Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: It beats listening to nothing.
Speaker 1: My goodness, being Frank, where the only way to be
Speaker 1: is Frank. Hello everyone, and welcome to being Frank. We're
Speaker 1: the only way to be is Frank. I'm your host, FRANKL. Borne,
Speaker 1: and I'd like to thank you for joining us on
Speaker 1: what we like to call the Intelligent Conversation Podcast, where
Speaker 1: no conversation is out of bounds and all points of
Speaker 1: view are welcome. We record live to tape. I give
Speaker 1: you the date so you have some relevance and context.
Speaker 1: Is the fifth of February Black History Month. One of
Speaker 1: the first things the new administration under President Donald J.
Speaker 1: Trump did was to not only shut down the Department
Speaker 1: of Equity and Inclusion the DEI, but to obliterate the
Speaker 1: very mention of the words, as if they conveyed some
Speaker 1: type of filthy message. It also attempts to destroy years
Speaker 1: of important good efforts to level the playing field for
Speaker 1: all Americans. The executive order even goes so far as
Speaker 1: to eliminate cultural celebrations like Black History Month from the
Speaker 1: federal calendar. In frustration, many say, but he's the president.
Speaker 1: What can we do well? We can fight back by
Speaker 1: refusing to endorse the bigotry the orders represent, and that
Speaker 1: it's exactly what we're doing here at being Frank. By
Speaker 1: continuing to celebrate Black History Month, my guest represents the
Speaker 1: very best of equity and conclusion with his life's work
Speaker 1: of empowering undeserved communities through theater, arts, and more. He's
Speaker 1: a playwright, director, teacher, mentor, the executive director of the
Speaker 1: award winning Shant's Repertory Theater and my longtime friend mister
Speaker 1: Samuel Harps. Samuel, thank you so much for taking the
Speaker 1: time and joining us today.
Speaker 2: So glad to be you've been looking forward to it, Frank.
Speaker 2: You know I was thinking earlier. I've known you for
Speaker 2: over thirty years. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, it's it's pretty amazing when you stop
Speaker 1: to think about it. How time does fly? So I
Speaker 1: know you. But let's assume people in our listening audience
Speaker 1: don't tell us a little bit about yourself, your background,
Speaker 1: and how you came to where you are today.
Speaker 2: Okay, kind of brief, but I've been in Rockland County,
Speaker 2: I guess you know, about thirty five years. I'm a transplant.
Speaker 2: My sisters and I were raised in a military family,
Speaker 2: so We traveled around quite a bit, you know, and
Speaker 2: finally settled in the Norfolk Tywood area north of Virginia.
Speaker 2: And I came to New York in nineteen eighty eight
Speaker 2: on an internship at New Dramatists, right next door to
Speaker 2: the Actors Studio, So quite fortunate there and that was
Speaker 2: my start. Fell in love with to Rocklander, who kind
Speaker 2: of brought me up to nyactin, fell in love with nyacting.
Speaker 2: When we broke up, I decided to stay. It's a
Speaker 2: great community and I'm happy to be here. At our
Speaker 2: youth theater about twenty two years ago up in Havistraw,
Speaker 2: which was a mentorship we kind of got the kids
Speaker 2: who didn't get cast in the really big high school
Speaker 2: and junior high school productions. They were starting to have,
Speaker 2: you know, guys and dolls and so on and so forth,
Speaker 2: and we found ourselves in the community of community theaters
Speaker 2: that were only doing guys and dolls and damn Yankees,
Speaker 2: but they weren't doing new works by African American Latinos
Speaker 2: or anyone else for that matter. So we were kind
Speaker 2: of like the what do you call it, the small
Speaker 2: fish in the big pond or whatever that metaphor is yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, Samuel, this is so important too. As I
Speaker 1: mentioned in the thing with the struggle against DEI, I mean,
Speaker 1: you're talking about inclusion, equity, being equal, not better, but
Speaker 1: certainly not less, okay, and being included. And I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about in more detail as
Speaker 1: our conversation continues, but I want to find it and
Speaker 1: get a little bit more into Samuel, what drew you
Speaker 1: to the theater? You mentioned you were next to it,
Speaker 1: but what was it about theater that grabbed you?
Speaker 2: You know, a great question, and I love when people
Speaker 2: ask that in different variations. But I came about kind
Speaker 2: of late in the game. I mean again, I was
Speaker 2: we were in Germany doing most of the height of
Speaker 2: the civil rights movement, just kicking off, so you know,
Speaker 2: we kind of looked at I wanted to be Jimmy
Speaker 2: hendrick Man or Jim Morrison, so I had to you know.
Speaker 2: And on the other side of that the Temptations and
Speaker 2: Smoking Robinson, so I was like right back in the middle.
Speaker 2: And music, as always is what kind of bridged all races.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I know many groups you know
Speaker 2: that are frost Slining Family Stone and so on, and
Speaker 2: so forth. But with being in Germany, and I come
Speaker 2: from a military family all the way back to the
Speaker 2: Civil War. Black men in my family have fought in wars.
Speaker 2: My father went to Korea Vietnam twice. He said he
Speaker 2: wasn't finished the first time, so he decided to go back.
Speaker 2: I have cousins, two uncles, one that died in Vietnam.
Speaker 2: Both my sisters are military, one fought in Kuwait, the
Speaker 2: other in Afghanistan. Myself, I'm a veteran, very patriotic family,
Speaker 2: which sounds to some people like an oxymorn. A black
Speaker 2: person is patriotic, But black people built this place, man,
Speaker 2: We're just as patriotic as anyone else, probably more so.
Speaker 2: You know. Honestly, I joined the military because I just
Speaker 2: got bored with college. And you know, I was in
Speaker 2: the middle of the dream beferred. You know, I was
Speaker 2: right at my teen years when Woodstock was going on.
Speaker 2: They were dancing and marching in the streets. But again,
Speaker 2: I came about here at thirteen fourteen from a different
Speaker 2: perspective of America, you know, and in Germany, being black,
Speaker 2: the only racism I felt was being an American. They
Speaker 2: were Chinese classmates, Italians, you know, Jewish across the board,
Speaker 2: so I just thought I was American. That was it,
Speaker 2: except for German girls and German boys. The young ones
Speaker 2: when we got into the small towns wanted to rub
Speaker 2: to see if this black actually rubbed off. But it wasn't.
