Allow me to entice you.
Next Tuesday at 10am PST, the second to last day of Black History Month, check your email inbox.
I’ll give you an interview about the most important American writer on culture you’ve probably never heard of.
Unless your name is Henry Louis Gates, Jr. of Harvard, who called this writer “The King of Cats.”
Or Toni Morrison, who said, “Murray’s perceptions are firmly based in the blues idiom, and it is black music no less than literary criticism and historical analysis that gives his work its authenticity, its emotional vigor, and its tenacious hold on the intellect.”
- Name: Albert Murray
- Focus: Hero’s journey, stomping the blues, critiquing “ghettologists,” appreciating that black culture is central to American culture
- Quote: “The blues idiom is an attitude of affirmation in the face of difficulty, of improvisation in the face of challenge. It means that you acknowledge life is a low down dirty shame yet confront that fact with perseverance, with humor, and above all, with elegance.”
- Our guide: Greg Thomas, former jazz columnist for the New York Daily News
Tuesday at 10am. It will lift you up.