FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Stevie Wonder performs "Superstition" (live). Psychedelic video effects and superimpositions accompany performance.
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Billy Preston and the God Squad perform "Will it Go Round in Circles" (live). Audience members dance on stage behind band, shots of platform shoes. Billy Preston solos on melodica.
FOR FULL CLIP WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Muhammad Ali talks about the draft, gives a trademark rhyme, then makes some colorful if heated remarks about how he doesn't want to go shoot anyone in Vietnam and liberate anyone in Vietnam when he isn't free over here. Describes how he has legally pursued his right not to be drafted, and has had more to suffer for it than draft card burners.
FOR FULL CLIP WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Minister Louis Farrakhan wearing Fruit of Islam uniform, speaking to audience about the need to truly understand the teachings of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Farrakhan says that for blacks and especially for whites in the audience to not understand Elijah Muhammad could spell trouble for the future.
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Bill Withers performs "I'm Her Daddy", "Ain't No Sunshine" (live). VS Bill Withers seated, playing guitar. Backing band is mostly in darkness.
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Tito Puente Y Su Orquestra perform "Nina Y Senora" (mambo). Tito Puente & Frankie Figueroa share singing duties. Young black man named Gerard & Hispanic woman named Priscilla step onto stage, perform evocative salsa dance in front of Tito Puente & Orchestra-- note that the male dancer wears black leather pants. At outset, program host Felipe Luciano enters, thanks Tito Puente & orchestra, then the dancers. Tito Puente smiles, bows.
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Nikki Giovanni introduces The Delfonics (Wilbert Hart, William Hart, Major Harris). The Delfonics, wearing matching orange & black outfits, perform the timeless sweet soul ballad, "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time" (live).
FOR FULL CLIP WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Nikki Giovanni and James Baldwin discuss their profession of writing. James Baldwin: "The act of writing, the intention of it, is liberation... No tyrant in history was able to read but every single one of them burned the books. "No white critic can judge my work. I'd be a fool if I depended on that judgment." They also discuss literary criticism.
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. LaBelle (Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash) perform a soul cover of The Who's "We Won't Get Fooled Again" (live). Patti LaBelle dances during electric organ solo. Adult male African American Audience member dances and sings with Patti LaBelle. Credits roll at end, band continuing to perform.
FOR FULL CLIP WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Ellis Haizlip interviewing Sidney Poitier & Harry Belafonte. Harry Belafonte says there was no hope for equity for blacks in the South during Reconstruction so they moved west. He discusses roles in "Buck and the Preacher." Belafonte says, "Prior to this period in the black experience there was no opportunity to deal w/ black history b/c there was no thrust from the black community which stated that we demand our own, we demand to be heard & seen w/in the context of our own truth." Sidney Poitier says: "We grew out of Stepin Fetchit & Mantan Moreland. Out of us will come directors & producers who will have infinitely more freedom. This freedom that we have & the freedom that they will have comes from the strength that has been husbanded in the black community & is being felt throughout the land."
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Al Green and band perform the soul hit "Let's Stay Together" (live).
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Gladys Knight and the Pips perform upbeat version of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (live). Cutaways of African American audience listening, clapping, dancing in chairs, applauding.
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Earth Wind and Fire perform unidentified funk instrumental. Shirtless bass player Verdine White solos on electric bass guitar. Verdine White rejoins the fold, laying a monstrous groove before the whole band drops out completely, yet they continue the groove without actually hitting their instruments (think lip-synching but w/ instruments). They end song with a series of untimed, improvised staccato hits led by Maurice White on timbales; he fools his brother w/ the final hit, causing Verdine to come in a tad early.
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson (Ashford and Simpson) perform a cover of the Five Stairsteps hit "Ooh Child."
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Gerry Bledsoe introduces The Spinners. The Spinners perform the 1970 R&B hit "It's A Shame" (live).
FOR FULL CLIP WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Imamu Amiri Baraka recites poem "We" (black unity); bouncing, lilting, stuttering, bebop, beat meter; crowd in Club Soul receives it warmly. Amiri Baraka recites poem "Snapshots of Everything." What we are is gestures of the master without space, without time.
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Studio audience applauding. Max Roach with the J.C. White Singers conducted by J.C. White perform "Joshua." Gospel spiritual mixed with jazz. Max Roach ensemble features: Joe Bonner, piano & organ; Cecil Bridgewater, trumpet; Omar Clay, drums; Billy Harper, tenor saxophone; Reggie Workman, bass; Max Roach, drums. Billy Harper solos on tenor saxophone.
FOR FULLL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Reverend Jesse Jackson speaks to studio audience about movement organizing: "Brothers & sisters, I have been given a rather awesome task tonight, and that is to describe in a measure what I do. Basically, I am a minister, but beyond that I am an organizer, and a mobilizer... Fundamental to organizing is communicating. In some measure, I have been fascinated lately by the styles of communication, as I have watched the great preachers in the order of the Rev. C.L. Franklin, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., & even the oratorial styles of the late Malcolm Shabazz." Jesse Jackson praises the poetry of Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, Gwen Brooks, Don Lee & Marvin Gaye for the manner in which they communicate to their audience. Jesse Jackson reads a bouncy, street-inflected, self-penned poem entitled, "Survival to Me."
FOR FULL CLIP WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. Ellis Haizlip continues to interview Stokely Carmichael, who says he respected and honored Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Stokely Carmichael praises MLK's theory of nonviolence being put into action, and his significant powers of speech & mobilization. Stokely Carmichael says he has no regrets over anything he has done in the past, and will continue to work hard for his people until the day he dies.
FOR FULL PERFORMANCE WITH AUDIO, PLEASE CONTACT WPA. The Last Poets (David Nelson, Gylan Kain, Abiodun Oyewole, percussionist Nilija) perform "Black Woman."