Speaker 1: That happened to me in China. I know that actually
Speaker 1: does happen, and it's not. It's not a say racist thing.
Speaker 1: They don't think you're so unusual. They don't see people, man.
Speaker 2: I mean it was nineteen sixty three, so a lot
Speaker 2: of these kids had never seen a black person. So
Speaker 2: they were just like, it's curiosity, not racism. Maybe curiosity
Speaker 2: eighty percent to me, but who knows. Basically I took
Speaker 2: it as being curiosity. I did as well. If it
Speaker 2: really rubbed off, you know, it doesn't, except for when
Speaker 2: I really scrub hard, when I'd take in a shower,
Speaker 2: it does come just a little bit. But then coming
Speaker 2: to America again, with all of that, we were bust.
Speaker 2: We lived right in the middle of a white community
Speaker 2: because military bases in the Tiword area are close to
Speaker 2: pretty affluent white communities. So my sisters and I were
Speaker 2: actually busted from a white community to a black school
Speaker 2: and we were there for the first time at an
Speaker 2: all black school, and we were I was dumbfounded. I
Speaker 2: mean I again, I looked like Jimmy Hendrix at the
Speaker 2: time at fourteen, you know, my hair stood in my
Speaker 2: afro like this. I had an afro like that. But
Speaker 2: then it kind of like did that you know, headbands
Speaker 2: and you know beat it vests. So I was an
Speaker 2: odd ball, you know, in a place where I should
Speaker 2: have been seen as one of my peers. But I
Speaker 2: had to get into my first fight because a brother
Speaker 2: told me he wanted to show me how to be
Speaker 2: a brother, you know, because there's a walk to it,
Speaker 2: there's a talk to it, there's a rhythm to being black.
Speaker 2: And if you don't know what that rhythm is, you know,
Speaker 2: not only do what I be accepted, you can get
Speaker 2: your ass with. I'm being very friends. So yeah, so
Speaker 2: it was it was an interesting time. You know. I
Speaker 2: was a surf you know, as well as a guy
Speaker 2: who was really good at basketball, you know, so it
Speaker 2: was just a cut between them both again, Jim Morrison,
Speaker 2: James Brown, you know Sliner, Family Stone, Lin Zeppelin, you
Speaker 2: know I. You know, my friends were diverse, you know, Chinese, African,
Speaker 2: American White the works.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much for sharing that with us, Sambuel.
Speaker 1: In all the years that I've known you too, I
Speaker 1: didn't know that part of you, So I really appreciate
Speaker 1: you sharing with it. And I don't want to make
Speaker 1: this entirely about the E because I want to talk
Speaker 1: about you. Got some new work, and I promise we're
Speaker 1: going to devote some time to that. Two new things
Speaker 1: coming up in February, and we are going to devote
Speaker 1: some time to that. But I think this is an
Speaker 1: important conversation to have again, especially in light of what's
Speaker 1: going on today. So a person with your perspective, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's interesting and I'm quote unquote Italian American and
Speaker 1: Sicilian American, and my family's only been here two generations,
Speaker 1: and yet people will look at me as you know,
Speaker 1: and your family has been here for multiple generations and
Speaker 1: served as my father served in World War Two, your
Speaker 1: family has served forever. How does it make you feel
Speaker 1: when you hear somebody say, well, you know, Trump certainly.
Speaker 1: And I have something out on my blog talk Frank,
Speaker 1: as well as the Nyak News and Views published about
Speaker 1: this whole situation, and it's just so unfortunate that, you know,
Speaker 1: the recent mid air collision with the president, instead of
Speaker 1: bringing people together through healing and compassion, suggests that this
Speaker 1: was caused by dei, in other words, incompetent people who
Speaker 1: are only there because they were given a break to
Speaker 1: get there. It's insulting to me. It must be abhorrent
Speaker 1: to somebody like you whose family has given so much
Speaker 1: to this country.
Speaker 2: What is it think about just that point, just for
Speaker 2: a moment, we had the coldest month of the year
Speaker 2: and the shortest month of the year. African American History
Speaker 2: Months was started in nineteen twenty six as African American Week,
Speaker 2: okay a week, and we fought from nineteen twenty sixteen
Speaker 2: thirty two to get that week. Now, all these years later,
Speaker 2: just the thought of eliminating it, just the thought is insane. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's totally insane. I mean, I February for the last
Speaker 2: ten years, Frank has first of all. African American History
Speaker 2: Month in general has gone through its own incarnations. Okay.
Speaker 2: I taught in the schools here for a while, and
Speaker 2: it used to most of the teenagers used to dread
Speaker 2: it because what we saw was Okay, they suffered, they overcame,
Speaker 2: they suffered again, Martin Luther King, and it was over, okay,
Speaker 2: But they didn't talk about the struggles to fight the strikes,
Speaker 2: the history of African Americans, the history. Okay, you know
Speaker 2: the penagen you know the first heart surgeon, you know
Speaker 2: the person, the people who built the White House and
Speaker 2: Washington d C. Okay, they started Black universities Hbasus, which
Speaker 2: I'm a graduate of. Those are the stories that the
Speaker 2: kids did not get, which led me to writing the
Speaker 2: stories that I actually write on African American lessons on history,
Speaker 2: historical events and figures, because these are stories that people
Speaker 2: did not know about. Their first black All Black Theater
Speaker 2: company was created in Manhattan in eighteen twenty one. Never
Speaker 2: heard of it. My daughter gave me an ancestry kit
Speaker 2: eight years ago for my sixtieth birthday. I had never
Speaker 2: considered looking up even past my father, which is what
Speaker 2: led me to finding out about having family members that
Speaker 2: fought and said they weren't allowed to carry a gun
Speaker 2: when my father fought in Korea. When he fought in Korea,
Speaker 2: they weren't first sending African Americans because they weren't allowed
Speaker 2: to carry guns. This is in Korea, in the fifties
Speaker 2: and then they allowed it to happen because they started
Speaker 2: to run out of white bodies to put in the
Speaker 2: front line. Okay, so then people ask me how it
Speaker 2: feels to actually consider getting it a Black History Month. Again,
Speaker 2: I say redundantly, the coldest and the shortest month of
Speaker 2: the year, just to even think about it. TI, I
Speaker 2: go both ways. And with that, you know, what does
Speaker 2: that mean? We want? America has been trying to level
Speaker 2: the playing field for since the reconstruction. They just can't
Speaker 2: figure out why and how. Okay, forty acres in the
Speaker 2: mule never got it. Social Security, you know, there was
Speaker 2: a I'm going to talk to you to death answer, right,
Speaker 2: but no.
