WEBVTT

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♫ Let me love you tonight

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♫ Let me tell you how much

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♫ I adore all of your charms

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♫ Though you leave me tomorrow

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♫ For this night we\'ll borrow a love song

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♫ Live a lifetime of love

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♫ In a moment holding me tight

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♫ Then forget me darling only

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♫ Let me love you tonight

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(humming)

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(piano music)

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- [Interviewer] We\'re almost
done with my interviewing you.

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- I should hope so.

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- [Interviewer] So the question I have,

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is there anything that you
wanna say in retrospect

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of this whole thing, or how you feel?

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- Wait a minute, wait a minute.

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This whole thing, being what?

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- [Interviewer] The film
being done about you.

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Is there any of this whole process,

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how has this been for you,

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or is there anything you wanna say?

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- I wanna say that I was

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quite against having this done.

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- [Interviewer] So what was it that I said

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that convinced you?

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- Well I think what you said was it was,

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you said I don\'t wanna
use the word selfish,

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but there were so many
people who don\'t know

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about you and might be inspired by it.

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And the other thing you said was,

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look how easily you move
from one thing to the other.

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(\"The Song is Ended\" by Nellie Lutcher)

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♫ The song is ended

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♫ But the melody lingers on

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♫ You and the song are gone

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♫ But the melody lingers on

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♫ The night was splendid

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♫ And the melody seemed to sing

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♫ Summer will steal away

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♫ Take your happiness while you may

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♫ There \'neath the light of the moon

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♫ We sang a love song

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♫ That ended too soon

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♫ The moon descended

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♫ And I found with the break of dawn

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♫ You and the song were gone

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♫ But the melody lingers on

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- I discovered my first passion in 1950.

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I was 14.

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I shot up at the age of 12,
and I used to stoop over.

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In school at that time,

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rather than simply fix your posture,

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they gave you a D in physical
ed for having poor posture.

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I had this big red D.

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My mother was determined it
was not gonna stay on my card,

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so she and Lydia,

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having gone to Elma\'s
recital the very first year,

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which Lydia came home just raving about,

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woke me up, wanted to describe it

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and couldn\'t even describe it
it was so beautiful to her.

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So my mother said she would send me

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to dancing school to correct my posture.

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- Those children came into my life

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at a particularly opportune time for me,

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and I guess for them.

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It was at the very beginning of

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the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts.

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- I was so tall and awkward and ashamed

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that I used to stand
in the back of the line

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so that when we used to have to travel

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up the floor doing a particular step

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I would always be in the back.

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- The classic ballet is not
one of life\'s easy projects.

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It is physically demanding,
mentally demanding,

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emotionally restricting.

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And to come into that at 14
years of age is rather late.

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- But here was this
short, black, fat woman

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in the middle of Roxbury,

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saying come here to this
school of fine arts,

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and I will challenge you.

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And I was pushed and challenged and

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not allowed to not do my best.

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It\'s the first place that I ever

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really heard classical
music in its entirety,

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and connected it to the
costumes and the movement,

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and began not to be so
self-conscious of my body.

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And actually thought
that it was beautiful.

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The second year I was there she decided

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we were gonna learn flamenco dance.

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Now flamenco means that you\'ve
gotta lift your arms up,

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and you\'ve got to arch your
back, and it killed me.

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I had the worst posture, as I said,

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and I was just correcting it.

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But I had this facility
to do the castanets.

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And I loved the sound
and the feeling of it,

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so we were doing for the recital
that year Ravel\'s Bolero.

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So here we are, we\'re on the stage.

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Now we are the quote, advanced group.

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So all the young children
were supposed to be

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back there in their dressing rooms.

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Well one of them had sneaked out.

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And when the music had gotten
down to the final parts

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she was twirling around backstage,

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and she bumped the record player,

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and the needle skipped way back

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to the beginning of Ravel\'s
Bolero and here we were

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out there with only so much
choreography left to do.

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And all of a sudden, it just came to me.

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Somebody\'s gotta take charge.

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And I moved forward, and
I just said follow me.

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And I started leading the line around,

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and I just started making up stuff.

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And I would stand in
front and do one step,

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and then they would do it.

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And as they were finishing it out,

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circle back and come down front and do it.

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So I just saved it.

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It felt endless, and it was.

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(phone rings)

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The next day Elma\'s phone
was ringing off the hook.

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People were calling her,
and people were coming by

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and bringing me presents,
and people were saying,

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you have got the leader on your
hands, how did you find her?

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So, i mean, it was a matter of emerging,

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and becoming, and just taking charge.

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- She\'s a very fervent person.

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Does everything whole-heartedly.

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With great abandon.

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And pretty soon I saw that she
could teach what she learned.

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And when I saw in my mind
that I wanted to expand,

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I said to her, you will be able to take

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this next section and go with it.

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She thought she could.

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That is essential, that
people have self-esteem.

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A belief in one\'s self.

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(drumming)

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I am convinced that
people\'s cultural heritage

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is something they must know.

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We therefore had George
Howard come from New York

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to teach African and
Caribbean type dancing.

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I wasn\'t paying a lot of attention

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to him and what he was teaching.

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My friend said to me, Elma,

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that fellow over there is using fire.

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And I said to him, don\'t bother me.

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And I looked up again
and there was Angela,

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in all this white clothing,
and her hair all over her head,

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and the fire blazing all over the stage.

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And if she had any common sense

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she\'d have been frightened
and running away.

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But no, she was going
into this whole-heartedly.

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- So you\'ve got the movement,

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you\'ve got the projection,
you\'ve got the concentration.

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You\'ve got having to count
and move with the music.

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You\'ve got that going out and coming in.

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You\'ve got passion, you\'ve got expression.

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Not to speak of lights,
the music, all of that.

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So dance was the most challenging thing

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that had ever happened to me.

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I had to use every single
thing I had to make it happen.

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I don\'t know if it was
Anna Pavlova who had said,

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dance was like the combination

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of God and sex (laughs).

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And it turned my life from
grey into Technicolor.

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♫ One bright and guiding light

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♫ That taught me wrong from right

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♫ I found in my mother\'s eyes

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- I don\'t remember my father.

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I was two when he died.

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My mother, she was an immigrant,

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she was from the West Indies.

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Montserrat.

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And since her husband had died

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and left her with seven children,

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we were then the ones
who she then turned to.

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And she\'d say, you\'re
gonna get an education.

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Now, what\'d you learn today?

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So my mother was a very political person.

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Used to talk about the Garvey movement,

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the invasion of Ethiopia.

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On our mantelpiece there was a cup

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where we had to put in
pennies for the church,

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and pennies for the NAACP.

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One day, I don\'t know how
the conversation got started,

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but in the process of the conversation

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I said something about Little Black Sambo,

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which was being read to us in school.

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And the next day she
accompanied me to school.

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And told the teacher she didn\'t
want it read there anymore,

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she better not hear any
more about it being read.

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I don\'t know what the conversation was.

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All I know is I saw my mother talking.

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I saw the teacher turning beet red.

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I saw her going like this,
and looking over at me.

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And my mother pointed at me, like this.

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And then pointed at her and did like this.

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And was talking the whole time.

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And so, it stopped.

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Didn\'t have to hear Little
Black Sambo anymore.

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- When I finished high
school I wanted to get a job.

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And my mother said no.

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She said, because she
didn\'t want her girls

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to have to end up scrubbing
floors the way she did,

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so we girls were gonna
get more of an education.

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So after high school I
went to business school.

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I said to her, please, please may I quit?

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Because I said, you know,
I finished high school,

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and I can get a good
job and I can help you.

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And her answer to me
was I\'m already working,

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and you stay in school,
and you get an education.

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And if you stay there 50
years you\'re gonna finish.

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- I actually left college
so that I could dance.

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But the disappointment of my mother,

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who had struggled in every which way,

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and I was the only, the first one,

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and as far as I knew probably the last

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to get to go to college.

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Every night, no matter when I came home,

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she was prancing up and down that hallway,

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and preaching in the way that (chuckles),

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only a dramatic West Indian woman

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can preach about the sacrifice,

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and sharper than the serpent\'s tooth

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is the ingratitude of a child,

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and you know, all that stuff.

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And she was in pain, and I knew that.

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And so was I.

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So that was one of the hardest,

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it was a big challenge for me.

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The next biggest challenge was Elma.

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She was resting an awful lot on me

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that she had no right to rest on me.

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I was teaching more classes than she was.

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I did her books, and then
had to call people up

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and try to urge them to pay.

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And it took me another almost two years,

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a year and a half to get out of there.

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- Is she here?

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(laughs)

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We took class together every single day

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for at least eight years,

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and then got our first
job to Europe together.

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That\'s great.

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(classical music)

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Angie was a hero.

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She was the person we looked up to,

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was the best of all of us.

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Everybody should have seen your
rendition of the Swan Queen.

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She was, you were, it was beautiful.

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And because Angela was not
a light-skinned person,

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that was very special to us.

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It was very special to me.

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(piano music)

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New York City was probably
the most racist thing

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I had ever experienced
in my entire life at 17.

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It was thrust at me like
somebody put up a wall.

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- There could have been
a billboard saying,

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no blacks on Broadway.
- Absolutely.

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- There were not that many open calls.

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And so when there was a call,
we were going to show up.

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And at a certain point, I mean,

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after three, four, five, 10 rejections,

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you knew you weren\'t gonna get the part.

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So we were gonna be in their faces,

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and we went to those auditions.

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- Yes we did.

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- We went anyway.

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- Two and three times a day.

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- That\'s right.

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You know Elma\'s teacher
Doris Jones, right?

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- [Kenneth] Oh, very well.

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- She talks about Louis Johnson,

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and you know how dark he is.

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She brings him to New York
to audition for Balanchine.

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Do you know this story?

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- [Kenneth] I think I know this.

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- You know, he could hang
in the air like Nijinsky.

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And George is looking, and
she says his head is nodding,

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and his eyes are stretching,
and she looks over at George,

00:14:16.364 --> 00:14:19.781
and he goes, oh Doris, he\'s so beautiful.

00:14:21.867 --> 00:14:23.600
He\'s a wonderful dancer.

00:14:23.600 --> 00:14:27.376
But what would I do
with him, he\'s so black.

00:14:27.376 --> 00:14:29.793
(jazz music)

00:14:35.308 --> 00:14:37.327
- [Kenneth] Angie.

00:14:37.327 --> 00:14:39.119
(squeals)

00:14:39.119 --> 00:14:40.703
(laughing)

00:14:40.703 --> 00:14:42.303
- [Angela] Angie and
Kenny abroad in Europe,

00:14:42.303 --> 00:14:44.904
I\'ve never seen that.
- Seen this?

00:14:44.904 --> 00:14:49.071
- [Angela] We auditioned for
and joined Jazz Train in 1959.

00:14:51.433 --> 00:14:52.367
And it was--

00:14:52.367 --> 00:14:56.210
- A compiling of all of the
history of theatrical stuff

00:14:56.210 --> 00:14:59.522
concerning African-
Americans up until that day.

00:14:59.522 --> 00:15:01.962
We did the cakewalk during slavery.

00:15:01.962 --> 00:15:03.411
After that period you went into blues,

00:15:03.411 --> 00:15:05.222
and some nightclub work.

00:15:05.222 --> 00:15:06.705
- [Angela] And Linda Hopkins did Bessie--

00:15:06.705 --> 00:15:08.998
- Yes she did Bessie.
- She was Bessie Smith.

00:15:08.998 --> 00:15:09.935
- [Kenneth] That\'s right.

00:15:09.935 --> 00:15:14.275
- Cook and Brown brought
us to the tap era.

00:15:14.275 --> 00:15:16.108
- These stages were made of soft wood,

00:15:16.108 --> 00:15:17.145
which has splinters.

00:15:17.145 --> 00:15:19.052
So any things that we did in bare feet,

00:15:19.052 --> 00:15:21.969
you\'re asking for serious injuries.

00:15:23.455 --> 00:15:26.215
- You know, our opening
number was in bare feet.

00:15:26.215 --> 00:15:29.528
In what they called the African jungle.

00:15:29.528 --> 00:15:31.778
(drumming)

00:15:32.865 --> 00:15:35.798
As we went up through
the stages of Jazz Train,

00:15:35.798 --> 00:15:39.338
we had to then put our feet
into high-heeled shoes,

00:15:39.338 --> 00:15:42.328
with the splinters still
in the balls of our feet.

00:15:42.328 --> 00:15:44.448
We couldn\'t make it, so
after the second night

00:15:44.448 --> 00:15:45.898
I lead a little strike.

00:15:45.898 --> 00:15:47.651
And Jessie said we can\'t not go on stage.

00:15:47.651 --> 00:15:49.700
I said what are they
gonna do, fire us all?

00:15:49.700 --> 00:15:51.448
(laughs)

00:15:51.448 --> 00:15:54.685
We only had one night
after we had threatened.

00:15:54.685 --> 00:15:57.424
And from then on we had
sandal soles on our feet.

00:15:57.424 --> 00:15:58.711
That\'s all it took.

