Nate’s North Coast Notes • Six Scintillating Sisters Shine in PBS’ ‘How It Feels to Be Free’ • Peter Lawson Jones hits ‘Chicago Fire’, ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ • Tommy Davidson at Cleveland Improv • MIX returns to art museum

By Nathan E. Paige

“How It Feels To Be Free” the latest PBS “American Masters” documentary, features clockwise from top left,
Lena Horne, Cicely Tyson, Pam Grier, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln, and Diahann Carroll.  

‘How It Feels to Be Free’ – ‘American Masters’ on PBS

PBS’ “American Masters” series presents the new documentary, “How It Feels to Be Free,” highlighting six prominent black women artists — Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier — who became game changers in the entertainment industry. Celebrity interviews include Halle Berry, Lena Waithe, Meagan Good, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, as well as Horne’s daughter Gail Lumet Buckley. Alicia Keys narrates and serves as executive producer.  

 “I am proud to be a part of such a meaningful, important project,” says Keys. “Art is the most powerful medium on the planet, and I continue to be inspired by and learn from these powerful, brave and stereotype-shattering women who leveraged their success as artists to fearlessly stand up against racism, sexism, exclusion and harassment. I honor their courage by celebrating their stories and continuing the work they started.”

The documentary is based on the book “How It Feels To Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement” by Ruth Feldstein. The video link above is accessible on pbs.org until February 16.

Local politician-turned-actor Peter Lawson Jones appears in the January 27 episode of “Chicago Fire” on NBC.

Peter Lawson Jones on NBC’s “Chicago Fire” - January 27

Local politician-turned-actor Peter Lawson Jones can be seen in the Wednesday, January 27 episode of the NBC drama “Chicago Fire,” airing at 9PM ET. He also has a role in the upcoming “Judas and the Black Messiah,” starring Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield, which is scheduled for a February 12 release. 

Comedian Tommy Davidson will do five shows at the Cleveland Improv January 29-31.

Comedian Tommy Davidson at Cleveland Improv – January 29-31

Comedian Tommy Davidson comes to town for 5 shows Jan. 29-31 at the Cleveland Improv, 1148 Main Avenue in the Flats. Tickets $20. In recent years, Davidson has been seen in the 2020 Netflix special “Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine,” and heard as the voice of Oscar Proud on The Disney Channel’s “The Proud Family.” He also had a small role in the fourth installment of the “Sharknado” franchise. 

The film noir classic “The Maltese Falcon” returns to theaters to mark the 80^th anniversary of its release.
[Photo courtesy of Fathom Events]

Fathom Events presents 80th anniversary screenings of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ – January 24, 27

Fathom Events will re-release “The Maltese Falcon” in select theaters January 24 and 27 in conjunction with the 80^th anniversary of the film noir classic. Based on the short story by Dashiel Hammett, the film stars Humphrey Bogart — one of the prototypes for what a cinematic private detective should be — who portrays hard-boiled gumshoe Sam Spade. Also starring Sidney Greenstreet, Mary Astor and Peter Lorre.  Don’t try to follow the story, just go along for the ride.  

A virtual version of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s MIX event takes place Friday, February 5 at 8PM.

MIX: Move at The Cleveland Museum of Art – February 5

The Cleveland Museum of Art reopened to the public on the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. Come February 5 at 8PM, the MIX event returns with “MOVE” featuring movement and performance artist Marcia Custer who will take the audience on a virtual dancing tour through the galleries, accompanied by  visuals from artist Ben Oblivion. DJ Haley Himiko Morris provides the tunes. Free.  Colorful attire encouraged. 

Is there an upcoming event you’d like included in this column? Please send the details, along with a high-resolution photo/graphic, to northcoastnotes@therealdealpress.com at least two weeks prior to the event.