Speaker 1: It is Sam, I and my audience. I'm quiet, which
Speaker 1: means I'm listening intently. I believe they are too.
Speaker 2: Please continue, Sam, Please see this the Okay, from an
Speaker 2: African American perspective, there was a quota in Mississippi. They
Speaker 2: had no black firefighters in a town that was seventy
Speaker 2: eight percent black Southern Mississippi. Wow, So they decided, okay,
Speaker 2: we want to get more blacks. And this is in
Speaker 2: the eighties. This is not this is not ancient history.
Speaker 2: We want to try to get more blacks as firemen.
Speaker 2: So they had a lot of black African Americans. I'm
Speaker 2: going to use black throughout to come in and take
Speaker 2: the tests so they can level the playing field. And
Speaker 2: what they did, they leveled the playing field. Years later
Speaker 2: there were many more African Americans. But then two of
Speaker 2: the brothers that took this test found out that they
Speaker 2: lowered the standards on the test to feel this quote. Okay,
Speaker 2: so DU's one thing, but wouldn't you want to take
Speaker 2: the same tests as these other guys the other fireman?
Speaker 1: Absolutely in fairness, absolutely an excellent point to make.
Speaker 2: So what did they say by lowering? And they're saying
Speaker 2: already that you're not good enough, smart enough, strong enough,
Speaker 2: which they've been saying since, you know, forever, since Bear
Speaker 2: Bryant decided to get some black men on his team.
Speaker 2: You know, that was what we were good for, lifting, running, jumping,
Speaker 2: Jackie Robinson, the works. But you're just not smart enough.
Speaker 2: We couldn't even be quarterbacks on the football field. It's
Speaker 2: just not just not smart enough. How many black coaches
Speaker 2: were there in basketball? None for many years until recently,
Speaker 2: you know, in the sixties, Bill Russell's like I'm gonna do.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna coach because I'm the better player. Okay, but
Speaker 2: these are the things that that DEI had that comes
Speaker 2: around to make it such an insult to say that
Speaker 2: you got and it's still saying d I itself is
Speaker 2: saying you're not good enough, you know, to actually be here.
Speaker 2: Of course, most people see it as leveling the playing field,
Speaker 2: but how do you do that again? One hundred and
Speaker 2: how many years eighteen sixty five, two hundred years or so,
Speaker 2: trying to level the playing field, and this guy wants
Speaker 2: to say, yeah, no, let's stop that.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, because you know, DEI does have a function,
Speaker 1: I think, and it's a deep issue and one I'm
Speaker 1: sure we could debate for more than the hour that
Speaker 1: we have for this program. But certainly, and we mentioned
Speaker 1: the term without making it sound try of leveling the
Speaker 1: playing field because the field is not level. For example,
Speaker 1: education within poorer communities does not equal the education in
Speaker 1: the more wealthy communities. And let's attach the colors associated
Speaker 1: with that, the black communities versus the white community. So DEI,
Speaker 1: in an effort to say, well, look, we have to
Speaker 1: skew it. It's like in the old days, we remember
Speaker 1: when teachers used to mark on a curve. That's something
Speaker 1: that's kind of disappeared a little bit. But yet it
Speaker 1: had a function to bring everyone together, okay, along and
Speaker 1: along the same path. So DEI at least had a
Speaker 1: function to at least acknowledge say, well, yeah, the white
Speaker 1: kid does have an advantage because he did go to
Speaker 1: a better school, and that can be proven. You're a Rocklander.
Speaker 1: And Joe Allen made a film of it. Two schools
Speaker 1: in Hillburn about black kids and white kids, and the
Speaker 1: black kids include Native American kids and white kids went
Speaker 1: to two completely different schools and so far as even
Speaker 1: one school had indoor plumbing in a gymnasium where the others,
Speaker 1: you know, that was the white school. The black school
Speaker 1: had an outhouse, et cetera. So which one is easier
Speaker 1: to learn in where you learn better?
Speaker 2: And it's still it's still like that.
Speaker 1: So how do we And again maybe this is a
Speaker 1: rhetorical question, Samuel, but that's why he invited you, because
Speaker 1: you and I can have these kind of discussions. Where
Speaker 1: where do where do we bring it to a point
Speaker 1: where we say that it is enough, it's it must
Speaker 1: be solely merit and can you hear that you and
Speaker 1: everybody wants to be known that they accomplish things by
Speaker 1: their own merit. But when do we reach that?
Speaker 2: How? I mean, how do we reach The first thing?
Speaker 2: First is you could you could change the laws frame. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the changing logs is easy, it's writing on paper. But
Speaker 2: you cannot change the way people think. That takes lifetimes.
Speaker 2: We're still trying to figure out the Jesus thing, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, so, I mean, you know, how do you
Speaker 2: the playing field? It may sound pessimistic, but again, and
Speaker 2: since slavery, I mean, since reconstruction, since they said you
Speaker 2: are free, they've been trying to level the playing field
Speaker 2: in America. Okay, in Europe, a lot of you know,
Speaker 2: James Baldwin and Josephine Baker and Richard Wright, Langston's Hughes,
Speaker 2: they went to Paris for that very reason, because the
Speaker 2: playing they they're seen as a human being. Here we're
Speaker 2: still seeing as a subculture, a sub human being. Not
Speaker 2: just culturally, but you have a lot of people that
Speaker 2: literally think are president being one that you just are inferior.
Speaker 2: You just don't quite have it. Okay, you dump that
Speaker 2: on a people for four hundred years, they start to
Speaker 2: believe that I would go into schools as a special
Speaker 2: education teacher and have kids that were put in special
Speaker 2: ed before they took a test to be put in
Speaker 2: special ed because they come in behind the eight ball. Okay,
Speaker 2: they come in and you're not smart enough. So you're
Speaker 2: sitting in the classroom already knowing that you're not smart
Speaker 2: enough than the white guy next to you with red
Speaker 2: hair and blue eyes. You already know that intuitively, so
Speaker 2: you're gonna try it just a little less, and you're
Speaker 2: going to be very angry with the teacher, just like
Speaker 2: everyone's angry with the government for that same reason. The
Speaker 2: government is our school teacher, is our math teacher, our
Speaker 2: social studies teacher, okay. And he's talking. And when they
Speaker 2: start talking about taking away the history out of the
Speaker 2: history books, it was never there. Okay. So you can't
Speaker 2: talk about race. Okay, you can not talk about race
Speaker 2: in America as long as you got black and white.