00:15:58.711 --> 00:16:00.098
But they were too cheap to do it

00:16:00.098 --> 00:16:01.998
and they were making us suffer.

00:16:01.998 --> 00:16:04.415
(jazz music)

00:16:08.548 --> 00:16:11.083
- In Rome, every time we left the house

00:16:11.083 --> 00:16:14.298
there was an entourage
of people, everywhere,

00:16:14.298 --> 00:16:16.021
following just to look at us.

00:16:16.021 --> 00:16:20.318
(speaking foreign language)

00:16:20.318 --> 00:16:23.808
- And we took that as such a kindness,

00:16:23.808 --> 00:16:26.318
because at home (laughs).

00:16:26.318 --> 00:16:28.008
- Right, it\'s (speaking foreign language).

00:16:28.008 --> 00:16:30.258
(laughing)

00:16:31.878 --> 00:16:36.805
It was in Germany that I
decided to leave the show.

00:16:36.805 --> 00:16:39.095
And there were several reasons.

00:16:39.095 --> 00:16:43.268
One is that I never
could have a conversation

00:16:43.268 --> 00:16:46.378
with anyone in the troupe about

00:16:46.378 --> 00:16:49.418
anything except show business.

00:16:49.418 --> 00:16:53.518
Even during elections, and
there\'s John F Kennedy running,

00:16:53.518 --> 00:16:56.640
and a big debate between him and Nixon.

00:16:56.640 --> 00:16:59.367
And we\'re sitting after a
rehearsal sprawled around,

00:16:59.367 --> 00:17:01.604
and I say something about it,

00:17:01.604 --> 00:17:03.626
and everybody looks at me blankly,

00:17:03.626 --> 00:17:05.616
because they wanna be talking about

00:17:05.616 --> 00:17:08.116
who has the most beautiful arabesque,

00:17:08.116 --> 00:17:11.716
and the only person that I
really had conversations with

00:17:11.716 --> 00:17:16.066
that were meaningful was
Cookie of Cook and Brown.

00:17:16.066 --> 00:17:18.528
And he would tell me,
you\'re something special,

00:17:18.528 --> 00:17:20.013
I\'m not sure you should be here.

00:17:20.013 --> 00:17:22.489
And then I made some other
people uncomfortable.

00:17:22.489 --> 00:17:24.239
So I was out of my milieu.

00:17:24.239 --> 00:17:26.783
The dancing was fine.

00:17:26.783 --> 00:17:28.183
That part was wonderful.

00:17:28.183 --> 00:17:30.016
On stage it was great.

00:17:31.043 --> 00:17:33.793
But there was all the rest of it.

00:17:34.941 --> 00:17:37.403
♫ Ain\'t gonna marry

00:17:37.403 --> 00:17:40.903
♫ Ain\'t gonna settle down

00:17:44.793 --> 00:17:48.543
- I knew, really from
the time I was 11 or 12

00:17:51.419 --> 00:17:54.813
that I had no interest in boys.

00:17:54.813 --> 00:17:57.813
There\'s that period of little girl time

00:17:57.813 --> 00:18:00.276
when you\'re supposed to
be making this transition.

00:18:00.276 --> 00:18:02.176
Where they start whispering
and running around

00:18:02.176 --> 00:18:03.989
passing notes and stuff.

00:18:03.989 --> 00:18:07.366
I had no interest, I
thought it was so silly.

00:18:07.366 --> 00:18:10.854
And yet I knew it would be
dangerous to express that.

00:18:10.854 --> 00:18:12.356
I knew that much.

00:18:12.356 --> 00:18:16.079
But when I was about, maybe 17 or 18,

00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.416
my friends started showing me

00:18:18.416 --> 00:18:22.303
how to put on makeup that
was not stage makeup.

00:18:22.303 --> 00:18:25.466
And how to actually flirt with boys.

00:18:25.466 --> 00:18:27.879
And by then, I had boys calling up,

00:18:27.879 --> 00:18:29.323
and coming over the house.

00:18:29.323 --> 00:18:32.623
I was so bored by them that I just

00:18:32.623 --> 00:18:34.499
retreated back into dance school.

00:18:34.499 --> 00:18:35.473
Once I knew I could do it.

00:18:35.473 --> 00:18:37.106
Okay, this is a role.

00:18:37.106 --> 00:18:39.266
When it\'s time to play
I know how to play it,

00:18:39.266 --> 00:18:41.993
but I\'m not interested in it.

00:18:41.993 --> 00:18:45.092
When I met Ken at the Elma Lewis School,

00:18:45.092 --> 00:18:47.616
I loved the way he played the drums.

00:18:47.616 --> 00:18:49.526
And he was fun.

00:18:49.526 --> 00:18:52.666
He hung out with guys who were fun.

00:18:52.666 --> 00:18:56.666
They were womanizers, but
Ken was just after me.

00:18:58.493 --> 00:19:01.319
♫ Someone

00:19:01.319 --> 00:19:03.986
♫ To believe in

00:19:06.344 --> 00:19:10.011
♫ Is what I\'m searching for

00:19:11.944 --> 00:19:15.359
- I was just a teenager performing.

00:19:15.359 --> 00:19:19.536
We would always be down in the Jazz corner

00:19:19.536 --> 00:19:23.796
down on, oh, Mass Ave,
you know, and Hi-Hat,

00:19:23.796 --> 00:19:26.046
and all those little clubs.

00:19:26.943 --> 00:19:31.110
One day out of the smoke of the
room appeared George Howard.

00:19:31.986 --> 00:19:33.819
He was a dancer.

00:19:33.819 --> 00:19:36.923
He\'d explain who he was
and where he was going,

00:19:36.923 --> 00:19:39.119
and would we come with him to

00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:41.283
this school that he was teaching?

00:19:41.283 --> 00:19:43.203
I just joyfully went along.

00:19:43.203 --> 00:19:45.453
(drumming)

00:19:46.677 --> 00:19:49.677
Now he\'s teaching the African dance.

00:19:53.045 --> 00:19:55.804
There was this one dancer.

00:19:55.804 --> 00:19:57.471
Angela was her name.

00:19:59.026 --> 00:20:01.009
You couldn\'t help but play for her

00:20:01.009 --> 00:20:03.535
like you never played before.

00:20:03.535 --> 00:20:04.597
And it was good.

00:20:04.597 --> 00:20:05.930
And it was good.

00:20:07.374 --> 00:20:09.558
- So I started going with him.

00:20:09.558 --> 00:20:13.349
And before I went to Europe
he said he wanted to marry me.

00:20:13.349 --> 00:20:15.326
I said I didn\'t want to get married.

00:20:15.326 --> 00:20:17.521
I wanted to dance.

00:20:17.521 --> 00:20:19.604
He wrote to me every day.

00:20:20.784 --> 00:20:24.133
And when I came back, I just succumbed.

00:20:24.133 --> 00:20:25.633
And I married him.

00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:29.583
(upbeat music)

00:20:33.815 --> 00:20:35.956
When I came back from Europe and decided

00:20:35.956 --> 00:20:38.267
I was gonna go somewhere
and open a dance school,

00:20:38.267 --> 00:20:40.201
I wanted to get away from where Elma was.

00:20:40.201 --> 00:20:42.960
I didn\'t wanna, you know,
be competing with her.

00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:44.188
And Ken and I used to drive

00:20:44.188 --> 00:20:46.023
through Connecticut going to New York.

00:20:46.023 --> 00:20:47.559
So we thought of it as so beautiful,

00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:51.972
but we didn\'t know the situation
around Yale University,

00:20:51.972 --> 00:20:53.764
and how poverty-stricken it was,

00:20:53.764 --> 00:20:55.967
and the projects right
behind there an all.

00:20:55.967 --> 00:20:58.190
We didn\'t know about it.

00:20:58.190 --> 00:21:00.690
(piano music)

00:21:18.173 --> 00:21:20.331
Well when I first got to New Haven,

00:21:20.331 --> 00:21:23.202
it was very clear that
there were these levels

00:21:23.202 --> 00:21:26.533
that people thought, black people too,

00:21:26.533 --> 00:21:28.589
thought that they were
better than other people.

00:21:28.589 --> 00:21:31.587
So we were, I deliberately
set up the school

00:21:31.587 --> 00:21:35.186
right in front of where the project was.

00:21:35.186 --> 00:21:38.153
Ken went into the
apartments in the complex.

00:21:38.153 --> 00:21:40.491
He would say we\'re gonna start a school,

00:21:40.491 --> 00:21:41.906
and it\'s gonna open in September,

00:21:41.906 --> 00:21:44.547
we\'d like to have your child.

00:21:44.547 --> 00:21:48.128
And when we opened the
school we had 14 students.

00:21:48.128 --> 00:21:50.378
And half of them were not paying.

00:21:50.378 --> 00:21:52.282
And sure enough, it didn\'t take more than

00:21:52.282 --> 00:21:54.414
about a year and a half
before we were just

00:21:54.414 --> 00:21:56.527
having two classes, then three,

00:21:56.527 --> 00:21:58.527
and that\'s how it began.

00:22:00.294 --> 00:22:03.211
(orchestral music)

00:22:11.534 --> 00:22:12.804
- I believe I was 12 years old

00:22:12.804 --> 00:22:14.809
when I first started at Bowen-Peters.

00:22:14.809 --> 00:22:16.377
I watched one of the ballet classes

00:22:16.377 --> 00:22:19.373
that Dr. Bowen was actually teaching,

00:22:19.373 --> 00:22:21.456
and I was terrified.

00:22:21.456 --> 00:22:23.727
But I still decided to come and sign up

00:22:23.727 --> 00:22:25.059
and to take classes.

00:22:25.059 --> 00:22:26.556
- I was a very shy kid.

00:22:26.556 --> 00:22:28.195
I was a chubby kid.

00:22:28.195 --> 00:22:30.383
She never put me down about my weight.

00:22:30.383 --> 00:22:32.847
She never said, you know,
you\'re a chubby kid.

00:22:32.847 --> 00:22:35.081
She never pointed me out in the class.

00:22:35.081 --> 00:22:38.164
She always helped me move, move well.

00:22:39.171 --> 00:22:40.504
Move delicately.

00:22:42.333 --> 00:22:45.648
- We heard everything from
Tchaikovsky to Stevie Wonder

00:22:45.648 --> 00:22:47.496
at Bowen-Peters.

00:22:47.496 --> 00:22:50.079
(lively music)

00:22:53.241 --> 00:22:55.769
The side-by-side had complete respect

00:22:55.769 --> 00:22:58.853
for the cannon of classical ballet

00:22:58.853 --> 00:23:02.392
and the music that was very
much ours at that time.

00:23:02.392 --> 00:23:04.771
And we celebrated all of it.

00:23:04.771 --> 00:23:07.604
(classical music)

00:23:15.052 --> 00:23:17.302
(applause)

00:23:24.639 --> 00:23:27.180
(rhythmic music)

00:23:27.180 --> 00:23:30.370
(upbeat music)

00:23:30.370 --> 00:23:33.203
(energetic music)

00:23:38.999 --> 00:23:41.499
(disco music)

00:23:48.874 --> 00:23:51.685
- The African class, that
was a major plus for me.

00:23:51.685 --> 00:23:54.523
It challenged my body to move
in so many different ways,

00:23:54.523 --> 00:23:56.417
and we had live musicians.

00:23:56.417 --> 00:23:58.026
Usually Mr. Peters would play,

00:23:58.026 --> 00:24:00.113
and several of the students
from the school as well,

00:24:00.113 --> 00:24:02.677
which was always a great
experience watching,

00:24:02.677 --> 00:24:05.556
you know, your fellow classmates
sitting up there drumming,

00:24:05.556 --> 00:24:08.535
and it\'s usually the guys.

00:24:08.535 --> 00:24:10.887
- Lynne Huckabee became a drummer.

00:24:10.887 --> 00:24:13.971
I said to Ken, can the
girls drum if they want to?

00:24:13.971 --> 00:24:15.576
And he said yeah.

00:24:15.576 --> 00:24:17.958
But she was the only girl who signed up.

00:24:17.958 --> 00:24:19.749
(drumming)

00:24:19.749 --> 00:24:22.916
Now Olatunji was the greatest drummer.

00:24:25.770 --> 00:24:26.878
Period.

00:24:26.878 --> 00:24:30.432
We actually met him at Elma\'s house.

00:24:30.432 --> 00:24:32.265
And he and Ken bonded.

00:24:33.187 --> 00:24:35.651
So when he came this particular day,

00:24:35.651 --> 00:24:38.049
and he sees Lynne
Huckabee sitting up there,

00:24:38.049 --> 00:24:39.326
what, a girl?

00:24:39.326 --> 00:24:40.927
He says, oh, no, no, no.

00:24:40.927 --> 00:24:42.465
The women cannot touch the drum.

00:24:42.465 --> 00:24:44.178
I said what are you talking about?

00:24:44.178 --> 00:24:45.309
We can touch a drum.

00:24:45.309 --> 00:24:48.165
No, no, no, I mean, (stammers),
that\'s what we have.

00:24:48.165 --> 00:24:49.943
We have men doing this.