• • •• • •

Recalibrating Race: What the Data Say

Nothing But A Man

By Wornie Reed

Many institutions, from various walks of American life — e.g., sports organizations, businesses, universities, cities, states, churches, associations — have been doing things recently to discuss some racist ideas and symbols that sustain racism against African Americans.

Last weekend the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, VA, in collaboration with the Montgomery County Dialogue on Race, presented the classic film from 1964, Nothing But a Man, followed on Sunday by a discussion with Q & A by my colleague Dr. Biko Agozino and myself.

They advertised the film with my words that this “is the best film ever done on African American life.” Seeing this movie again did nothing to change my mind.

Let’s look at the making of the film. This racially sensitive film was made by Michael Roemer (co-producer and director) and his classmate from the Harvard class of 1949, Robert Young (co-producer and cinematographer).

They did this film independently, outside of the studio system which ruled things at that time. The story with a mostly black cast was about the realities of racism and black life in the segregated South.

The film is also memorable for its cast, most of whom were neophyte black actors just beginning their rise to stardom. For example, Julius W. Harris, a male nurse and onetime bouncer, had never acted before but went on to make more than 70 films.

Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln starred in
Nothing But a Man [1964]

The lead role was played by Ivan Dixon, best remembered today for his later role in television’s long “re”-running television series Hogan’s Heroes; however, he acted in many films. His co-star was Abbey Lincoln, whose only previous film appearance had been as herself in The Girl Can’t Help It. And she went on to a great movie and jazz-singing career.

The movie also featured a very young Yaphet Kotto in only his second film. Gloria Foster was early in her career, and this was probably the first film even for Moses Gunn and Esther Rolle, each of whom went on to make many movies.

The movie very low budget, made on a budget of $250,000. Everyone —cast and crew alike — was paid $100 a week during filming.

Nothing But a Man stood at the margins of cultural production in the United States in the mid-1960s. It was not in keeping with familiar black good-time film genres, especially minstrelsy and musicals. 

It did not provide a sympathetic white character as a point of identification for white audiences.

It did not presume the goal of assimilation into white society. Instead, the movie illustrated obstacles to and the possibilities for mobilizing black opposition to white supremacy.

It is useful to consider the context of the making of the film. It was filmed in 1963, in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement. The time of Birmingham, with Bull Connors and his dogs and firehoses. That was the year of the assassination of Medgar Evers, the March on Washington, and the bombing of the church in Birmingham, killing four little girls.

Segregation should be considered 

a code word for terror.

They released the film in 1964, the same year that Sidney Poitier received the Academy Award for his role in Lilies of the Field, a tribute that so insulted me that I have not watched an Academy Awards show since.

The unbelievable story of Lilies of the Field was simply that this ordinary black guy, who was not a Catholic, stopped in the desert and helped a group of nuns build a chapel for no pay for a broke guy — the ultimate “black person helping whites” movie theme that made Poitier rich from his movies in the 1960s.

Both films were reactions to the civil rights movement, with one, Nothing but a Man, addressing the realities of racism, and the other, Lilies of The Field, suggesting to African Americans they can get rewarded if they play nice, don’t demonstrate, and help white folks.

Nothing But a Man shows what life was like for black Americans during racial apartheid in America during the mid-twentieth century. It shows that segregation was a lot more than separate water fountains, or separate schools, or sitting in the back of the bus. It was racial oppression: always fearing for your job and your ability to feed your family, avoiding a white mob, laughing when nothing is funny, and scratching when nothing is itching.

Segregation should be considered a code word for terror, something well dealt with in this movie.

• • •• • •

Wornie Reed is Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies and Director of the Race and Social Policy Research Center at Virginia Tech University. Previously he developed and directed the Urban Child Research Center in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University (1991-2001), where he was also Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies (1991-2004). He was Adjunct Professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (2003-4). Professor Reed served a three-year term (1990-92) as President of the National Congress of Black Faculty, and he is past president of the national Association of Black Sociologists (2000-01).

This column first appeared online at What the Data Say and is shared here by permission.