Speaker 2: And this is a black man talking, you know. But
Speaker 2: I'm one amongst many to have this feeling of just
Speaker 2: still not being seen. The first thing in the world
Speaker 2: for any person is to not feel seen, especially in
Speaker 2: America with the blood that has been shed on this country.
Speaker 2: Martin Luther King, you know, he fought for what we
Speaker 2: got in the sixties, but then it got turned around.
Speaker 2: It was worse after George Floyd than it was in
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine. Man, worse after George Floyd. Well, we
Speaker 2: watched the man for what nine minutes with his head
Speaker 2: on the cement, with the guys you know, foot in
Speaker 2: this roAP, screaming for his mom. It took things like
Speaker 2: that to shake America and go, wow, that's wrong. But
Speaker 2: then what do you do about it?
Speaker 1: It happened again, whether recently in New York State with
Speaker 1: the prison guards. We saw, I think everyone saw, and
Speaker 1: everyone was revolted by that horrible beating. But yet it
Speaker 1: happened again.
Speaker 2: And it will. I still to this day in Rockland County,
Speaker 2: to this day get stopped at least twice a year
Speaker 2: for DWB in Rockland County. The street I live on,
Speaker 2: I get stopped eight blocks from the street I live
Speaker 2: on to find out. First they say, of course, you're
Speaker 2: not wearing your seatbelt, which is no way I'm knowing,
Speaker 2: But they just s he's just don't seem right around here.
Speaker 2: And that's back to my philosophy. Of you can change
Speaker 2: the laws, which can't change the way people think. And
Speaker 2: that's not a pessimistic view, that's just my realism of it. Okay,
Speaker 2: one of the ways. And I think it's a perfect segue.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to talk to you about mentorship because
Speaker 1: I know that's an important element. But first let's go
Speaker 1: back who in your life has provided mentorship and why
Speaker 1: is it important and who can we can we look
Speaker 1: to for that, particularly again in the minority community, as
Speaker 1: you hear it over and over again, we need more
Speaker 1: powerful role models, We need mentors. So talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about who some of yours were, are, why and
Speaker 1: what importance that role plays in every community.
Speaker 2: Right. My mentor when that is coming up, was a
Speaker 2: black man from Richmond, Virginia named Arthur Adams. Reason being
Speaker 2: because Arthur ash was a two man. Okay, of course
Speaker 2: you have your Jackie Robinson's and so on and so forth,
Speaker 2: but he was a person I looked up to. My mentor,
Speaker 2: of course was my father, every that's the obvious, but
Speaker 2: the person that I looked up to wanted to inspire
Speaker 2: to be, not because I want to play tennis, but
Speaker 2: the way he carried himself. Do we dress. You know,
Speaker 2: he walked with a certain a certain bit of class
Speaker 2: that I wanted to capture. That's who I wanted to be.
Speaker 2: So when I went into in particular theater, but teaching
Speaker 2: in general, the black man, I wanted them to see
Speaker 2: a black man who was very sure of himself of
Speaker 2: who he is. And then if you get self assurance,
Speaker 2: this is who I am, and I'm proud of that.
Speaker 2: And there's no outside forces that can say, hey, he's
Speaker 2: not good enough. If he knows who he is, he
Speaker 2: doesn't have to ask those questions of anyone, including himself.
Speaker 2: Arthur asked, gave me that. I only met him once
Speaker 2: and never talked to him. I just shook his hand
Speaker 2: because he came to our school, you know. But I
Speaker 2: in my head it was always I want to be
Speaker 2: like that, not Muhammad ar Lee. Are the role models
Speaker 2: for the last thirty five years, or actually I'm going
Speaker 2: to go further back forty years for African Americans have
Speaker 2: been our athletes and our rappers, not the musicians. Of course,
Speaker 2: I want to be Stevie Wonder and as I pointed
Speaker 2: out earlier, I'm going to be Jimmy Hendrix. But I
Speaker 2: do remember in junior high school, a social study teacher
Speaker 2: telling me that I should work on my jump shot
Speaker 2: because he felt that was probably the only opportunity that
Speaker 2: I might have, you know, and I had been right
Speaker 2: in the journal, my journals since I was nine years old.
Speaker 2: And if it weren't for an English teacher, that counteracted
Speaker 2: what he was saying, telling me, a white English teacher,
Speaker 2: you can be anything you want. You know, you like
Speaker 2: to write. Writing is power. That led me to theater.
Speaker 2: The pen is power, you know. So that's my mentor
Speaker 2: and the person I looked up to, and that's what
Speaker 2: I want to give out to our kids, that you
Speaker 2: can be something. You don't have to work on your
Speaker 2: jump shot, you know, you don't have to go out
Speaker 2: to football, you don't have to be a rapper. But
Speaker 2: these are the person people they looked up to. Real quick.
Speaker 2: I my first wife and I were tutors in bedsty
Speaker 2: very quick, very quick.
Speaker 1: So please take that we have time. Please got this.
Speaker 2: And there was there was there were kids that used
Speaker 2: to hang out. And there was a little girl that
Speaker 2: we were walking her home twelve years old. She got
Speaker 2: to her building and my wife and I, we were
Speaker 2: not New Yorkers. My wife's from She was from Detroit
Speaker 2: and I'm from the South. Basically I moved here from Atlanta.
Speaker 2: And she stopped us about a block and a half
Speaker 2: from her house and says, okay, we have to wait.
Speaker 2: We can't, we can't go in yet. And said, well
Speaker 2: why not, Well because we don't. We just lived there.
Speaker 2: We don't own the building. Buildings run by those guys
Speaker 2: are standing at the front. Okay, and my wife has
Speaker 2: a lot of mouth. She goes up, I'm going to
Speaker 2: walk through here. The guy stops her, both grabs her
Speaker 2: body arm and says, you gotta wait. You know, the
Speaker 2: little girl is right, you can't come into this building
Speaker 2: because we run this building, and that's the drug dealers.