00:24:49.943 --> 00:24:51.204
This is not women.

00:24:51.204 --> 00:24:53.097
I said, this is not women who can do it?

00:24:53.097 --> 00:24:55.976
I said, well you can\'t
teach anybody in this place.

00:24:55.976 --> 00:24:58.466
\'Cause everybody can do what they can do.

00:24:58.466 --> 00:25:01.766
I said, you are in a
different kind of place now.

00:25:01.766 --> 00:25:02.599
No, no, no.

00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:03.816
I said, okay.

00:25:03.816 --> 00:25:04.733
So he left.

00:25:06.168 --> 00:25:08.335
Next Saturday he was back.

00:25:09.327 --> 00:25:11.316
Maybe he thought about himself.

00:25:11.316 --> 00:25:14.060
He came back, and Lynne was there.

00:25:14.060 --> 00:25:17.263
He didn\'t like it, so that was it.

00:25:17.263 --> 00:25:21.430
Then he ends up going to
Elma\'s and teaching girls.

00:25:25.955 --> 00:25:28.895
- Both my wife and our
eldest daughter Traer

00:25:28.895 --> 00:25:31.442
enrolled at the Bowen-Peters
school of dance.

00:25:31.442 --> 00:25:34.080
It was a legend in New Haven.

00:25:34.080 --> 00:25:36.330
(drumming)

00:25:39.618 --> 00:25:42.197
- We were proud, you know,

00:25:42.197 --> 00:25:45.197
of the Bowen-Peters School of Dance.

00:25:46.438 --> 00:25:49.657
Every single beat meant something,

00:25:49.657 --> 00:25:52.657
and it seeped deeply into your soul.

00:25:53.816 --> 00:25:56.064
(drumming)

00:25:56.064 --> 00:25:58.532
It was telling a story
about the ancestors,

00:25:58.532 --> 00:26:02.242
but they also told a story about now.

00:26:02.242 --> 00:26:05.167
- [Protestors] Now, now, now.

00:26:05.167 --> 00:26:07.816
(drumming)

00:26:07.816 --> 00:26:11.300
- We felt the pain and the suffering.

00:26:11.300 --> 00:26:12.939
We felt the sorrow.

00:26:12.939 --> 00:26:16.189
We felt the oppression, the repression,

00:26:17.115 --> 00:26:19.427
and the suppression of people.

00:26:19.427 --> 00:26:22.269
But we also felt the liberation.

00:26:22.269 --> 00:26:23.102
You see.

00:26:25.573 --> 00:26:28.073
That\'s what I\'m talking about.

00:26:35.321 --> 00:26:37.169
- There was a lot of
almost surrogate mothering

00:26:37.169 --> 00:26:39.070
going on in the school.

00:26:39.070 --> 00:26:40.261
There were some children who came

00:26:40.261 --> 00:26:42.014
from situations where they had

00:26:42.014 --> 00:26:43.314
all the support they needed,

00:26:43.314 --> 00:26:44.762
and there were other children who didn\'t.

00:26:44.762 --> 00:26:47.198
- My home life wasn\'t
so great at that time.

00:26:47.198 --> 00:26:48.490
I was in foster care.

00:26:48.490 --> 00:26:50.849
And it was kinda hard for me.

00:26:50.849 --> 00:26:53.384
And I found an outlet
that I really enjoyed,

00:26:53.384 --> 00:26:54.855
and it\'s something that I could own,

00:26:54.855 --> 00:26:59.130
because it was something
that required me only.

00:26:59.130 --> 00:27:00.444
You know what I mean, I had to produce.

00:27:00.444 --> 00:27:02.710
I had to work hard to develop and to grow.

00:27:02.710 --> 00:27:04.218
And it wasn\'t a task for me.

00:27:04.218 --> 00:27:05.674
I enjoyed it, I loved it.

00:27:05.674 --> 00:27:09.077
Being at Bowen-Peters,
it was like a family.

00:27:09.077 --> 00:27:11.577
(piano music)

00:27:14.478 --> 00:27:18.645
- We had a son that was killed
when he was three years old.

00:27:19.491 --> 00:27:20.908
And he was Kippy.

00:27:23.314 --> 00:27:26.144
The drunk driver broad-sided us.

00:27:26.144 --> 00:27:27.394
Spun us around.

00:27:28.442 --> 00:27:32.192
Kippy, who was in the
back side of the wagon,

00:27:33.148 --> 00:27:35.898
got thrown out of the automobile.

00:27:36.750 --> 00:27:40.500
And he crushed his head
against the sidewalk.

00:27:43.762 --> 00:27:46.155
He is the first child.

00:27:46.155 --> 00:27:49.822
So if he is destroyed,
what are we gonna do?

00:27:52.132 --> 00:27:54.839
Well, there was this young man

00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:57.807
around the school at the time.

00:27:57.807 --> 00:27:59.707
His name was Larry.

00:27:59.707 --> 00:28:03.267
- I was a teenager, about 18 or so.

00:28:03.267 --> 00:28:04.919
This one day I auditioned for her,

00:28:04.919 --> 00:28:07.394
she said, you have talent.

00:28:07.394 --> 00:28:11.497
- She just absolved the
pain that she was in,

00:28:11.497 --> 00:28:14.267
because she just wanted to help him.

00:28:14.267 --> 00:28:16.955
- I have flat feet, and I
would plant \'em inwards.

00:28:16.955 --> 00:28:19.423
She was always telling me to
turn \'em out, turn \'em out.

00:28:19.423 --> 00:28:21.114
I said oh God, I can\'t do it.

00:28:21.114 --> 00:28:23.115
She said, oh yes you can, you can.

00:28:23.115 --> 00:28:24.157
I said, no I can\'t.

00:28:24.157 --> 00:28:25.441
And she said, you can.

00:28:25.441 --> 00:28:27.655
All you gotta do is
have faith in yourself.

00:28:27.655 --> 00:28:29.671
And believe it, and keep trying.

00:28:29.671 --> 00:28:31.731
And so I got it.

00:28:31.731 --> 00:28:33.312
And that was amazing.

00:28:33.312 --> 00:28:36.286
That\'s when I knew, you could do things

00:28:36.286 --> 00:28:38.145
if you keep working at it.

00:28:38.145 --> 00:28:42.401
- The next thing you know, Larry
was performing on Broadway.

00:28:42.401 --> 00:28:44.066
I mean, this is big time.

00:28:44.066 --> 00:28:45.750
- She took me to New York.

00:28:45.750 --> 00:28:48.091
Packed me up a bag, I turn up.

00:28:48.091 --> 00:28:51.018
And when I got into my
hotel room I started crying

00:28:51.018 --> 00:28:52.567
\'cause I didn\'t wanna stay.

00:28:52.567 --> 00:28:53.400
I wanted to go back.

00:28:53.400 --> 00:28:54.965
She said, oh just wait
here for a little while,

00:28:54.965 --> 00:28:56.533
you\'ll be all right, I\'m going downstairs.

00:28:56.533 --> 00:28:59.332
I went downstairs, she had
got in her car and drove away.

00:28:59.332 --> 00:29:04.063
(chuckles) And I said,
oh my God, she left me.

00:29:04.063 --> 00:29:05.687
And then I had to stay.

00:29:05.687 --> 00:29:09.219
And I ended up doing Hello, Dolly.

00:29:09.219 --> 00:29:11.719
(jazzy music)

00:29:16.607 --> 00:29:19.190
(gentle music)

00:29:38.988 --> 00:29:41.581
- We have to talk because you
should get more than that.

00:29:41.581 --> 00:29:42.414
Okay, no worries.

00:29:42.414 --> 00:29:45.003
Dr. Bowen had arranged
for about four of us

00:29:45.003 --> 00:29:47.911
to go for an audition
for the program here.

00:29:47.911 --> 00:29:50.289
And that was many moons ago.

00:29:50.289 --> 00:29:51.748
(laughs)

00:29:51.748 --> 00:29:53.596
I did go back every summer though,

00:29:53.596 --> 00:29:55.380
to see them and to participate,

00:29:55.380 --> 00:29:57.095
and help in any way that I could,

00:29:57.095 --> 00:29:58.743
teach them whatever I learned.

00:29:58.743 --> 00:30:00.938
- I can\'t express how important that

00:30:00.938 --> 00:30:03.917
experience has been in my life.

00:30:03.917 --> 00:30:07.146
I\'m a juvenile judge,
and it\'s sad that there\'s

00:30:07.146 --> 00:30:11.313
no program that can touch
Bowen-Peters School of Dance.

00:30:12.419 --> 00:30:13.252
None.

00:30:14.721 --> 00:30:15.690
Period.

00:30:15.690 --> 00:30:18.762
- Learning early in your
life to allow expression

00:30:18.762 --> 00:30:20.564
to come through you physically

00:30:20.564 --> 00:30:22.497
I think is just really powerful,

00:30:22.497 --> 00:30:26.746
that, you know, the kind
of intensity of emotion

00:30:26.746 --> 00:30:29.413
wants to move through the limbs.

00:30:31.079 --> 00:30:33.933
That\'s for sure still with me.

00:30:33.933 --> 00:30:37.543
To this day I will sometimes
dance out a section

00:30:37.543 --> 00:30:41.879
of something I\'m going to
be choreographing for water.

00:30:41.879 --> 00:30:44.337
But in order to know what
I\'m trying to do with it,

00:30:44.337 --> 00:30:47.232
I sometimes have to move around the room.

00:30:47.232 --> 00:30:49.732
(\"Baba Yeto\")

00:31:09.246 --> 00:31:11.609
What I wanna say to Angela Bowen

00:31:11.609 --> 00:31:15.468
is that she gave a gift to New Haven,

00:31:15.468 --> 00:31:18.315
she gave a gift to children
who needed desperately

00:31:18.315 --> 00:31:21.648
to know that they were worthy and loved.

00:31:29.067 --> 00:31:32.650
Angela Bowen taught
young kids self respect

00:31:33.768 --> 00:31:37.971
in the sense of knowing that
they are creative beings,

00:31:37.971 --> 00:31:40.463
not just that they are okay,

00:31:40.463 --> 00:31:42.513
that they are human and
they belong on the Earth,

00:31:42.513 --> 00:31:45.430
but they have so much to give life.

00:31:52.678 --> 00:31:56.678
- [Protestors] We want
equality, we want it now.

00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:00.147
- I don\'t remember exactly how

00:32:00.147 --> 00:32:02.525
I first heard the word feminism.

00:32:02.525 --> 00:32:04.761
I used to watch the news, obviously,

00:32:04.761 --> 00:32:08.911
and I knew that there was
this protest in Atlantic City.

00:32:08.911 --> 00:32:13.078
They were talking about them
burning their bras in protest.

00:32:14.510 --> 00:32:17.949
And I\'m (exhales), I don\'t
wanna be in a beauty contest,

00:32:17.949 --> 00:32:19.610
they shouldn\'t be in them,
they\'re stupid anyway.

00:32:19.610 --> 00:32:20.636
What\'s their problem?

00:32:20.636 --> 00:32:22.005
What are they burning their bras for?

00:32:22.005 --> 00:32:25.501
Who gives a, and it\'s
like, (chuckles), you know.

00:32:25.501 --> 00:32:28.673
One day Ken and I were
watching television.

00:32:28.673 --> 00:32:32.840
Kate Millett was being interviewed
by one of these oily guys

00:32:34.031 --> 00:32:37.654
who\'s supposed to be really
having an interview with her,

00:32:37.654 --> 00:32:40.007
but is being smarmy.

00:32:40.007 --> 00:32:41.906
- [Kate] To me the relationship
between the sexes is

00:32:41.906 --> 00:32:45.480
a political one, in that one
entire group governs the other.

00:32:45.480 --> 00:32:48.979
- And I kept trying to
get behind what it was

00:32:48.979 --> 00:32:52.449
that she had said that was so offensive

00:32:52.449 --> 00:32:54.737
to him that he was treating her this way,

00:32:54.737 --> 00:32:57.076
because she was being totally, you know,

00:32:57.076 --> 00:32:58.883
just explaining herself.

00:32:58.883 --> 00:33:00.550
And I\'m going, okay.

00:33:01.397 --> 00:33:04.732
But he mentioned the name of her book.

00:33:04.732 --> 00:33:08.022
So I determined to go to the
library and find the book.

00:33:08.022 --> 00:33:10.000
The book was not in the library.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:11.363
But what was there was

00:33:11.363 --> 00:33:13.981
Robin Morgan\'s Sisterhood is Powerful.

00:33:13.981 --> 00:33:17.960
When you started reading
what she was talking about,

00:33:17.960 --> 00:33:21.985
which of course had been in my
household my whole life long.

00:33:21.985 --> 00:33:23.937
Women are not objects.

00:33:23.937 --> 00:33:26.730
Get yourself some education,
get yourself a good job,

00:33:26.730 --> 00:33:28.066
take care of yourself.

00:33:28.066 --> 00:33:29.613
If you wanna see somebody marry them,

00:33:29.613 --> 00:33:31.487
if you don\'t, like that.

