An Evening with Harry Belafonte

The Tampa Bay Times (Jan.11) had a interesting article on this singer and social activist.  He was interviewed by Piper Castillo who asked him why he was speaking in Florida when just last year he was to have said that he was making no more public appearances.  His talk was to be given at USF this past Tuesday, and he said since it was a university he "simply wanted to accept it".
I am so thankful that John and I had the opportunity to hear him speak.  It was part of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. week at the University of South Florida.  Mr. Belafonte was an adviser to MLK.

It was a good hour hours drive from our home into Tampa, during rush hour.  Getting into the university and through the campus was another story (a very large school with close to 50,000 students).  However, Marshall Student Center Ballroom was fairly easily found and a few parking spots were still open.  We grabbed a quick bite of supper in the student union and then joined the long lines waiting to get into the ballroom.  Students got first priority, the "community" had to line up behind them.  Turned out there was no need to fear about not getting a seat, after everyone was seated there were a few empty rows left.

 Mr. Belafonte needed some assistance with climbing the step onto the stage.  He will be turning 91 years of age in March.  Had a stroke a couple of years ago which he said affected his inner ear and equilibrium.  He started his talk mentioning his childhood in Harlem.  Spoke lovingly of his mom who kept her dignity despite the family's poverty.  He is very thankful that, at the age of 4 and again at twelve, she took them to her place of origin, which was Jamaica.  There he found a "sense of humanity" not found in Harlem, and spoke of it as creating another "dimension" in his life.  He also mentioned having a Scottish grandmother.  Nurtured by that community in Jamaica he was helped  to understand African Americans-  the rage that is over-whelming, the indignities of racism like no where else in the world.  And he decided to deal with life from the Black perspective.
Mr. Belafonte was not ashamed to brag that he has met some of the greatest men and women of the 20th century.  Eleanor Roosevelt "gave me the ability to move in the white community".  With her friendship, and that of many others "I am by far the winner".
In young adulthood Belafonte entered acting school and started a life-long friendship with Sidney Portier.  It was the role Belafonte had in the play Of Mice and Men ( a part written for him which required musical  talent) that started his singing career.  Lester Young (American jazz tenor and saxophonist) heard him sing and encouraged him to begin a singing career.  Folk singers Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie were some of his influences in his singing career.  Belafonte found his singing career to be a powerful platform for social activism.  "Being an artist was not my intention".  He mentioned one singing gig he had in Florida, where the KKK harassed him for singing to white women.  He found out fast that America does not look too kindly on people of color trying to make a difference.
In the 1950s he met Martin Luther King who invited him to join him.  He commented that MLK had a brain with so much information, a humanity steeped in religion.   He spoke with such insight and "had an impact on me"-" I found reason to be engaged in their mission".
 He stated that we need MLK now as we have been run over by commercialism and materialism.  We are to busy making money, getting so careless that we do not care about the abused and poor.  We, as Americans, have a chance of loosing our vision altogether.  We have to resurrect our humanity.  It is in only in America where Blacks have to live in the "belly of the beast".  They went from slavery to years of segregation and discrimination, all equally cruel.
Our institutions have failed us.  Too much emphasis in schools on STEM courses, less on the humanities and arts.  Belafonte mentioned a couple of times that he has been involved in the criminal justice system- meeting with young people serving years in prison for non-violent acts.  What a waste of talent.
 As to current times- he commented that it is "curious" how our 45th president got elected, how the other candidate received the plurality of votes and lost.  Donald Trump has called certain nations "s-holes", he has no sense of how white Europeans created the problems those countries have today.  Belafonte made mention a couple of times on the importance of the United Nations, especially for third world countries.  That is the only platform or recourse they have for their issues.  Current administration of our country wants to dismiss the United Nations as it is irrelevant, but it is relevant- it is made up of us.
That was about the gist of what he said.  Time listening to him was about an hour and a half, it went too fast for me!  I felt very fortunate to have heard him.