Speaker 2: And that was a kid, her brother Raheem. Never forget
Speaker 2: this kid who was one of the smartest kids, not
Speaker 2: just street smart, books smart. He was reading Shakespeare, he
Speaker 2: was reading Chilcer, you know, he was reading w de Bus.
Speaker 2: He was really smart. But he's still on the corner.
Speaker 2: And he didn't sell crack. He sold the vows that
Speaker 2: crack came in back to the guys and he picked
Speaker 2: him up off the street. He has a lot of
Speaker 2: money that's thick thick, a lot of money. And I'm
Speaker 2: telling this kid every day, get a real job, get
Speaker 2: an education. This is in the eighties, you know, go
Speaker 2: to school. He said. Mister Harp's how much money you
Speaker 2: got in your part right now? You know, reaching my pocket,
Speaker 2: put out my easily thirteen dollars he said. You see
Speaker 2: this right here, eighty one hundred dollars I made this
Speaker 2: week for picking up valves and taking them back to them.
Speaker 2: And that little girl is right. You can get hurt
Speaker 2: around here. That's what that's what I inspire to be.
Speaker 2: Because they're riding around and Cadillacs with no job. They
Speaker 2: riding around and they got gold and they got chained
Speaker 2: with no jobs. And you're telling this kid to go
Speaker 2: to school for four years to be something. Okay, that's
Speaker 2: not going to take you or maybe take you somewhere.
Speaker 2: So it takes a very special human, meaning a very
Speaker 2: special black person to be an American, a black American
Speaker 2: in this country takes something extremely special. Our figures are
Speaker 2: still our sports figures, you know, but there it's a turnaround.
Speaker 2: Since the brother said I'm not gonna when he kneeled
Speaker 2: during the pandemic, Okay, uh, Colin Kaepernet and said, I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna I'm not gonna raise my hand to the
Speaker 2: flat because of the way we're being treated. Okay, that's
Speaker 2: the kind of role models we need to see. But
Speaker 2: people see that as dangerous. But he made a statement.
Speaker 2: But what happens gets banned for football, got a mean
Speaker 2: right on can run and throw. He could have easily
Speaker 2: been something we're not going to We're not going to
Speaker 2: tolerate that in America. We still were not going to
Speaker 2: tolerate in America. That's why we got seventy eight men
Speaker 2: of color in our prisons, while we have fifty eight
Speaker 2: percent in colleges. We got ten percent of the You know,
Speaker 2: Harvard University, if you're sitting in the cafeteria and someone
Speaker 2: really does not think you belong there, they'll call authorities.
Speaker 2: It's still happening. Happened to a young girl last year,
Speaker 2: Harvard student, junior, sitting in just a common area, but
Speaker 2: someone said she doesn't belong here and called authorities, and
Speaker 2: authorities came and ask her do you belong here? Yes,
Speaker 2: I belong here's my ID and that's overweight. But what
Speaker 2: did they do to that girl? It scarred her for
Speaker 2: a while. She didn't go to an HBAH group like
Speaker 2: I did. Howard is getting that recognition now. But where
Speaker 2: are those schools? Jackson State where Dion Sanders was the
Speaker 2: coach when he went down there, they did not have
Speaker 2: indoor plumber in their practice facility, didn't have indoors. They
Speaker 2: couldn't take showers at Jackson State couldn't take showers because
Speaker 2: they didn't have and not in the town that the
Speaker 2: school is in. This is a historically black university that
Speaker 2: was built in eighteen eighty nine. They don't have They
Speaker 2: couldn't take a shower because they didn't have facilities. So
Speaker 2: he was there for two years. He went there with
Speaker 2: a two and nine record. The year two years after
Speaker 2: he's there, when he leaves, they win the CIAA Championship. Because,
Speaker 2: like he says, people have their knocks on Dion, but
Speaker 2: he turned them into men, not into football players. He
Speaker 2: turned them into men. No one comes in. First of all,
Speaker 2: he got the town because he's doing Dion Sanders to
Speaker 2: put plumbing in there. It was a shame and all
Speaker 2: he had to do was say something and the putting
Speaker 2: in the newspaper. But it's been like that for you
Speaker 2: know what, like two years because it went out and
Speaker 2: they just didn't think to fix it because it's a
Speaker 2: black college. It's their thing. Yeah, and Jackson, Mississippi is
Speaker 2: predominantly black. Yes, so maybe we should have had the
Speaker 2: plumbing fixed, you know, out there on the football field, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, don't touch down to the losing, you know.
Speaker 2: But it took a Dion Sanders because he's loudmouthed in
Speaker 2: a good way and he gets things done. Then he
Speaker 2: goes to Colorado State and they pay him millions and
Speaker 2: same thing. He's changing him into men.
Speaker 1: So it's the culture. How do we get that culture
Speaker 1: and the culture of success into the black communities? What
Speaker 1: really concerns me? And again you mentioned some statistics, and
Speaker 1: if you look at the statistics in terms of certainly
Speaker 1: gun violence, it's epidemic in the black communities and it's
Speaker 1: a difficult subject. A lot of people don't want to
Speaker 1: touch it. How do we deal with it? What can
Speaker 1: we do? What kind of message can we get into
Speaker 1: the communities, What kind of effective changes can we make
Speaker 1: to deal with this terrible Blight's awful every every day
Speaker 1: on the news, young eight year of nine year old kids,
Speaker 1: and I don't have to elaborate longer that we all
Speaker 1: know that what can we do.
Speaker 2: We have a lot of community leaders, Frank, that are
Speaker 2: in the communities just doing what what they can. But
Speaker 2: the kid I just talked about, Raheem, how do you
Speaker 2: tell him? Really? You know, I mean, you know this
Speaker 2: is generational. You know, of course his dad I'm going
Speaker 2: to choose a guy. This guy, you know his dad
Speaker 2: was in prison. Is that his grandfather was in prison.
Speaker 2: So he had no role models except for the guys
Speaker 2: that are really making the money in them. And it's
Speaker 2: really it's really cut through its survival out there, and
Speaker 2: it's just tough. It's even tough now, Frank, to tell
Speaker 2: a kid to get a real job. What is a
Speaker 2: real job? You know, to eighteen year old, you know,
Speaker 2: to be a rapper or to be Lebron James is
Speaker 2: the aspiration that's it's faded a little bit since, you know,
Speaker 2: but it's still the aspirations of a lot of young
Speaker 2: black men because you see the flash, you see the gold,
Speaker 2: you know, and it's it's out there and you know,
Speaker 2: I'm chasing that, you know, I mean four years and
Speaker 2: then eight just to be a doctor and then living
Speaker 2: in a country that's telling you, you.
