February, 1973
BLACK INK
3
Upendo: a love uprising
r
by Jessica Marshall
Sla/ f Writer
K c MU'm I'I.-r Upi.'iul), IIk'
Black sliulciil ccnlcr schciiiilcd
to open in early November',’ I he
ofl'icial word is that the (iranil
Opening will be wilhin the nexi
three weeks.
Upendo meaning "love" in
Swahili is located on the first
floor of' Chase Cafeteria. As
many people know, several
activities are now being held in
Upendo to express interest in it
and concern about the seemingly
University-based bureaucratic
hold-up in progress. The Central
('ommittee and Black Caucus
meet there as well as the drama
and gospel choir groups. During
the visit of Imamu Baraka, a
well-attended reception was held
there.
People ask, “What is in
Upendo?” According to BSM
Chairman Warren Carson and
Phil Geddie, the first work-study
student to help with
preparations for the center, it
will offer various recreational
and educational opportunities.
Located in one area will be a
pool table, free jutebox, a
stereo, T.V., and tables and
chairs for our whist-playing
brothers and sisters.
Tenatively, refreshments will
be served either behind the
counter or in vending machines
and movies will occasionally be
shown. In the study area,
magazines and quiz files will be
available, and a book drive is
being conducted to help create a
library. Of course. Black interest
groups and committees will
continue to meet in Upendo.
Cultural presentations will be
held there, too.
Interested'.’ Upendo activities
will be coordinated by a board
of directors three appointed
members and three elected
members to be chosen in the
upcoming B.SM elections. If you
have a true interest in doing
something and being involved in
constructive Black activities,
contact Chairman Warren Carson
or Phil Geddie about these
positions.
Black sounds-finally!
by Dawn Clayton
Staff Writer
Fed up to their eardrums
with the raucous fare presented
as music by WCAR, starved for
lack of Black community and
campus news and cultural
entertainment, totally deserted
by WAFR and WMDE when the
clock struck twelve, and just
lacking the ammunition and
initiative to blow the whole
WCAR operation to bits, Phil
Geddie, Connie Bullock, and
Ronald George wasted no time
in getting over to see Burnes Ray
last semester, to decide how to
deal with the prospect of getting
their own station.
Burnes Ray, even then a sort
of overalled superfly Gordon
Parks type man about campus,
deep into the workings of the
photoelectric lens and mechanics
of RTVMP, shooting his own
film on “Blackness at Carolina,”
and developing his own
inimitable “D.J.” style, agreed
that it was time to stop
bullshitting and get the show on
the road. That “show” evolved
into what Blacks later this
semester would proudly refer to
as “Black Sounds.”
For a time, however, “Black
Sounds” was on ground as shaky
as the San Andreas fault, due to
a veto of the show by the WCAR
Board of Directors; it looked as
though Ray and the five Blacks
he had so diligently trained all
semester had as soon have been
“grazin’ in the grass” as learning
to adjust radio equipment, or
the frequency of a megacycle.
Only at the threat of Black
insurgency and the concrete
emphasis of a petition circulated
by the BSM was “Black Sounds”
even guaranteed a hearing by the
WCAR Board of Directors of
which Burnes Ray is chairman,
but with whom he doesn’t even
share a vote.
At the meeting, “sparks flew”
between the WCAR Board of
Directors and some twenty-odd
members of the BSM, admitted
Burnes Ray; but the BSM held
its ground. One board member
haughtily asserted, “But we’ve
advertised for Black students,”
to which Warren Carson,
chairman of the BSM icily
retorted, “Blacks don’t even
listen to WCAR much less apply
for positions on it.” At final
talley, it was obvious that the
Blacks had hung in there for
their cause. In an eight to one
decision, it was decided that
“Black Sounds” would go on the
air, preferably from twelve ‘til
three in the morning, thereby
making it the finest listening
hours of the UNC Blacks’ day.
In an unstructured interview
granted to the BLACK INK on
January 28, Burnes Ray rapped
about the future of “Black
Sounds,” as well as his plans and
aspirations concerning its
upcoming success, and revealed
comments on broadcasting in
general:
“We really needed ‘Black
Sounds’,” progressed Burnes.
“After all, the whities already
have ODR, WRAL, lOIFM, and
DBS, Jones Fishmarket at Duke,
to name only a few. You know
DBS stinks. They sit up there,
high as kites, in a two-man show;
if they don’t like a record, they
just don’t play it, or talk and
laugh all the way through. They
cuss on the air, no programming
formal. The FCC would have a
fit.”
"But Ihey’ve got some of the
best equipment in North
Carolina. If 1 started laying
names on you. you probabU’
wouldn't understand, but -"
TRY ML BURNhS.
“O.K. Doby equipment takes
out imperfections, gives a feel of
presence. Static and distortions
are minimized, but intentional
background noises, like when
they knock over a chair'.’”
UH-HUH
“are emphasized”
OH
“You know. I’m into a ‘Jazz
Thing.’ Osibisa. I’m on the
Carolina Union Music
Committee that's bringing C'urtis
Mayfield here this spring, and
Stevie Wonder and Osibisa.”