00:33:31.487 --> 00:33:35.570
So it\'s like I never knew
that all of these women

00:33:37.319 --> 00:33:40.283
had no idea that they
had the right to do that.

00:33:40.283 --> 00:33:42.426
That\'s what struck me.

00:33:42.426 --> 00:33:45.320
That\'s when I said, oh yeah, sure.

00:33:45.320 --> 00:33:46.800
I\'m a feminist.

00:33:46.800 --> 00:33:49.196
So I started getting other things out

00:33:49.196 --> 00:33:50.635
and started reading them.

00:33:50.635 --> 00:33:53.144
Sturdy Black Bridges, the book that

00:33:53.144 --> 00:33:56.056
Beverly Guy-Sheftall and
several others put out,

00:33:56.056 --> 00:33:59.306
I read that book so much I wore it out.

00:34:00.857 --> 00:34:05.024
I mean, to talk about our
position in society as women,

00:34:06.758 --> 00:34:10.925
and as black women, and within
the black race as women,

00:34:12.187 --> 00:34:15.345
who are supposed to ignore our woman-ness,

00:34:15.345 --> 00:34:17.924
and only deal with the race stuff,

00:34:17.924 --> 00:34:19.602
which is all the guys wanted to deal with

00:34:19.602 --> 00:34:20.600
and didn\'t wanna deal with the

00:34:20.600 --> 00:34:22.940
power dynamic within the race at all.

00:34:22.940 --> 00:34:25.607
I mean, it was everything to me.

00:34:28.247 --> 00:34:31.819
- Ishmael Reed is the author
of Reckless Eyeballing.

00:34:31.819 --> 00:34:33.831
He feels that some black feminist writers

00:34:33.831 --> 00:34:36.731
by projecting negative black
male stereotypes in their work

00:34:36.731 --> 00:34:38.679
are taking part in a conspiracy to blame

00:34:38.679 --> 00:34:40.694
black men for male chauvinism.

00:34:40.694 --> 00:34:42.968
But Barbara Smith, a
leading feminist writer,

00:34:42.968 --> 00:34:46.067
calls him a quote, \"notorious misogynist\".

00:34:46.067 --> 00:34:48.383
Her writings include
All the Women Are White,

00:34:48.383 --> 00:34:51.464
All the Blacks Are Men,
But Some of Us Are Brave.

00:34:51.464 --> 00:34:53.527
Another book is Home Girls.

00:34:53.527 --> 00:34:55.839
Miss Smith, would you
define for me misogynist?

00:34:55.839 --> 00:34:57.140
I must admit when I read your book

00:34:57.140 --> 00:34:58.247
I had to go to the dictionary.

00:34:58.247 --> 00:35:00.289
- Basically a man who doesn\'t like women.

00:35:00.289 --> 00:35:02.475
Or at least treats women
as if he doesn\'t like them.

00:35:02.475 --> 00:35:04.530
- Anybody who wears a
pair of pants these days,

00:35:04.530 --> 00:35:08.502
According to people Barbara
Smith, is a misogynist.

00:35:08.502 --> 00:35:09.584
- What I\'m trying to get at,

00:35:09.584 --> 00:35:11.938
and what other serious black women

00:35:11.938 --> 00:35:14.170
who are political and
call themselves feminists,

00:35:14.170 --> 00:35:16.996
is just to point to the great inequalities

00:35:16.996 --> 00:35:20.088
in the society based upon
sex and sexual identity,

00:35:20.088 --> 00:35:21.658
but that doesn\'t mean that we hate men.

00:35:21.658 --> 00:35:23.714
I spent very little of my writing career

00:35:23.714 --> 00:35:26.220
writing hateful things about men.

00:35:26.220 --> 00:35:28.782
- I can remember going to gatherings

00:35:28.782 --> 00:35:30.367
where there were African-Americans

00:35:30.367 --> 00:35:33.701
very committed to civil rights movement,

00:35:33.701 --> 00:35:36.263
who would just, you know, basically say

00:35:36.263 --> 00:35:39.186
how can you attach yourself
to the women\'s movement

00:35:39.186 --> 00:35:43.353
that has been hostile to
the goals of black people?

00:35:44.566 --> 00:35:46.608
By definition of being a feminist was that

00:35:46.608 --> 00:35:50.036
you must be lesbian, so you
would get both categories.

00:35:50.036 --> 00:35:52.588
You were a race traitor,
and you must be lesbian.

00:35:52.588 --> 00:35:56.255
Both of which were very
negative categories.

00:35:57.098 --> 00:35:59.698
- [Audre] For some of you here today,

00:35:59.698 --> 00:36:02.615
I am the face of one of your fears.

00:36:03.674 --> 00:36:05.257
Because I am woman.

00:36:06.435 --> 00:36:08.784
Because I am black.

00:36:08.784 --> 00:36:10.534
Because I am lesbian.

00:36:11.433 --> 00:36:13.100
Because I am myself.

00:36:14.161 --> 00:36:17.752
A black woman warrior, doing my work.

00:36:17.752 --> 00:36:20.835
Come to ask you, are you doing yours?

00:36:22.668 --> 00:36:25.477
- Audre was the first
black lesbian feminist

00:36:25.477 --> 00:36:28.003
that I saw in the flesh,
and of course I had gone

00:36:28.003 --> 00:36:30.264
out of my way to see her.

00:36:30.264 --> 00:36:32.697
I had discovered her a
couple of years before,

00:36:32.697 --> 00:36:36.209
in a black women\'s magazine called Azalea.

00:36:36.209 --> 00:36:38.160
And my daughter and my niece were sleeping

00:36:38.160 --> 00:36:39.943
in the next bedroom
and I remember yelling,

00:36:39.943 --> 00:36:42.981
and immediately clapping
my hand over my mouth

00:36:42.981 --> 00:36:44.227
because I didn\'t want to wake them up.

00:36:44.227 --> 00:36:45.451
They were both light sleepers.

00:36:45.451 --> 00:36:47.572
But here was this discovery.

00:36:47.572 --> 00:36:49.441
So after that I kept looking for her

00:36:49.441 --> 00:36:51.809
in all the women\'s journals.

00:36:51.809 --> 00:36:56.007
She inspired me to know
that I could leave.

00:36:56.007 --> 00:36:58.666
I mean, I wanted to leave,
I was trying to think

00:36:58.666 --> 00:37:02.646
I could get out of this whole
totally big heterosexual trap.

00:37:02.646 --> 00:37:04.493
And I looked at her, and I said,

00:37:04.493 --> 00:37:07.652
here she is out here by
herself, it felt like to me.

00:37:07.652 --> 00:37:09.978
Just out here doing this work,

00:37:09.978 --> 00:37:12.477
coming out over and over
again all over the place.

00:37:12.477 --> 00:37:14.242
And I said, she\'s got to have help,

00:37:14.242 --> 00:37:15.972
she\'s got to have an army.

00:37:15.972 --> 00:37:20.154
- When Angie decided to leave the school,

00:37:20.154 --> 00:37:22.638
and leave New Haven, it
was like pulling teeth,

00:37:22.638 --> 00:37:26.365
because everyone hated to
even think about her leaving,

00:37:26.365 --> 00:37:28.150
but she had to move on.

00:37:28.150 --> 00:37:33.010
- That\'s the hardest decision
ever in my life that I made.

00:37:33.010 --> 00:37:35.867
I was the fountainhead, and I had nothing

00:37:35.867 --> 00:37:38.990
coming into the tank,
and I was getting old.

00:37:38.990 --> 00:37:43.022
People put their kids on
a waiting list at two,

00:37:43.022 --> 00:37:45.518
and I had to take them at
six, and it was growing,

00:37:45.518 --> 00:37:47.296
and of course it\'d drive me crazy.

00:37:47.296 --> 00:37:51.463
- We knew what it was, and
we knew where Angie was,

00:37:52.772 --> 00:37:56.136
and then she came out of the closet.

00:37:56.136 --> 00:38:00.234
I\'m sorry that we couldn\'t
stay and get along.

00:38:00.234 --> 00:38:02.064
We loved each other.

00:38:02.064 --> 00:38:04.931
We had the beautiful children together.

00:38:04.931 --> 00:38:06.598
But we\'ll get along.

00:38:08.765 --> 00:38:12.932
(\"You Make it So Hard\" by Patti LaBelle)

00:38:37.915 --> 00:38:39.184
- I wanted a life of my own,

00:38:39.184 --> 00:38:42.024
I wanted to live among
women who were political,

00:38:42.024 --> 00:38:43.225
and who were lesbians,

00:38:43.225 --> 00:38:45.675
and who were all
different kinds of things,

00:38:45.675 --> 00:38:49.502
who were feminists, and who had politics,

00:38:49.502 --> 00:38:52.502
and some kind of sense of the world.

00:38:53.406 --> 00:38:57.489
(\"My Best Days are Ahead of Me\")

00:39:01.329 --> 00:39:05.342
♫ Blowing out the candles
on another birthday cake

00:39:05.342 --> 00:39:07.093
♫ Old enough to look back

00:39:07.093 --> 00:39:09.353
♫ And laugh at my mistakes

00:39:09.353 --> 00:39:12.096
♫ Young enough to look at the future

00:39:12.096 --> 00:39:15.263
♫ And like what I see

00:39:17.325 --> 00:39:21.242
♫ My best days are ahead of me

00:39:30.988 --> 00:39:33.571
(upbeat music)

00:39:37.880 --> 00:39:40.820
- I met Angela in 1979 when I was 32.

00:39:40.820 --> 00:39:43.812
She had been a speaker at
the Take Back the Night March

00:39:43.812 --> 00:39:45.607
on the New Haven Green.

00:39:45.607 --> 00:39:46.668
I found her very interesting,

00:39:46.668 --> 00:39:49.674
I\'d never seen a black feminist
before speak in New Haven.

00:39:49.674 --> 00:39:52.062
And I\'d been an activist for 10 years.

00:39:52.062 --> 00:39:54.194
And I went to a brunch the following day,

00:39:54.194 --> 00:39:56.208
and when I saw her I was very happy.

00:39:56.208 --> 00:40:00.240
But I didn\'t expect to be
like, knocked out of the park

00:40:00.240 --> 00:40:01.859
when I looked into her eyes.

00:40:01.859 --> 00:40:03.627
That was not my expectation.

00:40:03.627 --> 00:40:05.318
You know, the whole thing
about the love songs,

00:40:05.318 --> 00:40:07.516
you know, time stopped, time stood still,

00:40:07.516 --> 00:40:09.010
the whole business.

00:40:09.010 --> 00:40:11.194
And like everybody disappears, you know,

00:40:11.194 --> 00:40:12.942
she\'s the only person in view.

00:40:12.942 --> 00:40:15.802
I mean, that really happened to me.

00:40:15.802 --> 00:40:19.275
Then I finally was able to
get myself off the chair

00:40:19.275 --> 00:40:23.383
when she left, and say
okay, if I let her go now

00:40:23.383 --> 00:40:24.579
I\'m never gonna see her again,

00:40:24.579 --> 00:40:26.347
I have no idea how to reach her.

00:40:26.347 --> 00:40:27.838
I made myself get off the chair,

00:40:27.838 --> 00:40:29.790
go after her before she got into the car,

00:40:29.790 --> 00:40:32.861
and ask her if I could call her sometime.

00:40:32.861 --> 00:40:34.938
And she said yes.

00:40:34.938 --> 00:40:35.771
Good evening New Haven,

00:40:35.771 --> 00:40:37.860
welcome to WELI\'s late
night talk show, it\'s 11--

00:40:37.860 --> 00:40:40.550
I was a prominent radio
broadcaster at the time,

00:40:40.550 --> 00:40:41.732
I was a talk show host,

00:40:41.732 --> 00:40:45.060
and participated with an
incredible group of women

00:40:45.060 --> 00:40:49.640
who were changing the culture
right in front of my eyes.

00:40:49.640 --> 00:40:52.223
(lively music)

00:40:58.308 --> 00:40:59.918
I was a singer in the New Haven

00:40:59.918 --> 00:41:02.210
Women\'s Liberation rock band.

00:41:02.210 --> 00:41:03.870
♫ We\'re talking about abortion

00:41:03.870 --> 00:41:05.923
♫ Its against the law

00:41:05.923 --> 00:41:10.072
♫ But we know that it\'s our right

00:41:10.072 --> 00:41:13.646
♫ Control of our bodies
we are going to win

00:41:13.646 --> 00:41:16.156
♫ We\'ve got to be together to fight

00:41:16.156 --> 00:41:18.011
I was out as a feminist.

00:41:18.011 --> 00:41:19.224
I was out as a Jew.

00:41:19.224 --> 00:41:20.650
I made that clear.

00:41:20.650 --> 00:41:22.729
I got enough flack for
both of those things.

00:41:22.729 --> 00:41:24.969
I was not out as a lesbian.

00:41:24.969 --> 00:41:28.664
♫ When I look at my sister\'s face

00:41:28.664 --> 00:41:31.997
♫ What is it that I see

00:41:33.408 --> 00:41:36.312
♫ I see a strength that I\'ve never seen

00:41:36.312 --> 00:41:39.052
It took me two weeks to get
up the nerve to call her.