Speaker 1: Know, it's still not good enough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not You're not good enough, you know. And
Speaker 2: d E I again it's it's a measure, and it's
Speaker 2: a good one, like Social Security was, like like blue
Speaker 2: stamps and all those things were. But you know, it's
Speaker 2: still saying the same thing d I is saying, you know,
Speaker 2: basically not good enough. You know. Uh, And I understand
Speaker 2: it that it needs to be in place. But again,
Speaker 2: look at the numbers again, you know what has what
Speaker 2: has changed? It's Black History Month that really makes me
Speaker 2: start to actually hone in and really look at it.
Speaker 2: I get very popularly doing Black History Month because I
Speaker 2: do historical pieces. People called me to give me money
Speaker 2: doing Black History Month because I have respectfully very liberal
Speaker 2: white friends that the only time they get a chance
Speaker 2: to really, really, really really make a difference is find
Speaker 2: the one black person they know and throw some money
Speaker 2: out of I know that sounds sad because you know,
Speaker 2: and I know a lot of them are going to listen.
Speaker 2: But those that are, you know, that should feel bad
Speaker 2: about it, should because I feel great about it. We
Speaker 2: get that one month, okay, to say black people have
Speaker 2: made a difference in our country, in our history. I
Speaker 2: have a T shirt that a kid gave me that says,
Speaker 2: Black history is everybody's history, and that is very true.
Speaker 2: We've been here for since they're Quakers, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 1: That's why I call it sixteen nineteen when the first
Speaker 1: game to Virginia. Yeah, it's like four hundred plus years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're not we're not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know. I sometimes as I got older, I sometimes
Speaker 2: sound bitter, which I'm not. Man. I mean, I love
Speaker 2: this country, Okay, I really do. And I did not
Speaker 2: vote for Obama because he was black. I voted for
Speaker 2: him because he was the right person. Okay. I voted
Speaker 2: for Hillary for the same reason. She's the right person.
Speaker 2: I voted for Kamala for the same reason because she's
Speaker 2: the right person. Even though she's a d high, she
Speaker 2: was the right person for the job. Interesting. Interesting, and
Speaker 2: it is a slight to say dee I.
Speaker 1: Oh, they use they use it as such, certainly they yes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, taking the history out of the history books, that's
Speaker 2: not even. The history is not even. And there we
Speaker 2: can't teach we can't teach race in the country that
Speaker 2: is built on race. You know. Here's here's a Kumbay
Speaker 2: our moment. We are really of the very same thing
Speaker 2: if you strip away this cover as we were put here,
Speaker 2: but really the same thing, the exact same thing. We
Speaker 2: have aspirations, we love, we fear, we hate, Okay, we
Speaker 2: have that. We're all exactly the same, except for we
Speaker 2: are shelled in very different colors. Okay. And that's the
Speaker 2: only thing that separates us. That's the irony here, the
Speaker 2: only thing that separates us, you know. And the reason
Speaker 2: and it's so difficult is we don't see each other
Speaker 2: as the same. We see each other as different. And
Speaker 2: here's that Kumba moment. If we don't start to see
Speaker 2: ourselves and explore and really celebrate our differences, which we've
Speaker 2: been trying to do, you know, you know, black slow,
Speaker 2: white music, white those black music, what is you know,
Speaker 2: the works, you know. But until we really say that's
Speaker 2: my brother there, we're one, that's the solution. And it's
Speaker 2: not easy. Again, we're still trying to figure out, you know,
Speaker 2: my God's bigger than yours, you know, and that's fundamental.
Speaker 2: You know, we're still doing the most primitive things known
Speaker 2: to humankind. War How primitive is that?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's it's amazing. The what I talk
Speaker 2: about is amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it makes you wonder, is that is that
Speaker 1: truly the human experience? You know? That that that it's
Speaker 1: always been with us, It'll always be with us. I mean,
Speaker 1: we we we like to think sublime thoughts and enlightenment
Speaker 1: and we work towards that goal. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I'll ever get there. Maybe some do. But as a
Speaker 1: race perhaps perhaps.
Speaker 2: Right and it does sound grim, but I you know,
Speaker 2: we've made some leaps and bounds, needless to say, but
Speaker 2: we haven't changed the way we think about God and
Speaker 2: millennial you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, and every time somebody tries too, they get
Speaker 1: they usually persecute and they still.
Speaker 2: Do you know. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: It's an amazing thing to talk about. Man. I'm glad
Speaker 2: you're pulling this stuff out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this has been absolutely wonderful. And again we could
Speaker 1: keep going and we're not done yet, but I want
Speaker 1: to talk about your work. We take a quick break,
Speaker 1: and I know you got two new things in the
Speaker 1: works coming up in February, the Death of King shot
Speaker 1: Away the birth of the African Growth Theater that's on
Speaker 1: February thirteenth, and then you have the Spirit of Truth,
Speaker 1: a new play directed by Melhancock, and that's on February
Speaker 1: twenty seventh. I want to talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the germination of those plays of Well Won, the history
Speaker 1: and the creation of the play, all of that more
Speaker 1: right after these brief commercial messages. Okay, so you don't
Speaker 1: go away, Sam yet, please yet, And of course our
Speaker 1: audience don't go anywhere yet. This conversation has been fantastic.
Speaker 1: This is Being Frank. We're the only way to be
Speaker 1: is Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono. My very special
Speaker 1: guest is playwright, mentor, and so much more. Mister Samuel
Speaker 1: Harps will be right back with more after these brief
Speaker 1: commercial messages.
Speaker 2: Hudson Riverradio dot com. Hudson River Radio dot com.
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Speaker 2: This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 3: This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation Podcast. Thanks
Speaker 1: for sticking with us. I'm your host, Frank Lebono. Our engineer,
Speaker 1: as we all know, is mister Neil Richter. A very
Speaker 1: special guest is playwright, writer, director, Mister Samuel Harps. You know,
Speaker 1: we bring our audience a fresh topic just about every
Speaker 1: week and stream from Hudson River Radio located in beautiful
Speaker 1: and historic Stony Point, New York. But remember, you can
Speaker 1: catch Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts like Apple, Spotify,
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and all the others. Remember where archives, so you
Speaker 1: can listen to any of our programs anytime you like.
