Right On / Be Free (1971)

[Music] Calling black people. Calling all black people. Man, woman, child, wherever you are. Calling you. Urgent. Come in. Black people. Come in. Wherever you are. Urgent. Calling you. Calling all black people. Calling all black people. Come in. Black people. Come on in. [Music] as a movement. What we're interested in doing is um you know turning black people on uh getting them interested in art. You know being able to uh regardless of whether they buy you know able to afford to buy a painting or what have you. I have found that I express most of my ideas through figures and anything that I try to say I think of a individual because to me this is what it's all about. You know that you relate to people. One thing that uh I think is important is that black artists don't get too personal. You know that I think that you have to say something to people and you have to say it in such a way that people understand it. There are some things which are constant within the black experience which have to be dealt with. And when these things are incorporated in your work, then you're really trying to establish a true afroamerican or African-American art. A lot that uh you know, as black artists that how can one consider himself an artist and be so narrow as to only speak to one segment of the populace. Uh I think that uh you know that this isn't really a fair statement because uh when you're concerned with the justice uh with the liberation of one people then you have to be concerned with the liberation of all people. We've got to have strong people that are going to uh get up and start thinking about becoming men and women and not part of a cog and a machine. I think that uh the black man and the black woman has to work very very close together. Sure, a female is part of the household and a male is part of the household. But then again, if there are things that have to be done outside, then roles have to uh be uh dished out according to abilities to accomplish a job here. I was interested in projecting an image of a very strong black woman. Not to say that uh because of the bullets and the fist and what have you that I expect a woman to go out and start shooting or blowing up something or what have you. What you're trying to do is stimulate thought to uh turn people on. What you're going to do is present uh images uh positive images to black people regardless of whether they're called poster art or you know whatever it may be called. If it turns people on, if they come and look at it and uh they're right on in you and what have you, then you have done it. I wanted to write a poem that rhymes, but revolution doesn't lend itself to be bopping. Then my neighbor, who thinks I hate asked, "Do you ever write tree poems?" I like trees, so I thought I'd ride a beautiful green tree. Peaked from my window to check the image. Notice the schoolyard is covered with asphalt, no green. No trees grow in Manhattan. Then well I thought the sky I'll make a big blue sky poe him but all the clouds have winged low since he was elected. Then I thought again and it occurred to me maybe I shouldn't write at all. But clean my gun and check my kerosene supply. Perhaps these are not poetic times at all. We're going to play a song for you uh that I wrote and it's called Shushu. And Shushu is a French word. It means uh something nice for somebody you like. And I wrote it for my daughter, my little girl. She's a pretty big girl now, but we want to play Shushu still. [Music] I am [Music] [Music] around. [Music] Happy birthday. [Music] [Applause] Where we stand now and where we look about now, there's beauty. But long before that beauty sprouted, I tell you, there were great pains. Listen, when first we began here, those years which seemed like yesterday, yet so far away it was. Right here, right now, where we stand in the midst of this grass, where then there was no grass, I feel proud. What we have here is some of our work, for we happen to be artists, but we are people first. And about here what you will see is some of our children's for we have 180 and is growing faster. St. Elon's village to me and my proudness is our 180 children that come here to paint, to sculpt and do paperiermâché. My great proud is there's a sense of accomplishment that the children are learning. They range from the age of 2 to 19 years old and from being involved in their expressions discovering that they can accomplish not that I feel that they will always be painters or sculptors but through their life they will know a sense of accomplishment. And if you do not put out the first step, if you do not plant the first seed, which is your birthright, then truly you deny yourself. And this is what is going on here in St. Elma's village that every person is putting forth theirs, consequently getting theirs. It is through people and through our efforts here that allow us to meet as people. It is not just painting here though that you see is paintings. It is through paintings that we are extending or trying to enlighten one to his awareness, his day using his know. This is part of our seed, our roots truly all of our gut, all of our ability. This we have created from nothing. From a place of corrosion to a place of this beauty. [Music] I want to go the north window. [Music] I want to know the love and know. Yeah, we know loud and low. I want to go with the wild goose. [Music] High half flying bird. Half flying bird fly. [Music] I want the clouds over my head. On my head. On my head. I don't want no snowboard. [Music] I'm going to live until I'm dead. Till I'm dead. Till I'm dead. Mother, mother, mother, mother, save your child. [Music] Be free. To be [Music] free. Be free. I don't want [Music] I want the clouds over my head. [Music] Yeah. Yeah. Mother, mother, mother, mother, save your child. [Music] Wow. [Music] I don't want to go there. I want to follow my be free. Yeah. [Music] Yeah. I want to see a rainbow in the sky. Oh god. I want to watch the cloud go by. Yeah. Yeah. [Music] Might make my lo a little just a little. Yeah. Lord, Lord, Lord, will I be tomorrow night? Yeah. Then we're going be free. to be free to [Music] [Applause] be free. [Music] And we're [Music] going to be [Music] [Music]