00:41:39.052 --> 00:41:41.214
One night after my radio show,

00:41:41.214 --> 00:41:43.136
it was late at night at Howard Johnson\'s,

00:41:43.136 --> 00:41:44.850
and we shared a piece of pecan pie,

00:41:44.850 --> 00:41:47.832
and we both felt like we had found home

00:41:47.832 --> 00:41:49.842
looking at each other,
talking to each other.

00:41:49.842 --> 00:41:52.286
We just felt really
comfortable with each other.

00:41:52.286 --> 00:41:55.358
But even when we left there we didn\'t know

00:41:55.358 --> 00:41:56.623
quite what that meant.

00:41:56.623 --> 00:41:58.263
Maybe that was gonna be a friendship.

00:41:58.263 --> 00:41:59.457
I know I was feeling something,

00:41:59.457 --> 00:42:02.874
but I didn\'t know what her situation was.

00:42:03.758 --> 00:42:05.543
The very next time that I met her

00:42:05.543 --> 00:42:06.785
was when I went to her house,

00:42:06.785 --> 00:42:08.528
and I met her entire family.

00:42:08.528 --> 00:42:10.183
Ken and the children.

00:42:10.183 --> 00:42:13.759
And I learned that although
she really liked Ken,

00:42:13.759 --> 00:42:15.721
the main reason why she married him

00:42:15.721 --> 00:42:19.054
was because she wanted to have a family.

00:42:20.286 --> 00:42:23.133
Over the summer we spent
a lot of time together,

00:42:23.133 --> 00:42:26.990
and I was able to hang out
with the kids, Jomo and Ntombi.

00:42:26.990 --> 00:42:28.657
We had a lot of fun.

00:42:30.156 --> 00:42:32.226
Angela changed my life right away.

00:42:32.226 --> 00:42:34.382
I wanted to take her to
a beach in East Haven,

00:42:34.382 --> 00:42:35.852
because I thought it was lovely,

00:42:35.852 --> 00:42:39.533
and when she said to me, I
don\'t wanna to go to East Haven.

00:42:39.533 --> 00:42:41.516
But I said it\'s a nice beach.

00:42:41.516 --> 00:42:44.120
And she said I\'m not going to East Haven.

00:42:44.120 --> 00:42:48.028
And I just, I just didn\'t understand why.

00:42:48.028 --> 00:42:49.535
Until she said you know,

00:42:49.535 --> 00:42:52.721
black people are not really
welcome in East Haven.

00:42:52.721 --> 00:42:54.489
That was the beginning of understanding

00:42:54.489 --> 00:42:56.656
that I had a lot to learn.

00:42:57.778 --> 00:43:00.278
(piano music)

00:43:02.954 --> 00:43:04.604
A couple of years later she moved

00:43:04.604 --> 00:43:05.838
with the children to Cambridge,

00:43:05.838 --> 00:43:08.505
and we all moved in as a family.

00:43:09.894 --> 00:43:12.262
- Shifting from New Haven to Cambridge

00:43:12.262 --> 00:43:14.782
was not particularly fun for me.

00:43:14.782 --> 00:43:16.164
I loved growing up there.

00:43:16.164 --> 00:43:17.864
I knew the people, the people knew me,

00:43:17.864 --> 00:43:20.510
and going to a bigger city,

00:43:20.510 --> 00:43:21.760
and a new city,

00:43:24.964 --> 00:43:26.036
it was scary.

00:43:26.036 --> 00:43:28.272
- My mother was not Angela Bowen

00:43:28.272 --> 00:43:31.947
of Bowen-Peters, she\'s
now this lesbian activist

00:43:31.947 --> 00:43:34.027
who lives with this white woman,

00:43:34.027 --> 00:43:36.384
and like, how do I ?

00:43:36.384 --> 00:43:38.818
You know, so it was just a lot, a lot,

00:43:38.818 --> 00:43:42.818
a lot of adjustment (chuckles).

00:43:43.720 --> 00:43:45.214
- I missed Dad.

00:43:45.214 --> 00:43:47.207
I didn\'t like being so far away from him,

00:43:47.207 --> 00:43:50.977
and getting along with Jennifer
at first was very difficult.

00:43:50.977 --> 00:43:53.787
Her being in our environment always had

00:43:53.787 --> 00:43:56.477
this certain element of being off-kilter.

00:43:56.477 --> 00:43:57.894
- I knew nothing.

00:43:59.137 --> 00:44:00.516
I knew nothing about children,

00:44:00.516 --> 00:44:01.933
I never wanted to have children,

00:44:01.933 --> 00:44:03.968
I knew I wouldn\'t be
very good with children.

00:44:03.968 --> 00:44:06.770
- We had to rub against each other

00:44:06.770 --> 00:44:09.224
to figure out how to live together.

00:44:09.224 --> 00:44:11.852
- I tried, but I mean, I was clueless.

00:44:11.852 --> 00:44:14.435
So (stammers).

00:44:16.074 --> 00:44:18.872
- I think it\'s only
been, actually, recently.

00:44:18.872 --> 00:44:21.600
Within the past few years that we\'ve

00:44:21.600 --> 00:44:24.658
gotten to a point where
we can interact properly,

00:44:24.658 --> 00:44:25.491
and um,

00:44:27.449 --> 00:44:32.444
and be okay with each
other, and enjoy each other.

00:44:32.444 --> 00:44:34.240
- Angela experienced such freedom

00:44:34.240 --> 00:44:35.904
when she came to Cambridge.

00:44:35.904 --> 00:44:40.047
She knew that she was going
to live a brand new life.

00:44:40.047 --> 00:44:42.648
She was going to claim every part of her.

00:44:42.648 --> 00:44:44.898
(applause)

00:44:46.288 --> 00:44:48.176
- Hi, we\'re back, and we\'re talking about

00:44:48.176 --> 00:44:50.343
the process of coming
out, and what it means,

00:44:50.343 --> 00:44:52.929
yesterday being National Coming Out Day.

00:44:52.929 --> 00:44:55.050
Angela, the question that
I raised before the break.

00:44:55.050 --> 00:44:57.314
If one can discover one is homosexual

00:44:57.314 --> 00:44:59.266
at the age of 40, or 72,

00:44:59.266 --> 00:45:02.905
can you thus rediscover
heterosexuality later?

00:45:02.905 --> 00:45:04.150
- Oh, it\'s happened.

00:45:04.150 --> 00:45:06.820
I think that some people have decided,

00:45:06.820 --> 00:45:09.755
I think probably that
they can\'t take the heat

00:45:09.755 --> 00:45:12.356
of being a lesbian and have turned

00:45:12.356 --> 00:45:13.808
around and gone the other way.

00:45:13.808 --> 00:45:16.488
But the point is, for
someone to go through

00:45:16.488 --> 00:45:18.776
that many years and discover
that they are lesbian

00:45:18.776 --> 00:45:20.518
or a homosexual means that you\'ve got

00:45:20.518 --> 00:45:23.356
a lot of socializing to overcome,

00:45:23.356 --> 00:45:25.044
in order to get to that point.

00:45:25.044 --> 00:45:28.074
So that when you have all
of your heterosexual life

00:45:28.074 --> 00:45:31.235
built up around you and you
can still see through it all,

00:45:31.235 --> 00:45:33.176
see over all these obstacles and say,

00:45:33.176 --> 00:45:35.853
oh this is the feeling
I\'m having, identify it,

00:45:35.853 --> 00:45:37.267
and then live up to it.

00:45:37.267 --> 00:45:39.973
That takes insurmountable courage

00:45:39.973 --> 00:45:43.556
to come out at any age,
but to come through

00:45:44.897 --> 00:45:47.390
a whole heterosexual
existence, have children,

00:45:47.390 --> 00:45:49.030
have all that built up around you

00:45:49.030 --> 00:45:50.760
and say, no, I\'m still feeling this,

00:45:50.760 --> 00:45:52.801
and fight your way past all the obstacles,

00:45:52.801 --> 00:45:57.639
I think anyone who does that
should be totally applauded.

00:45:57.639 --> 00:45:59.751
(audience member speaking
away from microphone)

00:45:59.751 --> 00:46:02.868
- Why if it takes so much courage
to come out of the closet,

00:46:02.868 --> 00:46:05.145
why does there have to be a national day?

00:46:05.145 --> 00:46:07.047
I feel that\'s a way of
rationalizing the fact,

00:46:07.047 --> 00:46:08.751
I think it\'s a psychological problem.

00:46:08.751 --> 00:46:10.089
So it\'s your psychological problem--

00:46:10.089 --> 00:46:12.342
- I think you have a
psychological problem, so what?

00:46:12.342 --> 00:46:13.864
- Why do you need a day to come out?

00:46:13.864 --> 00:46:14.697
That\'s wrong.

00:46:14.697 --> 00:46:17.022
- Well, we have the right to
have a day if we want a day.

00:46:17.022 --> 00:46:19.085
The point is, many of
us came out long before

00:46:19.085 --> 00:46:20.481
there was a day.

00:46:20.481 --> 00:46:21.998
We didn\'t wait for a day to come out.

00:46:21.998 --> 00:46:23.103
I didn\'t wait for a day to come out,

00:46:23.103 --> 00:46:24.829
I\'ve been out for some years.

00:46:24.829 --> 00:46:25.662
- [Man] All right well--

00:46:25.662 --> 00:46:27.291
- I don\'t have to argue with you.

00:46:27.291 --> 00:46:30.892
You\'ve got 364 days a
year, and we took one,

00:46:30.892 --> 00:46:34.106
and we\'ll take it, and if
you don\'t like it, tough.

00:46:34.106 --> 00:46:35.496
- Don\'t you feel you\'re
rationalizing the fact--

00:46:35.496 --> 00:46:36.861
- I don\'t have to rationalize anything,

00:46:36.861 --> 00:46:39.233
I have the same right
to exist as a lesbian

00:46:39.233 --> 00:46:41.213
as I do as a black, as a woman,

00:46:41.213 --> 00:46:43.071
as a mother, and anything else.

00:46:43.071 --> 00:46:45.425
I\'ve got the right to exist as a lesbian.

00:46:45.425 --> 00:46:47.155
(applause)

00:46:47.155 --> 00:46:50.802
♫ Talk radio 68 WRKO

00:46:50.802 --> 00:46:51.989
♫ Boston

00:46:51.989 --> 00:46:53.044
- [Announcer] The state
decides foster children

00:46:53.044 --> 00:46:55.696
will be placed from now on
in traditional home settings.

00:46:55.696 --> 00:46:57.986
- This gay male couple, Babets and Jean,

00:46:57.986 --> 00:47:01.366
fought to have a foster
child in their home,

00:47:01.366 --> 00:47:04.278
and they were denied the right to do that.

00:47:04.278 --> 00:47:05.294
- [Announcer] Starting with you Angela,

00:47:05.294 --> 00:47:08.584
what do you think of both
the House vote yesterday,

00:47:08.584 --> 00:47:10.507
and the Department of Social Service

00:47:10.507 --> 00:47:11.714
policy announcement today?

00:47:11.714 --> 00:47:15.098
- [Angela] I think they were
both blatantly political votes.

00:47:15.098 --> 00:47:17.881
I think they were cowardly and ignorant.

00:47:17.881 --> 00:47:19.337
In just those words.

00:47:19.337 --> 00:47:23.080
- She spoke, she marched,
she went to the Capital

00:47:23.080 --> 00:47:24.680
to speak with politicians.

00:47:24.680 --> 00:47:26.434
She put her body on the line,

00:47:26.434 --> 00:47:29.453
along with a whole lot
of other people too.

00:47:29.453 --> 00:47:32.203
(dramatic music)

00:47:38.449 --> 00:47:40.734
Angela was co-chair of
the National Coalition

00:47:40.734 --> 00:47:43.569
of Black Lesbians and
Gays with A Billy Jones

00:47:43.569 --> 00:47:45.270
who founded the organization.

00:47:45.270 --> 00:47:48.794
It was very important in
identifying the voices

00:47:48.794 --> 00:47:50.666
of black gays and lesbians.

00:47:50.666 --> 00:47:51.734
- Welcome back.

00:47:51.734 --> 00:47:53.304
We were just putting
this conversation about

00:47:53.304 --> 00:47:55.544
whether or not black
people are more homophobic

00:47:55.544 --> 00:47:57.152
than any other ethnic group,

00:47:57.152 --> 00:48:00.581
and the conclusion is no, not necessarily.

00:48:00.581 --> 00:48:03.660
- Often as a representative of the

00:48:03.660 --> 00:48:06.700
National Coalition for
Black Lesbians and Gays,

00:48:06.700 --> 00:48:08.638
I\'m asked to speak various places,

00:48:08.638 --> 00:48:10.968
and one of the topics
that are presented to me

00:48:10.968 --> 00:48:12.748
as something to speak
about by white groups

00:48:12.748 --> 00:48:15.894
primarily will be homophobia
in the black community.

00:48:15.894 --> 00:48:17.387
- As if it\'s different.
- Yes.

