"All the dreams you show up in are not your own." This is a quote by Heron. It is a great sociological one, for it describes the double consciousness Du Bois wrote of that effects black culture or any group left outside of the dominating normative.. Mr. Heron I feel was a key idea in terms of spreading black consciousness...and he was a damn good singer!!

Enjoy??!!

Gwen, you posted one brief sentence that Gil Scott Heron passed on and then posted a video about his and the other Last Poet's masterpiece that you want us to enjoy?!!

I don't believe that "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" was composed for people to enjoy. Imo, adding visuals that word for word corresponds to what Gil Scott Heron said trivializes his words.

Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZvWt29OG0s for a video of a 1990s interview in which Gil Scott Heron answers the question what does "the revolution will not be televised mean".

I'm sorry that I don't have a complete transcript of that interview. However, here's the beginning of that response:

..."the revolution will not be televised was about the fact that the first change that has to take place is in the mind. You have to change your mind before you change the way that you live and the way you move. So when we said that the revolution will not be televised, we were saying that the thing that is going to change people is something that no one will be able to capture on film. It will be something that you see and all of a sudden you realize 'I'm on the wrong page or I'm on the right page but I'm on the wrong note and I've got to get in sync with everyone else to understand what's happening with this country."...

Here's a transcript of that interview clip with Gil Scott-Heron:

"The catchphrase, what that was all about, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” that was about the fact that the first change that takes place is in your mind. You have to change your mind before you change the way you live and the way you move. So when we said that “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” we were saying that the thing that’s gonna change people is something that no one will ever be able to capture on film. It will just be something that you see, and all of a sudden you realize I’m on the wrong page, or I’m on the right page but I’m on the wrong note, and I’ve got to get in sync with everyone else to understand what’s happening in this country.

But I think that the Black Americans have been the only die-hard Americans here, because we’re the only ones who carried the process through the process that everyone else has to sort of skip stages. We’re the ones who march, we’re the ones who carry the Bible, we’re the ones who carry the flag, we’re the ones who have to go through the courts, and being born American didn’t seem to matter, because we were born American, but we still had to fight for what we were looking for, and we still had to go through those channels and those processes."

- Mediaburn, 1991

reposted from http://www.racialicious.com/2011/05/28/in-his-own-words-gil-scott-heron-1949-2011/#more-15433

I don't think this clip trivializes the message and yes, you can enjoy a call to arms.

I mentioned The Last Poets in my comment and want to correct that error.
"Although never officially a member of The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron was an integral part of this movement who wrote and performed much of what was considered controversial issues of that era. Writing more than 24 albums, five books, and a film, Black Works, he believed that The Last Poets were the first to bring music and poetry together, and considered themselves the first rappers.

Scott-Heron, an American Poet and musician is best known for his poem and song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. His longevity and recognition even surpasses, in many ways, the popularity of The Last Poets and accounts for his earned moniker of The Godfather of Rapp."
http://www.suite101.com/content/the-first-rappersthe-last-poets-a118038

Part of my error was because I was thinking of the poem "When The Revolution Comes" by The Last Poets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M5W_3T2Ye4

The full text of that poem can be read at http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858754007/

Here's an excerpt of "When The Revolution Comes":

When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes
When the revolution comes some of us will probably catch it on TV, with chicken hanging from our mouths. You'll know its revolution cause there won't be no commercials
When the revolution comes

-snip-

I recognize the power of that poem's words without agreeing with every word of that poem.

As a Black political spoken word artist, I understand fully Azizi's point. Black artists are most often seen as entertainment. Particularly political art that speaks about collective experiences is seen as "less artistic," as Romantic modes of the artist as individual visionary still dominate European ways of thinking about art. Therefore a Black artist who speaks about political struggle is seen as doing something that is somehow less worthy than a white artist who examines their love affairs or other personal matters. The immense craft that goes into creating effective art that speaks to "the people" is considered to be something simple and not really involving any serious engagement, unlike other poets who might use more overtly complex language (and of course, the effort that goes into crafting work that is "deceptively simple" and contains many oral tricks is ignored.) This is coupled with the idea that Black people have "natural talent" and therefore are not intellectual or conscious of our own artistry. By phrasing our experience of this piece in terms of enjoyment, the implication is that Black art is simply there to entertain rather than to provoke thought.

I wonder whether a false dichotomy is being established here. Perhaps "enjoy" is too ambiguous a term for the response one might have to this work? It certainly feels good in some way to experience a piece of art (is there a better word for this, too?) that is this well crafted, this focused, this layered. Can't I call that "enjoyment"? Can't I enjoy a thought-provoking experience? Do you really think that Gwen was suggesting that Black art is simply there to entertain?

As for the question of compiling a video illustration of the performance, I'm torn between feeling that it's too literal, and knowing that people younger than I won't recognize half (two-thirds?) of the references. Is this like an annotated edition of Shakespeare?

typo in the last sentence. *Scott-Heron. c'mon, editors.