Speaker 1: Find the link to Being Frank on the Hudson River
Speaker 1: Radio Facebook page or at our website Hudsonriverradio dot com.
Speaker 1: Just click and you're there. All right, Samuel, Back to
Speaker 1: our conversation. First half was absolutely great, But I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit more about your work. It's
Speaker 1: relative to our conversation as you tend to focus, and
Speaker 1: it's interesting you tend to focus a little bit more
Speaker 1: on lesser known figures and events in your work. Why
Speaker 1: is that important to you? And then bring us to
Speaker 1: the two works that I had mentioned before the break,
Speaker 1: we'll talk about them in some detail. Why is it
Speaker 1: important to feature lesser known people, artists and their work.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, of course for that very reason, Frank, because
Speaker 2: they're lesser or not known, and they also prized me,
Speaker 2: like I was saying earlier, I got an ancestry about
Speaker 2: eight years ago, and traditionally for February I would do
Speaker 2: a play for Black History Month, and this year it's
Speaker 2: no different. So it was just stuff that people just
Speaker 2: don't know about, never hear, you know, didn't get in
Speaker 2: there in their history books. So the playover at Rockland
Speaker 2: Community College, The Death of King shot away. As I
Speaker 2: said earlier, it's about the first black theater company and
Speaker 2: the first black theater company to do othello in the
Speaker 2: black man in the title role, which at that point
Speaker 2: was unheard of, even though of course a fellow is
Speaker 2: a black man.
Speaker 1: And then again more irony that people read this, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, they would rather put a white man in
Speaker 1: black face. That didn't actually get a black actor.
Speaker 2: It's extraordinary for years, very interesting piece uh two story
Speaker 2: again and right around the corner from where the theater
Speaker 2: was created, the Park Theater was doing a fellow with
Speaker 2: a white and black face. So it was a constant feud,
Speaker 2: which is the subtext of the play to to life.
Speaker 2: The Death of King Shadowy was the name of the theater.
Speaker 2: Company was started by a playwright, William Brown, and William
Speaker 2: Brown wrote a play called the drama of King Shadowy.
Speaker 2: But the his theater was firebomb three times in the
Speaker 2: three years that they were around, and in the last
Speaker 2: fire his play was burnt and it was never found.
Speaker 2: So it's a tragedy but with a little a little
Speaker 2: bit of happeness in it. A very intriguing story again,
Speaker 2: one that I did not know existed. And every time
Speaker 2: I looked through history now, and history now is at
Speaker 2: our fingertips, are things like Google and you know, Wikipedia,
Speaker 2: so many others. The Burning of New York, which we did,
Speaker 2: was a true story. You know, it happened down on
Speaker 2: Wall Street where thirty eight people were hanged during a
Speaker 2: Black rebellion, and there's been others. The other play across
Speaker 2: the river at Bethany Arts Community is Answered Journal Truth,
Speaker 2: but it focuses on her life before she was the
Speaker 2: iconic Sojourner Truth that we know. It's dealing with the
Speaker 2: period in eighteen thirty four when she was got involved
Speaker 2: with a leader by the name of Matthias, the prophet Matthias,
Speaker 2: and it happened in the village of sing Singh. And
Speaker 2: I was commissioned by the historian over at a Astining
Speaker 2: to do this play incredible piece, man, I never you
Speaker 2: would not believe it. I mean I had to actually
Speaker 2: tone it down some. I mean, this guy was a
Speaker 2: cult leader in eighteen thirties, Robert Matthias, who had run
Speaker 2: into the Mormon leader myth out West, came to New
Speaker 2: York to Five Points and he was just one of
Speaker 2: those street corner preachers in Five Points. And so join
Speaker 2: a truth who was a very religious person. Her name
Speaker 2: was Isabella at the time in her twenties. She got
Speaker 2: involved with him and worked for him, and she got
Speaker 2: involved with this cult that he created, and they both
Speaker 2: got implicated in poisoning one of his parishioners and court trial.
Speaker 2: Very interesting piece. Wow yeah yeah what what?
Speaker 1: What is Is there any commonality between the two works, Samuel?
Speaker 1: What do you see any.
Speaker 2: There these two Probably not at all, Frank. I mean
Speaker 2: one was a commission and uh and bringing in the
Speaker 2: uh uh shot away. We actually staged back during the
Speaker 2: pandemic and the late February for Black History Month, but
Speaker 2: the following week, of course, the pandemic. Two weeks later
Speaker 2: the pandemic hit and we were shut down and our
Speaker 2: theater at the time, even though we were at Garneville
Speaker 2: Art Center we had to fold because our theater sustained itself,
Speaker 2: of course through grants and you know, people coming through
Speaker 2: the doors. So this is like the first reincarnation of
Speaker 2: the piece. But there's no commonality other than their African
Speaker 2: American figures with stories that pretty much were less.
Speaker 1: What what what? What do you think? Then let's take
Speaker 1: each one separately? Then what would you what do you
Speaker 1: I think people should take from the death of King
Speaker 1: shot Away? What message are you trying to convey there?
Speaker 1: Or is the cast of the overall? What is it
Speaker 1: trying to convey?
Speaker 2: Again? The irony of a black man? Never Ira Aldridge
Speaker 2: later did Richard the Third, but the fact that Othello
Speaker 2: was a more and the strife in the play, the conflict,
Speaker 2: the major conflict is the fact that the theater, the
Speaker 2: bigger Shakespearean theater in the city, was doing the same
Speaker 2: play in blackface, and that was That's the core of
Speaker 2: the piece. I want people just to literally see the
Speaker 2: irony of just that first and foremost, and the fact
Speaker 2: that a theater company in eighteen twenty one, these are
Speaker 2: all three men, of course who bought the property. But
Speaker 2: he was firebomb three times. Okay, they just kept moving
Speaker 2: to a different theater and creating so that I I
Speaker 2: build it. Subtitled is Resilience and Perseverance, a story of
Speaker 2: the resilience and perseverance. Because to his craft, he continued
Speaker 2: to try to create a theater.