00:48:17.387 --> 00:48:19.638
And we don\'t find that there\'s more

00:48:19.638 --> 00:48:21.076
homophobia in the black community

00:48:21.076 --> 00:48:22.560
than there is anywhere else.

00:48:22.560 --> 00:48:24.793
What is difficult about it though,

00:48:24.793 --> 00:48:28.124
is it\'s grievously more painful

00:48:28.124 --> 00:48:31.986
to have homophobia in the
black community toward us

00:48:31.986 --> 00:48:34.725
because we are already
oppressed in so many other ways.

00:48:34.725 --> 00:48:37.211
♫ Ain\'t no backing up now no

00:48:37.211 --> 00:48:40.002
♫ Never, never

00:48:40.002 --> 00:48:42.380
♫ Ain\'t no backing up now no

00:48:42.380 --> 00:48:45.007
♫ Never, never

00:48:45.007 --> 00:48:48.034
- At the same time that the
National March on Washington

00:48:48.034 --> 00:48:51.451
took place was the organizing of the 1979

00:48:52.889 --> 00:48:55.149
3rd World Lesbian and Gay Conference.

00:48:55.149 --> 00:48:58.737
Audre Lord had been announced
as the keynote speaker.

00:48:58.737 --> 00:49:02.138
Now I didn\'t have a
clue who girlfriend was.

00:49:02.138 --> 00:49:04.828
I had never heard of Audre Lord.

00:49:04.828 --> 00:49:09.238
But the women on our board
knew who Audre Lord was.

00:49:09.238 --> 00:49:10.652
- [Angela] The National Conference of

00:49:10.652 --> 00:49:14.687
3rd World Lesbians and Gay
Men, and this march today

00:49:14.687 --> 00:49:17.596
were once only visions of what could be.

00:49:17.596 --> 00:49:20.598
Now all of us have made it our reality.

00:49:20.598 --> 00:49:23.028
Let us carry this solidarity that we are

00:49:23.028 --> 00:49:26.110
professing here today back with us

00:49:26.110 --> 00:49:28.152
into our everyday lives.

00:49:28.152 --> 00:49:32.484
Tomorrow and the day after,
and next week, and next year.

00:49:32.484 --> 00:49:33.820
♫ Shaka shaka

00:49:33.820 --> 00:49:36.836
♫ Tell them and at last my brother

00:49:36.836 --> 00:49:38.177
♫ Tell them, tell them

00:49:38.177 --> 00:49:40.933
♫ That they hitting all of we

00:49:40.933 --> 00:49:42.351
♫ Shaka shaka

00:49:42.351 --> 00:49:45.449
♫ When they make we children suffer

00:49:45.449 --> 00:49:46.823
♫ Tell them, tell them

00:49:46.823 --> 00:49:50.429
♫ They\'ll answer to all of we

00:49:50.429 --> 00:49:53.429
♫ For we are family

00:49:54.623 --> 00:49:57.790
♫ One blood, one soul

00:49:58.991 --> 00:50:02.408
♫ To see our people free

00:50:03.401 --> 00:50:06.484
♫ One task, one goal

00:50:09.444 --> 00:50:10.937
♫ Shaka shaka

00:50:10.937 --> 00:50:13.971
♫ Tell them if they touch Mandela

00:50:13.971 --> 00:50:16.092
♫ Tell them, tell them

00:50:16.092 --> 00:50:18.249
♫ Tell them, tell them

00:50:18.249 --> 00:50:19.680
♫ Tell them, tell them

00:50:19.680 --> 00:50:22.953
♫ They better hit all of we

00:50:22.953 --> 00:50:25.203
(drumming)

00:50:26.226 --> 00:50:28.305
- My battle is about forging alliances

00:50:28.305 --> 00:50:30.555
between people on the left.

00:50:32.244 --> 00:50:35.419
It\'s disturbing what\'s happening today,

00:50:35.419 --> 00:50:39.265
and how they take our history and bury it.

00:50:39.265 --> 00:50:40.966
And journalists love to talk about

00:50:40.966 --> 00:50:43.736
the era of post-feminism.

00:50:43.736 --> 00:50:44.942
Post.

00:50:44.942 --> 00:50:47.192
Does that mean it\'s over?

00:50:47.192 --> 00:50:48.908
Pre-feminism I can understand,

00:50:48.908 --> 00:50:50.340
that\'s before consciousness.

00:50:50.340 --> 00:50:52.139
(laughs)

00:50:52.139 --> 00:50:54.243
But how do you then become unconscious

00:50:54.243 --> 00:50:56.108
once you\'ve become conscious?

00:50:56.108 --> 00:50:58.656
(drumming)

00:50:58.656 --> 00:51:01.852
As Audre says, white people
tend to see black people

00:51:01.852 --> 00:51:05.769
as one giant vat of
homogenized chocolate milk.

00:51:07.221 --> 00:51:09.066
Pat Buchanan said just last week about

00:51:09.066 --> 00:51:10.951
unemployed people in New Hampshire,

00:51:10.951 --> 00:51:12.469
well these people really wanna work,

00:51:12.469 --> 00:51:13.964
they just can\'t find jobs,

00:51:13.964 --> 00:51:17.737
he said in this surprised tone of voice.

00:51:17.737 --> 00:51:20.256
And if we believe what we say we believe,

00:51:20.256 --> 00:51:22.839
we must work for those beliefs.

00:51:24.835 --> 00:51:29.139
We do have much more power
than we\'re using though.

00:51:29.139 --> 00:51:31.689
We never know where we\'re going to be.

00:51:31.689 --> 00:51:33.610
Whatever little piece you can do,

00:51:33.610 --> 00:51:36.459
that you can stand up for
yourself and just do it.

00:51:36.459 --> 00:51:39.816
And find your allies wherever you are.

00:51:39.816 --> 00:51:42.294
(drumming)

00:51:42.294 --> 00:51:44.127
We\'ve only just begun.

00:51:45.716 --> 00:51:46.794
Thank you.

00:51:46.794 --> 00:51:49.044
(applause)

00:51:50.302 --> 00:51:52.219
- I met Angela in 1985.

00:51:53.498 --> 00:51:55.655
At that point I was just coming out.

00:51:55.655 --> 00:51:57.499
- when she met Jacqui Alexander,

00:51:57.499 --> 00:52:00.869
they recognized each other as activists,

00:52:00.869 --> 00:52:04.388
as lesbians, as mothers, as teachers.

00:52:04.388 --> 00:52:06.141
- And one of the things that was

00:52:06.141 --> 00:52:09.501
striking to me about
her, was the strong sense

00:52:09.501 --> 00:52:12.069
then of building lesbian
and gay organizations.

00:52:12.069 --> 00:52:15.605
On a profound level what that
meant was working with men.

00:52:15.605 --> 00:52:17.543
One of the earliest things that we did

00:52:17.543 --> 00:52:21.055
was for Simon Nkoli, a
gay South African activist

00:52:21.055 --> 00:52:22.951
who had been making a national tour.

00:52:22.951 --> 00:52:24.716
- Simon Nkoli was really brave.

00:52:24.716 --> 00:52:26.876
I mean, it was South Africa, right.

00:52:26.876 --> 00:52:31.439
And he was speaking out
against Apartheid, and gay.

00:52:31.439 --> 00:52:33.908
- We had a whole day
long set of workshops,

00:52:33.908 --> 00:52:37.366
and a big night event in
which all representatives

00:52:37.366 --> 00:52:41.603
from the ANC, from different
lesbian and gay organizations

00:52:41.603 --> 00:52:44.835
just came on board, and the
organizing was just phenomenal.

00:52:44.835 --> 00:52:47.667
It was actually a model
for how we would do

00:52:47.667 --> 00:52:50.406
the organizing for the I
Am Your Sister Conference.

00:52:50.406 --> 00:52:52.080
- And you know, South Africa was the first

00:52:52.080 --> 00:52:54.394
country in the world to
include gays and lesbians

00:52:54.394 --> 00:52:57.332
in their constitution, and
it was because Simon Nkoli

00:52:57.332 --> 00:52:59.318
and other people like that spoke up

00:52:59.318 --> 00:53:03.482
at a time when that change was going on.

00:53:03.482 --> 00:53:06.065
(upbeat music)

00:53:14.814 --> 00:53:17.092
- So I became part of
this black lesbian group

00:53:17.092 --> 00:53:19.453
that Angela invited me to be part of.

00:53:19.453 --> 00:53:21.314
There were these discussions that began

00:53:21.314 --> 00:53:25.381
around who one\'s appropriate
partner should be,

00:53:25.381 --> 00:53:26.631
racial partner.

00:53:27.662 --> 00:53:31.395
And the thinking, very, very strong

00:53:31.395 --> 00:53:33.811
brand of nationalist thinking,

00:53:33.811 --> 00:53:35.631
that said that if you
were a black lesbian,

00:53:35.631 --> 00:53:39.247
your partner also had to be
black, and by implication,

00:53:39.247 --> 00:53:43.370
if she wasn\'t black then
you were betraying the race.

00:53:43.370 --> 00:53:46.919
So it\'s that kind of old,
tired, nationalist argument

00:53:46.919 --> 00:53:49.165
that certainly I don\'t think historically

00:53:49.165 --> 00:53:51.769
has gotten us anywhere,
and at that time for me

00:53:51.769 --> 00:53:54.116
it was exceptionally
painful, because I was now

00:53:54.116 --> 00:53:55.766
coming out and this group was called a

00:53:55.766 --> 00:53:58.823
black lesbian support group,
so how are you supporting me

00:53:58.823 --> 00:54:02.156
by telling me that my choice was somehow

00:54:03.999 --> 00:54:07.199
derelict, it was out of order,

00:54:07.199 --> 00:54:10.583
it was not to be entertained,
it was to be given up.

00:54:10.583 --> 00:54:12.926
At that time I was actually
teaching at Brandeis,

00:54:12.926 --> 00:54:16.608
and one of the people organizing
a visit of Audre Lord.

00:54:16.608 --> 00:54:20.286
We had told her where the
breakdown was, and she came.

00:54:20.286 --> 00:54:23.448
At the time Audre was with
Francis, a white woman.

00:54:23.448 --> 00:54:25.705
And so the notion was, that\'s your life.

00:54:25.705 --> 00:54:27.317
It doesn\'t have anything to do with us,

00:54:27.317 --> 00:54:28.919
and it doesn\'t have anything
to do with this group

00:54:28.919 --> 00:54:30.593
and how it is to be constituted.

00:54:30.593 --> 00:54:32.933
And we actually ended
up leaving the group.

00:54:32.933 --> 00:54:33.766
We had to.

00:54:34.778 --> 00:54:37.509
Because you can\'t call
yourself a black lesbian

00:54:37.509 --> 00:54:40.330
support group and then not give support.

00:54:40.330 --> 00:54:42.577
In fact, be downright destructive.

00:54:42.577 --> 00:54:46.283
And sort of leave blood on
the floor, as Audre would say.

00:54:46.283 --> 00:54:50.103
- Do not let the
differences pull you apart.

00:54:50.103 --> 00:54:53.436
Use them, examine them, go through them.

00:54:54.503 --> 00:54:55.753
Grow from them.

00:54:57.023 --> 00:54:58.690
That is empowerment.

00:55:00.361 --> 00:55:02.979
- Angela worked with
Jacqui Alexander to bring

00:55:02.979 --> 00:55:06.099
over 1200 people together
from 23 countries

00:55:06.099 --> 00:55:07.905
while Audre Lord was still alive.

00:55:07.905 --> 00:55:09.978
She had been battling with
cancer for many years,

00:55:09.978 --> 00:55:12.998
and two years later she died.

00:55:12.998 --> 00:55:15.757
- I am a cultural work-up.

00:55:15.757 --> 00:55:17.424
I believe in poetry.

00:55:19.359 --> 00:55:23.276
I believe that all art
makes us more powerfully

00:55:26.001 --> 00:55:30.168
who we wish to become, and
we must be all we can become

00:55:31.548 --> 00:55:35.637
because we need our energy for the battle

00:55:35.637 --> 00:55:37.265
and war it is.

00:55:37.265 --> 00:55:40.853
- [Women] People united
will never be defeated.

00:55:40.853 --> 00:55:42.611
The people united.

00:55:42.611 --> 00:55:43.611
- For Audre.

00:55:44.647 --> 00:55:46.314
Poet, sister, lover,

00:55:48.421 --> 00:55:50.421
friend, teacher, mother.

00:55:52.833 --> 00:55:56.083
May you ever be in the hands of Africa.

00:55:57.159 --> 00:55:59.551
(cheering)

00:55:59.551 --> 00:56:01.933
(speaking foreign language)

00:56:01.933 --> 00:56:04.402
(speaking foreign language)

00:56:04.402 --> 00:56:07.678
(speaking foreign language)

00:56:07.678 --> 00:56:09.910
- The conference went
on for a couple of days.

00:56:09.910 --> 00:56:12.566
All the workshops were
based on Audre Lord\'s work.

00:56:12.566 --> 00:56:14.421
And in the evening we had dancing,

00:56:14.421 --> 00:56:16.722
and we had singing and a lot of fun.