IS HELL ABOUT TO
FRFEZH OVER?!
"I’ve had the opportunity to
travel, 1 made a show with Isaac
Hayes one to one and one half
hours long. And Roberta l-'lack.
Nationally designed
programs - interviews
interspersed with music. If you
can get these things on."
BUT NOW YOU'VE GOT
“BLACK SOUNDS"
“Yeah. We need publicity.
Francine Randolph has worked
up a top notch group of singers
almost from nothing. Gospel
music is something almost all
Blacks can relate to. And the
new Drama Group and the
Opeyo Dancers-they all need
publicity.”
Right on, Burnes Ray! One
gets the feeling from his assured
tone and technique that UNC'
Blacks will all eventually benefit
from the newly found spotlight
they have been denied so long,
but that their proud Black egos
and talents have deserved,
striven for. and finally acquired;
if only in the twilight hours.
MORE POWER'
by Larry Mi.von
Stmt \\'nti-r
I peiuli'. the new center lor
Black students, will be opening
s 1) 11 n . I I s success ;nul
ciinlinuance in Lirge part
depenils on Ihe support and
reaction it receives Irom \ou.
M;in\ h.ive coniecletl various
reasons wh\' the rni\ersil\-
administration saw tit to allow
us to set Ihe phice up Some
believe that the\’ did it to allow
for an embarassment to the
Black student populace. rhe\-
believe that the center is sure to
Hop. and that Ihe failure will be
credited directly to ihe BSM and
to Black students in general. 1 he
l'niversii\- would then return to
its do-nothing program for
Blacks on Ihe basis that their
problems are incurred by
themselves, and not by the
University.
Others advance a more
convincing theory that the
University gave us Upendo with
the hopeful intention that we
would confine our activities
totally to its confines; thus
sparing the administration Ihe
unpleasant task of coping with
Ihe continuing nuisance of Black
masses in the dorms on the
weekends, participating in "wild
iungle rituals." or with Ihe
discordant and disdainful music
of a so calletl "choir" practicing
in Ihe tlorni lounge. Blacks, it
would be hoped, would leave
their dormiior\' confinements
alone, disturbing their white
sierileness onl\’ to rest.
It IS our hope that Black
students would tOol the hell out
of ever\ bod> ; I hat w e would
enter L peiulo to get our heads,
movement, and presence here on
this c;impus together. .And
furthermore than we get
together in true revolutionary
Black fashion loving,
respecting, and helping one
another.
lorgei whether we are
perceived as lonis. oreos,
super-Blacks, or whatever; come
out of Upendo united in
Revolutionary Black love and
spread our scene all over this
cold white university. Now
ril.AI would be revolutionary
Black U)ve coming down!
BSM bowls on Thursdays
DARK GREY * LIGHT BLACK
A one-act play about the
frustrating dilemma confronting
the fraudulent Negroes whose
color changes like that of the
chameleon; depending on who
he’s with determines his manner
of action and tone of voice.
Dark grey when he’s in the
company of Blacks so as to show
his rhetorical involvement in the
struggle, but not to the extent of
militancy. A mild revolutionary,
so to speak. Light Black when in
the company of whites as to
reveal his blackness, but not to
the extent of being
anti-establishment. Black
reformism; wanting to pose the
threat of Blackness without
actually being called militant.
THE SETTING; A room that is
divided into two parts—one-half
being decorated in the manner
of militancy: Huey Newton,
Malcolm X.. Marcus Garvey
posters, crossed spears, clenched
black fist, etc The other half of
the room being quite
contemporary: sofa and two
chairs, end tables, etc., very
middle class. Our character:
Tom Black, Thomas Militant,
Charles Righton, Charles O.
Pression, Thomas O. Pressed,
Rutherford D. Humanized, etc.,
is positioned in the middle of
the divided room facing the
audience. In one hand he hold.s a
very black mask; in the other
hand a grey mask.
SCENE 1 As a white visitor
enters the contemporary side of
the room our character quickly
places the grey mask over his
face and greets his visitor, “good
evening,” and starts promptly to
discuss . , . “those colored
folks.” The white visitor leaves
as a knock on the other side
leads our character to it. He
places the black mask on his face
and .says, “yeah . . . who is it?”
Brother Darubah is the answer
and he lets him in. “What’s
happening brother?” and he gets
into a right-on type discussion of
how oppressed his people are
and how rotten the pigs and the
system are.
SCENE II Knock from both
sides of the room . . . our
character scrambles for his
masks; “what’s hap . . . how
are . . . yeah . . . man ... I
mean ...” Enter Black man on
the left, white on the right. Our
character starts to the left then
the right . . . babbling idiotically
as he turns and changes masks.
Shifting and twisting and turning
he loses both masks and repeats,
as the curtain closes, “who am I,
what am I, where am I . . . who
am I . . . what am I . . . v'here
am I,” ad infinitum . . .
CINQUE