from Inside Bed-Stuy, 1968
Described by Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant producer Charles Hobson as one of the program’s “most-requested pieces”, this video features the Leroi Jones Young Spirit House Movers and Players delivering a jaw-droppingly powerful spoken-word performance.
These kids, from Bed-Stuy and Brownsville, deliver a powerful protest about race relations in America. The performance is a microcosm of the world they’re living in….
The young players embody the activist spirit of their driving force, poet and Black Arts Movement originator LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka). Using synched movements and poetry, the kids address various issues from inequality to the lack of a well-rounded black history curriculum in the schools. One girl states affectingly: “We are taught to hate ourselves…America, why did you bring us here?” But the underlying message from Jones through these kids is the importance of pride and self-empowerment. As one of the children says near the end: “Today is ours/Let’s take it.”
Watch the Leroi Jones Young Spirit House Movers and Players (9:33), introduced by Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant host Roxie Roker:
Read more about Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant:
* Interview with producer Charles Hobson
* Overview of Black-produced television from 1968, including Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant
* Article on the show from the Brooklyn Rail
(Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant was originally broadcast on WNEW in NYC. Clips provided by Charles Hobson).
Type in ‘Bedford-Stuyvesant 1968′ into Google Images and what comes up is a 1968 LIFE magazine photo essay profiling the ’slums of Bed-Stuy.’ Which apparently was what the media chose to focus on at that time.
“In this Nov. 6, 1968 file photo Shirley Chisholm is surrounded by campaign workers flashing the victory sign, shortly after she won election to Congress from New York City’s Bedford-Stuyvesant district, on Nov. 6, 1968. In 1972 Chisholm became the first black woman to pursue the presidency, waging a campaign to end the Vietnam War and give voice to the silent in the nation’s policy-making. Jesse Jackson followed in 1984 and 1988, paving the way for the candidacies of Alan Keyes, Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun.”
Photo and description: AP
WNET sent me an email about their recent broadcast of a television show from 1968 called ‘Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant.’ Here’s a description of the show from their website:
Forty years ago, the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn was one of the largest and most dynamic African-American communities in the country – 400,000 people made their home within its three square miles. But Bed-Stuy became synonymous with crime and poverty when the mainstream media focused on urban unrest during the ’60s. One television show decided to change all that.
Charles Hobson was a producer for WBAI radio when he was approached to produce a news program about Bedford-Stuyvesant. Robert F. Kennedy conceived a television series that would show the ‘real’ Bed-Stuy -– a neighborhood of working families, students, artists and professionals. “Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant” came to New York’s airwaves in 1968.
On “Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant”, Charles Hobson captured his neighborhood in black and white — local celebrities, activists, musicians, and regular residents all made appearances on the weekly show. The program ran for two years, and Hobson moved on to produce shows like “Black Journal” and “Like It Is”.