00:56:16.722 --> 00:56:19.639
(\"Blueberry Hill\")

00:56:24.682 --> 00:56:27.682
♫ I found my thrill

00:56:29.698 --> 00:56:32.698
♫ On Blueberry Hill

00:56:35.228 --> 00:56:38.478
♫ Up on Blueberry Hill

00:56:40.164 --> 00:56:43.164
♫ Where I found you

00:56:45.586 --> 00:56:48.836
♫ The moon stood still

00:56:50.863 --> 00:56:53.863
♫ On Blueberry Hill

00:56:55.989 --> 00:56:59.072
♫ And lingered until

00:57:00.867 --> 00:57:04.034
♫ My dreams came true

00:57:05.931 --> 00:57:08.181
(cheering)

00:57:09.813 --> 00:57:12.063
(applause)

00:57:17.887 --> 00:57:20.387
(piano music)

00:57:22.307 --> 00:57:25.130
- One day I came to work, and
signed up on my sign-up sheet

00:57:25.130 --> 00:57:29.297
which I had by my door, was
this person named Angela Bowen.

00:57:30.912 --> 00:57:32.580
And then this woman walked in, and I said,

00:57:32.580 --> 00:57:34.320
do you know about this
person in Connecticut

00:57:34.320 --> 00:57:36.580
that you\'re named after
who is this black woman

00:57:36.580 --> 00:57:38.688
who does all this stuff
with culture and dance,

00:57:38.688 --> 00:57:40.827
and arts, and just movement?

00:57:40.827 --> 00:57:43.728
She says, I think that\'s me (laughs).

00:57:43.728 --> 00:57:45.413
I said, how can it be you?

00:57:45.413 --> 00:57:48.663
- When I had first gone back to college

00:57:49.747 --> 00:57:51.997
to get my B.A. my whole aim

00:57:53.047 --> 00:57:57.484
was simply to get what
they call a legitimate job,

00:57:57.484 --> 00:57:59.679
to help my daughter through college.

00:57:59.679 --> 00:58:01.707
It took a lot of pushing,
so when I was coming

00:58:01.707 --> 00:58:03.721
to the end of it she said to me,

00:58:03.721 --> 00:58:05.399
well what are you gonna do now, Angela?

00:58:05.399 --> 00:58:07.350
And I said I\'m going to get a job and

00:58:07.350 --> 00:58:09.576
help my daughter through
college, that was the point.

00:58:09.576 --> 00:58:12.503
And she said do you know
about this PhD program

00:58:12.503 --> 00:58:14.915
that\'s opening up at Clark University?

00:58:14.915 --> 00:58:17.360
And I said no, but I don\'t want a PhD.

00:58:17.360 --> 00:58:19.300
- She said that I\'m not
that kind of person,

00:58:19.300 --> 00:58:20.133
I\'m an activist.

00:58:20.133 --> 00:58:22.547
I couldn\'t get a PhD because that would

00:58:22.547 --> 00:58:24.677
turn me into something
else, or besides that,

00:58:24.677 --> 00:58:26.562
I wouldn\'t want to be one of those people.

00:58:26.562 --> 00:58:29.159
- You know, it was these women in academia

00:58:29.159 --> 00:58:32.435
writing these theoretical things

00:58:32.435 --> 00:58:34.931
that were not really helping us to

00:58:34.931 --> 00:58:38.353
move this movement forward
and to get things done,

00:58:38.353 --> 00:58:40.433
and to be out there doing the work

00:58:40.433 --> 00:58:42.163
that was gonna change women\'s lives.

00:58:42.163 --> 00:58:44.297
I was such a snob.

00:58:44.297 --> 00:58:46.875
- And I do remember
saying, well I have a PhD,

00:58:46.875 --> 00:58:49.630
and you know, and I
certainly wouldn\'t be proud

00:58:49.630 --> 00:58:52.526
of it if that was all
I was, but it\'s useful,

00:58:52.526 --> 00:58:54.833
and you learn some things,
and it gives you a structure.

00:58:54.833 --> 00:58:58.300
- She then said to me, do
you know Cynthia Enloe?

00:58:58.300 --> 00:58:59.565
And I said, sure I know Cynthia.

00:58:59.565 --> 00:59:01.395
Cynthia was an activist in the community

00:59:01.395 --> 00:59:03.136
as far as I was concerned.

00:59:03.136 --> 00:59:05.552
You know, she\'d be
putting on her backpack,

00:59:05.552 --> 00:59:06.786
and she\'d have her sneakers on,

00:59:06.786 --> 00:59:11.054
and she\'d be going off to
Nicaragua to carry food.

00:59:11.054 --> 00:59:12.191
I was totally shocked.

00:59:12.191 --> 00:59:14.831
I said, Cynthia\'s a professor?

00:59:14.831 --> 00:59:17.576
She said, she\'s been to Clark
University for 25 years.

00:59:17.576 --> 00:59:19.500
She\'s one of the women
who started the program.

00:59:19.500 --> 00:59:21.167
I was flabbergasted.

00:59:23.738 --> 00:59:27.063
- I was thrilled, I must
say, when Angela decided

00:59:27.063 --> 00:59:30.082
that she really wanted
to make the next phase

00:59:30.082 --> 00:59:33.372
in her many phase life an academic phase,

00:59:33.372 --> 00:59:35.362
that she wanted to teach.

00:59:35.362 --> 00:59:38.883
I thought, here\'s a whole
new generation of students

00:59:38.883 --> 00:59:43.050
who would see Angela Bowen
in all her many facets.

00:59:44.265 --> 00:59:45.967
And they\'d have to think, oh,

00:59:45.967 --> 00:59:47.617
that\'s what women\'s studies is.

00:59:47.617 --> 00:59:49.017
But they\'d also have to think,

00:59:49.017 --> 00:59:51.215
oh, you\'re trying to change the world,

00:59:51.215 --> 00:59:53.833
and you\'re inviting me to
change the world with you.

00:59:53.833 --> 00:59:56.183
That\'s what it means to be a professor.

00:59:56.183 --> 00:59:59.216
Oh, I\'d like to be a professor too.

00:59:59.216 --> 01:00:02.133
(orchestral music)

01:00:08.009 --> 01:00:10.509
(piano music)

01:00:11.776 --> 01:00:14.892
- [Jennifer] Angela left Clark in 1996,

01:00:14.892 --> 01:00:16.925
and began teaching at Cal State Long Beach

01:00:16.925 --> 01:00:20.321
in two departments, Women\'s
Studies, and English.

01:00:20.321 --> 01:00:22.170
- When we saw Angela\'s application

01:00:22.170 --> 01:00:24.666
we said, this is it, this
is perfect (chuckles).

01:00:24.666 --> 01:00:26.289
We want this woman (chuckles).

01:00:26.289 --> 01:00:30.428
- When I came on this
campus, i was so delighted.

01:00:30.428 --> 01:00:32.196
It was so diverse.

01:00:32.196 --> 01:00:33.950
It was so large.

01:00:33.950 --> 01:00:38.918
And you encountered every
different kind of Asian person,

01:00:38.918 --> 01:00:43.085
all kind of different Latina,
Chicana, black, white,

01:00:44.211 --> 01:00:47.963
every class, and I said I
would have to come here.

01:00:47.963 --> 01:00:51.411
- Angela was a first for the
Women\'s Studies department

01:00:51.411 --> 01:00:53.494
because she was the first

01:00:54.964 --> 01:00:55.964
tenure track

01:00:58.386 --> 01:00:59.908
woman of color.

01:00:59.908 --> 01:01:01.936
- [Jennifer] Angela was
aware of the history

01:01:01.936 --> 01:01:05.664
of sexism, racism, homophobia,
and ageism in academia.

01:01:05.664 --> 01:01:09.972
So the question was, how
was she going to fit in?

01:01:09.972 --> 01:01:13.300
- Dr. Bowen challenged not only her class,

01:01:13.300 --> 01:01:16.822
but she challenged the
university to be more open,

01:01:16.822 --> 01:01:20.453
especially to feminist
theory and women\'s studies.

01:01:20.453 --> 01:01:22.251
Actually, she pulled
me to the side one day

01:01:22.251 --> 01:01:24.296
after her first day of class,

01:01:24.296 --> 01:01:27.046
and she told me, don\'t be afraid.

01:01:28.311 --> 01:01:30.027
Don\'t be afraid to learn.

01:01:30.027 --> 01:01:33.258
Don\'t be afraid to challenge
traditional curriculum.

01:01:33.258 --> 01:01:35.841
(guitar music)

01:01:45.818 --> 01:01:47.665
- [Jennifer] In Angela\'s
first semester she wanted

01:01:47.665 --> 01:01:49.850
to develop a course on Toni Morrison

01:01:49.850 --> 01:01:51.787
in the English department.

01:01:51.787 --> 01:01:53.905
But it was a white department,

01:01:53.905 --> 01:01:56.037
the literature being taught was white,

01:01:56.037 --> 01:01:59.161
and she got push-back, big time.

01:01:59.161 --> 01:02:01.619
They just didn\'t think that Toni Morrison

01:02:01.619 --> 01:02:03.407
was worthy of a course.

01:02:03.407 --> 01:02:06.091
And there was a battle royale.

01:02:06.091 --> 01:02:08.677
Eventually she got the course through,

01:02:08.677 --> 01:02:10.715
and it was a huge hit.

01:02:10.715 --> 01:02:13.298
(upbeat music)

01:02:28.121 --> 01:02:29.952
- I took Dr. Bowen\'s class my very first

01:02:29.952 --> 01:02:32.746
semester at CSULB, and
Women in Power sounded

01:02:32.746 --> 01:02:35.461
like an interesting class, I
had no idea what to expect.

01:02:35.461 --> 01:02:37.072
On the first day of class she said, okay,

01:02:37.072 --> 01:02:39.926
do you guys wanna read a
bunch of books about power

01:02:39.926 --> 01:02:42.666
and write a research paper
and I\'ll bring a syllabus,

01:02:42.666 --> 01:02:44.852
or do you guys wanna organize
something on your own?

01:02:44.852 --> 01:02:46.696
I was thinking, I don\'t want
to write a research paper,

01:02:46.696 --> 01:02:49.046
so we were like let\'s do the other thing,

01:02:49.046 --> 01:02:51.189
whatever it was, and so, she was like,

01:02:51.189 --> 01:02:54.104
okay, we\'re gonna organize
a conference on campus.

01:02:54.104 --> 01:02:55.737
Basically every week that we met

01:02:55.737 --> 01:02:57.202
it was like a planning meeting.

01:02:57.202 --> 01:03:01.980
- Any time we look in the
mirror and dislike what we see,

01:03:01.980 --> 01:03:04.619
both of us are being manipulated into

01:03:04.619 --> 01:03:07.452
giving up our real power as women.

01:03:09.181 --> 01:03:10.869
- After that it turned us crazy.

01:03:10.869 --> 01:03:12.810
We made a Women\'s Studies
Student Association.

01:03:12.810 --> 01:03:15.032
And we organized
protests, and conferences,

01:03:15.032 --> 01:03:17.040
meetings, film screenings, off campus,

01:03:17.040 --> 01:03:19.355
on campus, coordinated, collaborated.

01:03:19.355 --> 01:03:22.056
It all started from Dr.
Bowen\'s Women in Power class.

01:03:22.056 --> 01:03:24.382
- Everybody who came, we are so grateful.

01:03:24.382 --> 01:03:27.152
We love you for being
here, we love what we did.

01:03:27.152 --> 01:03:29.998
And I\'m so impressed
with every one of \'em.

01:03:29.998 --> 01:03:32.248
(applause)

01:03:33.768 --> 01:03:37.935
It\'s so easy when you enter
academia to hide who you are.

01:03:39.888 --> 01:03:43.314
- She was definitely the
first out black lesbian

01:03:43.314 --> 01:03:45.810
that I ever had as a teacher,

01:03:45.810 --> 01:03:48.642
and even my other teachers
who I was aware of

01:03:48.642 --> 01:03:50.632
the fact that they were lesbians,

01:03:50.632 --> 01:03:53.596
were not as forthcoming with
their sexual orientation,

01:03:53.596 --> 01:03:55.093
and their identity.

01:03:55.093 --> 01:03:57.523
- I come out early in the semester,

01:03:57.523 --> 01:03:59.798
like by the third class generally.

01:03:59.798 --> 01:04:03.503
So that if they want to withdraw they can.

01:04:03.503 --> 01:04:07.455
I made myself know that I
have the right to do that,

01:04:07.455 --> 01:04:11.367
and that other people who
are sitting in that classroom

01:04:11.367 --> 01:04:14.656
besides heterosexual
students also needed to know.

01:04:14.656 --> 01:04:17.569
- Being a lesbian is a
part of who Angela is,

01:04:17.569 --> 01:04:20.133
it\'s a part of who I am,
and that\'s what made her

01:04:20.133 --> 01:04:21.651
such a strong role model to me,

01:04:21.651 --> 01:04:23.679
because I was able to look at this woman

01:04:23.679 --> 01:04:26.685
and be like, this could
be me in the future.

