November 18th, 2006: Baba Israel & Steven Ben Israel
Here are some quotes I liked from todays show with Baba Israel and Steven Ben Israel: Steven mentioned Julian Beck (a founder of The Living Theater) who Steven quotes as saying "The object of art is to create conscious awarewness, to make good more interesting than evil." Also see this article on another founder of The Living Theater, Judith Malina. "...2006, with all this heavy heavy stuff, CRAZY., that’s going on here, you know if I was to explain what people are really living in, they’d turn off the radio and run out in the street and start screaming." "Culture is really the manifestation of what most people are dreaming about everyday as they live in hell. As they go everyday to work that most of us hate, loathe, don’t like the way we get treated, are under paid and always in a state of terror. And we always ask ourselves, how come this still goes on, we’re the human race, we’ve been around for 60 generations, shouldn’t by now we’ve gotten it together where there’s no wars, etc. people don’t have to live in a state of terror…" "…This world tells young people from jump city, you ain’t it. And you grow up in a world where you ain’t it. And then you’re gonna be broken up in this giant puzzle. If you’re a working class guy… and you’re 21 and what’s next, you may just join the army because you have a fear going way back that would give you the courage to go out there and break out of this working class box, either the army or the factory. And the main this with the Living Theater and its history was to address that fear. The main thing in this society is fear, to address that fear by understanding that the fear of life is heavier than the fear of death, why would this guy all of a sudden, [after seeing grafic war movies] say I’m gonna go off and join the marines. There’s a total disconnect." - Steven Ben Israel
“When the people find out they’re not stupid, changes will come faster than we think.”- Julian Beck “My job as an artist is to help the people find out they’re not stupid.” – Steven Ben Israel Links for this program: Open Thought Productions - Baba's Production Company Non-Violent Executions - Steven Ben Israel's one man show. Hip-Hop Commedia - Baba's theatrical production, fusing hip-hop and a 17th Century Italian form of popular street theater. Krush Groove - Steven mentions this film in the show. Its an early hip-hop movie. Of that genre I really like Wild Style and its companion Style Wars. Other hip-hop movies... Dougie Fresh - Early Beatboxer. "Doug E. Fresh (born Douglas E. Davis, 1966, in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands) is an American rapper, record producer, and beatboxer. One of the earliest beatboxers (and still seen as one of the best), Fresh is able to imitate drum machines and various special effects with often startling accuracy. Fresh's early records are out of print, and have never been released on compact disc; thus original records can command high prices." - Wikipedia This article talks about the 90's hip-hop spoken word movement as related to the Beats. It meantions Reggie Gaines who Baba was influenced by.
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