainstream success to empower a nationalist bent that harked to the Black Arts Movement that thrived from 1965 to 1975. There’s reason to believe this led to his highly successful career being scuttled as he and artistic director Lou Bellamy did not always see eye to eye. A production of Wilson’s hallmark drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was, at one point, a train wreck. Terry Bellamy, playing the lead, “Levee,” tossed in a line, “I’m sick of this bullshit.” which wasn’t in the script, and next performance he simply wasn’t there when the stage manager called “Places!” The production shut down for three days while Lou Bellamy arranged to fly in a replacement from Houston. Terry Bellamy then vanished from [...]
Something I Said: 3 Pound Cats
Dwight Hobbes By DWIGHT HOBBES 3 Pound Cats partners with clinics to provide seniors affordable pet care. A true godsend. After all, who is hit harder in these tough economic times? Yet nonetheless need to safeguard our furry, four-footed loved ones? Do a little price comparison at just a few animal hospitals and the picture comes into focus. For a still clearer idea, visit 3poundcats.com. “I originally was trying to place 3 rescue - or pound - cats into assisted living facilities”, recalls owner-operator Dr. Marie Louderback, DVM (call her Dr. Marie). “To get the cats out of the shelters and into homes with people to love them and pet them!” So, she isn’t only giving elders a break but has a heart for homeless would-be pets. Yes, including dogs. Ani-Meals executive director Melanie La Pointe remembers how she met 3 Pound Cats. “When I was unemployed and had 3 little dogs to take care of, my groomer introduced me to Dr. Marie. She helped me keep them healthy. When I got involved with Ani-Meals, I figured out a way to get grants to pay for vet care for my clients and she was the logical person to provide it. She is kind and smart, a great combination.” La Pointe adds, “Dr. Marie Louderback makes house calls for basic exams and vaccines. That makes it possible for people in apartments to keep their animals.” Lately, clients struggle to pay for exams and vaccines. “I’d hate for anyone to lose their pet because they can’t give them their shots.”Donations are accepted at 3poundcats.com to defray costs.
SOMETHING I SAID: The Animal Factory
Book Review By DWIGHT HOBBES Dwight Hobbes Rule of thumb goes, the book’s better than the movie. Edward Bunker’s The Animal Factory (St. Martin’s Minotaur) and Franchise Pictures is a tossup. Both are brilliant. The novel’s narrative is fluid, with compelling immediacy. Co-screenwriter John Steppling teams with Bunker for an ingenious adaptation. Bunker (Education of a Felon: A Memoir /St. Martin's Griffin,) made his way from the wrong side of the law to a career as screenwriter-actor (Animal Factory, Straight Time). He was “Mr. Blue” in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. Franchise Pictures The Animal Factory protagonist, 20-something, privileged Ron Decker is slapped in prison so the judge can stand hard on white offenders, not just criminals of color. Never mind that Decker, no angel for sure, dealt weed and coke, but this is his first bust. He’s a politically correct scapegoat. Street spawned, veteran of incarceration Earl Boen takes him under his wing, shows him the ropes. In a hellish environment, they become unlikely allies, then fast friends – in an environment where young, pretty Decker can use someone influential having his back. Circumstance irreversibly changes their lives. Some brute thinks he can rape Ron. Earl’s crew convince him otherwise, ganging up to stab the guy, severing his spinal cord. They’d’ve sliced his throat, but, guards were on the way. When a real mess hits the fan behind this and they could wind up serving longer sentences, possibly life, Earl and Ron hatch an escape plan. While adaptation necessitates alterations to accommodate the medium, brought to screen life Bunker’s story loses none of its impact. Indeed, putting faces to the names in a stark picture of their purgatory hits all the harder. Deftly directed by Steve Buscemi (The Sopranos, Homicide: Life on the Street), who’s done more than his share of acting (Boardwalk Empire), the cast lists an indies’ who’s [...]
Something I Said: ‘Charmed’ Revisited
Dwight Hobbes. By DWIGHT HOBBES If something isn’t broke, don’t fix it. So goes the truism. Not always the case. Constance M. Burge’s Charmed (CBS/1998 – 2006) was state of the art pop. Solid scripts, strong cast about three white women waxing supernatural against the forces of evil. Charmed (2018 – 2022) reinvents that wheel, doing a fascinating job of it. Starting with casting Latinas as the leads, something nobody could’ve seen coming. Added to which, one sister is lesbian. And there’s a womanist bent. Talk about pushing the envelope, which isn’t all that surprising, considering Canada’s track record for quality commercial fare, including the supernatural hit Lost Girl. This time around for Charmed, there’s feisty firebrand social protester Mel (Melonie Diaz), sexy nerd cum genius biochemist Macy (Madeleine Mantock) and sardonically easy going college kid Maggie (Sarah Jeffrey). Ace ringer Rupert Evans (Hellboy) is glib, debonair spiritual guide Harry. Valerie Cruz (Dexter, Homeland) lands a fine showcase as Marisol the sisters’ tragically slain mom whose ghost holds the key to their lives. The pilot engages, intrigues throughout, Marisol’s murder setting in motion cataclysmic forces of evil versus good. Whereupon daughters are called on to save the world against overwhelming odds. The intrepid trio prevails, usually by the skin of their necks. A new dimension is how dark the storylines get, at times grim, putting real teeth into it. As well, there’s authentic diversity, which, in the original series went no further than a colorblind, p.c. nod with recurring guest Debbi Morgan and supporting star Dorian Gregory. This Charmed references, among other cultural underpinnings, the African-Cuban religion Santeria and even the soundtrack is a rich blend of styles, not a steady diet of mainstream fare. Notably, where the original steered clear of so much as [...]