01:04:26.685 --> 01:04:29.715
- My mother exposed to me
shortly after her and my father

01:04:29.715 --> 01:04:33.903
divorced that she has taken
on a female companion.

01:04:33.903 --> 01:04:36.567
I was scared to talk about it.

01:04:36.567 --> 01:04:39.155
But Dr. Bowen\'s course allowed me

01:04:39.155 --> 01:04:40.586
to open up and talk about it,

01:04:40.586 --> 01:04:43.753
and to not be afraid to talk about it.

01:04:44.664 --> 01:04:47.014
- [Jennifer] In her fourth
year Angela applied for tenure

01:04:47.014 --> 01:04:49.333
and promotion to associate professor.

01:04:49.333 --> 01:04:51.330
She was quite surprised when they

01:04:51.330 --> 01:04:54.897
gave her tenure without promotion.

01:04:54.897 --> 01:04:58.094
- I knew she was hurting powerfully.

01:04:58.094 --> 01:05:00.332
- They just saw me as outside the box,

01:05:00.332 --> 01:05:02.837
and I think that I
threatened them in some way.

01:05:02.837 --> 01:05:04.153
Plus having the nerve to be black

01:05:04.153 --> 01:05:08.583
and be a lesbian and be talking
about it, I mean really.

01:05:08.583 --> 01:05:10.129
So they wanted what I brought

01:05:10.129 --> 01:05:12.559
to the Women\'s Studies program,

01:05:12.559 --> 01:05:15.246
but they really didn\'t want me.

01:05:15.246 --> 01:05:18.614
- You\'re black, you\'re a lesbian,
and you\'re an older woman.

01:05:18.614 --> 01:05:22.478
And that older woman may not be willing

01:05:22.478 --> 01:05:26.000
to play the game that has been inscribed

01:05:26.000 --> 01:05:30.590
in American cultural
consciousness of Aunt Jemima.

01:05:30.590 --> 01:05:32.215
Of the mother.

01:05:32.215 --> 01:05:33.852
Of the mother who will suckle,

01:05:33.852 --> 01:05:36.552
of the mother who is the,

01:05:36.552 --> 01:05:39.827
the Dilsey in the Sound and the Fury.

01:05:39.827 --> 01:05:44.220
- [Jennifer] What has
allowed you to endure it,

01:05:44.220 --> 01:05:46.587
and strategize to survive?

01:05:46.587 --> 01:05:49.083
- I think that I survived it because I had

01:05:49.083 --> 01:05:52.385
made up my mind in coming into academia

01:05:52.385 --> 01:05:55.923
that I was already going
somewhere which was alien to me,

01:05:55.923 --> 01:06:00.419
and I wasn\'t looking at it as
something really welcoming.

01:06:00.419 --> 01:06:04.514
I just didn\'t know it was
gonna be so cutthroat.

01:06:04.514 --> 01:06:07.270
- To be tenured without being promoted

01:06:07.270 --> 01:06:10.379
is such a psychological blow.

01:06:10.379 --> 01:06:12.641
If I were her, I think I
would have packed up my bags

01:06:12.641 --> 01:06:15.724
and looked for another job, honestly.

01:06:16.949 --> 01:06:19.202
- [Jennifer] So, I guess the question is,

01:06:19.202 --> 01:06:21.714
how were you able to keep
the focus on your mission

01:06:21.714 --> 01:06:24.939
and your goal in the face of very large

01:06:24.939 --> 01:06:27.873
disappointments within
your own department?

01:06:27.873 --> 01:06:30.290
- Because I have my own self.

01:06:31.141 --> 01:06:33.519
This place doesn\'t define me.

01:06:33.519 --> 01:06:36.105
I know I do good work.

01:06:36.105 --> 01:06:40.123
People love to hear me talk
and they love to read my work.

01:06:40.123 --> 01:06:44.290
So I mean, outside of this,
I can\'t let them define me.

01:06:45.399 --> 01:06:48.613
I can\'t let them make
me not do what I want

01:06:48.613 --> 01:06:50.052
for what I came in here for.

01:06:50.052 --> 01:06:52.437
I didn\'t come in here for
them in the first place.

01:06:52.437 --> 01:06:53.644
I have a goal.

01:06:53.644 --> 01:06:55.810
To spot those people who really,

01:06:55.810 --> 01:06:59.393
who have managed to
pull off pursuing a PhD

01:07:00.737 --> 01:07:03.730
or going very far in whatever field

01:07:03.730 --> 01:07:05.976
they\'re particularly interested.

01:07:05.976 --> 01:07:09.887
The point is to do 10 before I retire.

01:07:09.887 --> 01:07:13.218
- I believe I was walking back
with her back to her office.

01:07:13.218 --> 01:07:15.298
She was asking me what I
do for work, and I said,

01:07:15.298 --> 01:07:16.886
well, I work for Target.

01:07:16.886 --> 01:07:21.053
And she was asking me,
well what plans do you have

01:07:22.561 --> 01:07:24.304
after you finish your bachelors?

01:07:24.304 --> 01:07:26.823
And I said, well, I don\'t know.

01:07:26.823 --> 01:07:29.656
And she said, well have you
thought about graduate school?

01:07:29.656 --> 01:07:31.446
So I really gave it some thought.

01:07:31.446 --> 01:07:33.467
- Well, before I met Dr. Bowen my goal

01:07:33.467 --> 01:07:36.469
was to be a truck driver just
like the rest of my uncles

01:07:36.469 --> 01:07:37.976
and just keep that going,
because I could see that

01:07:37.976 --> 01:07:40.082
there was enough money to sustain life,

01:07:40.082 --> 01:07:41.697
and they were still happy people.

01:07:41.697 --> 01:07:44.026
It wasn\'t until I got into
Women of Color in America

01:07:44.026 --> 01:07:45.638
class with Dr. Bowen that something

01:07:45.638 --> 01:07:47.808
had actually crossed my
mind as a possibility,

01:07:47.808 --> 01:07:48.894
and that was the possibility

01:07:48.894 --> 01:07:50.336
of obtaining a doctorate degree.

01:07:50.336 --> 01:07:53.816
- She used to challenge me
to go into a PhD program.

01:07:53.816 --> 01:07:56.157
In which I\'ve taken her up on the offer.

01:07:56.157 --> 01:07:59.564
- I don\'t know anyone like her.

01:07:59.564 --> 01:08:03.647
She\'s a great person, and
I really feel this way.

01:08:06.390 --> 01:08:10.914
I wouldn\'t be in graduate
school if it wasn\'t for her.

01:08:10.914 --> 01:08:14.580
(\"Pomp and Circumstance\")

01:08:14.580 --> 01:08:17.353
- I had heard all about
the lives that she changed,

01:08:17.353 --> 01:08:19.666
and the consciousnesses that she\'d raised,

01:08:19.666 --> 01:08:22.420
and the coming outs that she\'d encouraged,

01:08:22.420 --> 01:08:24.838
or inspired, and also of course the work

01:08:24.838 --> 01:08:28.010
that she\'d done with the
Resource Center for five years.

01:08:28.010 --> 01:08:30.802
I\'d like to introduce to
you Professor Angela Bowen

01:08:30.802 --> 01:08:32.180
of the Women\'s Studies department

01:08:32.180 --> 01:08:34.354
at California State University Long Beach.

01:08:34.354 --> 01:08:36.562
(applause)

01:08:36.562 --> 01:08:38.836
- I\'m honored to be speaking here

01:08:38.836 --> 01:08:41.343
where such an event as
a lavender alternative

01:08:41.343 --> 01:08:45.309
graduation can be held,
and not in defiance,

01:08:45.309 --> 01:08:49.347
but in celebration and
respect supported by students,

01:08:49.347 --> 01:08:52.821
families, friends, faculty,
and administration,

01:08:52.821 --> 01:08:56.561
a large number of them
heterosexual allies.

01:08:56.561 --> 01:09:00.021
How far, how very far we have come,

01:09:00.021 --> 01:09:02.957
and let\'s face it, how
far we have yet to go.

01:09:02.957 --> 01:09:04.607
And as my mother used to say,

01:09:04.607 --> 01:09:08.207
we as black folks needed
to keep pushing for change

01:09:08.207 --> 01:09:11.745
by helping to move the line forward.

01:09:11.745 --> 01:09:15.073
You didn\'t have to do it all at once.

01:09:15.073 --> 01:09:18.573
(\"Pomp and Circumstance\")

01:09:30.295 --> 01:09:32.488
I say it in class, I say you know,

01:09:32.488 --> 01:09:34.802
look at you all sitting here knowing

01:09:34.802 --> 01:09:36.584
that you\'ve got all
this life ahead of you,

01:09:36.584 --> 01:09:38.754
and all the different
things that you can do.

01:09:38.754 --> 01:09:41.754
You don\'t have to just do one thing.

01:09:46.180 --> 01:09:49.263
(\"My Mother\'s Eyes\")

01:09:52.276 --> 01:09:56.193
♫ One bright and guiding light

01:09:59.260 --> 01:10:03.427
♫ That taught me wrong from right

01:10:05.147 --> 01:10:08.980
♫ I found in my mother\'s eyes

01:10:17.436 --> 01:10:21.103
♫ Those baby tales she told

01:10:23.859 --> 01:10:27.859
♫ That road all paved with gold

01:10:29.243 --> 01:10:31.910
♫ I found in my

01:10:34.248 --> 01:10:36.915
♫ Mother\'s eyes

01:10:40.832 --> 01:10:45.121
♫ And now the end is near

01:10:45.121 --> 01:10:47.786
♫ And so I face

01:10:47.786 --> 01:10:50.869
♫ That final curtain

01:10:52.335 --> 01:10:56.085
♫ My friends I\'ll say to you

01:10:57.288 --> 01:11:01.455
♫ And state my case of which I\'m certain

01:11:03.258 --> 01:11:07.258
♫ I\'ve lived a life that\'s full

01:11:08.299 --> 01:11:12.466
♫ I\'ve traveled each and every highway

01:11:16.241 --> 01:11:19.791
♫ And more, much more than this

01:11:19.791 --> 01:11:22.624
♫ I did it my way

01:11:25.497 --> 01:11:28.997
♫ Regrets, I\'ve had a few

01:11:32.223 --> 01:11:36.390
♫ But then again, too few to mention

01:11:38.893 --> 01:11:42.726
♫ I did just what I had to do

01:11:43.833 --> 01:11:48.000
♫ And saw it through without exemption

01:11:49.796 --> 01:11:53.629
♫ I planned each careful step

01:11:55.415 --> 01:11:59.082
♫ Each step along the byway

01:12:03.114 --> 01:12:05.898
♫ And more, much more than this

01:12:05.898 --> 01:12:08.731
♫ I did it my way

01:12:12.634 --> 01:12:15.661
♫ Yes there were times

01:12:15.661 --> 01:12:18.497
♫ I\'m sure you knew

01:12:18.497 --> 01:12:22.664
♫ When I bit off much
more than I could chew

01:12:24.178 --> 01:12:28.345
♫ But through all when there was doubt

01:12:29.806 --> 01:12:32.020
♫ I ate it up

01:12:32.020 --> 01:12:35.618
♫ And spat it out

01:12:35.618 --> 01:12:38.569
♫ I faced it all

01:12:38.569 --> 01:12:41.429
♫ And I stood tall

01:12:41.429 --> 01:12:44.429
♫ And did it my way

01:12:48.137 --> 01:12:52.304
♫ I\'ve loved, I\'ve laughed and cried

01:12:53.687 --> 01:12:57.854
♫ I\'ve had my fill, my share of losing

01:12:59.733 --> 01:13:03.316
♫ And now as tears subside

01:13:05.685 --> 01:13:09.768
♫ I found it all just so amusing

01:13:12.067 --> 01:13:16.265
♫ Just to think I did all that

01:13:16.265 --> 01:13:19.153
♫ And may I say

01:13:19.153 --> 01:13:22.070
♫ Not in a sly way

01:13:23.323 --> 01:13:24.959
♫ Who me

01:13:24.959 --> 01:13:28.027
♫ Oh no, not me

01:13:28.027 --> 01:13:30.860
♫ I did it my way

01:13:33.994 --> 01:13:37.103
♫ For what is a woman

01:13:37.103 --> 01:13:39.714
♫ What has she got

01:13:39.714 --> 01:13:42.237
♫ If not herself

01:13:42.237 --> 01:13:45.555
♫ Then she has naught

01:13:45.555 --> 01:13:49.722
♫ To say the things she truly feels

01:13:51.743 --> 01:13:55.910
♫ And not the words of one who kneels

01:13:57.719 --> 01:14:01.886
♫ The record shows I took the blows

01:14:03.440 --> 01:14:08.005
♫ The record shows I took the blows

01:14:08.005 --> 01:14:10.461
♫ Let that record show

01:14:10.461 --> 01:14:13.777
♫ That I took the blows

01:14:13.777 --> 01:14:16.777
♫ And did it my way

01:14:21.314 --> 01:14:25.481
(cheering)
(applause)