Speaker 1: That's the Death of King shot Away Birth of the
Speaker 1: African Grove Theater February thirteenth at seven thirty pm at
Speaker 1: the Rockland Community Cultural Arts Centers. It's open and free
Speaker 1: to the public. All right, let's go to your work
Speaker 1: that you wrote, Sam, which is up next and runs
Speaker 1: through the end of February through early March. The Spirit
Speaker 1: of Truth. Okay, what will you hope that people will
Speaker 1: take from this work? Right?
Speaker 2: Of course? I mean, of course you know I wrote
Speaker 2: both pieces.
Speaker 1: But oh yes, I'm sorry, thank you for making that clear.
Speaker 2: YEPK. But over in the River because it was a commission.
Speaker 2: It was a story still that I had never heard of.
Speaker 2: And we of course know who's the Join of Truth is.
Speaker 2: He's one of the most famous suffragists and abolitionists of
Speaker 2: that time. But again this focus is on a part
Speaker 2: of her life in the early twenties and a cult
Speaker 2: leader much like the Jim Jones is of today. He
Speaker 2: had that sort of charisma with the public. And I
Speaker 2: love the fact that it happened right here in Sing Sing,
Speaker 2: right here in Astiny, which is where the play takes place.
Speaker 2: I want people actually to look at the historical context.
Speaker 2: Like all these pieces. Black History month for me as
Speaker 2: a writer as become special because I get a chance
Speaker 2: to dig and find these untold stories, things that I
Speaker 2: had not heard of. Is always intrigued me. History I
Speaker 2: didn't give a damn about in high school or college,
Speaker 2: but suddenly again with getting an ancestry and finding out
Speaker 2: my roots and then finding out the true nature. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know that basically we are here and again the
Speaker 2: political climate always I mean, like it's a little bit
Speaker 2: of fire under my butt. You want to tell stories.
Speaker 2: It's my voice, you know, as a writer, you know,
Speaker 2: I just love the fact that history, our history, black
Speaker 2: history is so broad, covered so many categories. I was
Speaker 2: reading today in New York Times about a black opera composer,
Speaker 2: Edmund Dating, who's getting his opera staged in New Orleans
Speaker 2: for the first time, you know, And it was discovered
Speaker 2: by the Frenchman his work, which was created back in
Speaker 2: the eighteen eighties. And that's the next story and there's
Speaker 2: there's so many others that people again are starting to
Speaker 2: get familiar with.
Speaker 1: So that's the Spirit of Truth A play by Samuel
Speaker 1: Harp February twenty seventh, twenty eighth, March first, sixth, seventh eighth,
Speaker 1: All shows at seven pm. And that's the Bethany Arts
Speaker 1: Community at forty Summer Summerstown Road in Austin, New York. Samuel,
Speaker 1: one last question. I know something very near and dear
Speaker 1: to your heart, the Shades rep Theater. What's going on there?
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about the theater and what's
Speaker 1: happening now.
Speaker 2: Well, again, we were after twenty two years. You know,
Speaker 2: the pandemic literally knocked us out of the park. Right now,
Speaker 2: I still have my troop of actors. Because actors they
Speaker 2: just don't go away. They're like old soldiers, man. They
Speaker 2: it's never died, it just they literally just fade away.
Speaker 2: So I still have. You know, over time, you build
Speaker 2: just a community of actors that you work with on
Speaker 2: both sides of the river and from Manhattan. So I
Speaker 2: still have my core, which is my actors. And as
Speaker 2: a writer, that's all you need. So we're still doing place.
Speaker 2: It's actually gotten me out of my shell a little bit,
Speaker 2: you know, with being doing something over at Bethany and
Speaker 2: over at RCC, I had gotten pretty complacent and lazy
Speaker 2: having my own theater when I could just write my
Speaker 2: stuff and literally go downstairs and stage it. So it's
Speaker 2: got me looking for other opportunities until I find another
Speaker 2: roof of brick and mortar that we can serve the
Speaker 2: community out of.
Speaker 1: Well, Samuel Harps, we hope you find that opportunity and
Speaker 1: we'll be there to check it out. I hope to
Speaker 1: see what one of the performances, maybe both if I can,
Speaker 1: I'd certainly love to do it. And I really appreciate
Speaker 1: you being here and being Frank with us. It was
Speaker 1: truly intelligent conversation.
Speaker 2: Samuel, thank you, Thank you so much. Frank, it was
Speaker 2: great being here man and good simple.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm proud to call your friend. It's been too
Speaker 1: long between. I could go back to the old days
Speaker 1: of TKR. That's scary. Some people out there listening will
Speaker 1: recognize that. Yeah, you know ur, So you offer a
Speaker 1: special thanks to our listeners to take time to give
Speaker 1: us a voice in their lives. Remember, we offer a
Speaker 1: fresh topic just about every week. Catch us wherever and
Speaker 1: whenever you get your favorite podcast that includes Apple, Spotify,
Speaker 1: your Heart Radio, all the rest. Check us out on
Speaker 1: the Hudson River Radio Facebook page, leave us a comment
Speaker 1: and like us too. You know I always leave you
Speaker 1: with two Lessel nuggets. I call them, I guess why not.
Speaker 1: One is a quote and then some great music. The
Speaker 1: quote comes from Nelson Mandela. It's simple and I think
Speaker 1: very sublime and eloquent. It always seems impossible until it's
Speaker 1: just done. And we've got some great music from mister
Speaker 1: ken Rawl, also known as mister Blanketfest, who every year's
Speaker 1: donates hundreds and hundreds of blankets to the needy. He
Speaker 1: and his wife, the poetests Ivon So Tomayor and a
Speaker 1: host of other friends and family get together and do
Speaker 1: Blanketfest and do a great thing for a lot of
Speaker 1: needy people. Well here's his song, no Big Deal for
Speaker 1: our engineer Neil Richter. I'm your host, Frank Lebono. We
Speaker 1: hope to have you join us on the next being Frank.
Speaker 1: We're the only way to be is Frank. Thanks everybody,
Speaker 1: No big deal, No big deal.
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Speaker 4: someone else was gone, would not be fun.
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Speaker 4: Mama says, you're not y'all the sun.
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Speaker 4: When you always be like crying occasionally like dying, but
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Speaker 4: wait till summer child gets here. I can't wait till
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Speaker 2: No big deal, no pig When you always be.
Speaker 4: Like crying, I can seally like dying, but you always
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Speaker 4: no big tale, no big tale.
Speaker 3: This is Hudson River Radio dot com