How Harry Belafonte embraced Black culture in music
On September 21, 1998, Harry Belafonte spoke about the intersection of music and race and the influence that Paul Robeson had on his career and the Black community as a whole. Interview conducted for “American Masters—Paul Robeson: Here I Stand” (1999), directed by St. Clair Bourne.
Chapters:
00:00 – The plight of African Americans
03:02 – When Harry Belafonte met Paul Robeson
06:57 – How Africa was represented through Robeson’s music
07:51 – Choosing to make Eurocentric music erases the “inner soul”
09:03 – Robeson’s embrace of the history and dignity of Black people
09:50 – Spiritual music was a vehicle for the Black community to express themselves
11:16 – The perception versus the reality of Caribbean music
12:33 – How “The Banana Boat Song” represented the working class
13:53 – Final conversations with Robeson
15:32 – “The essence of life… is in fact, the journey itself.”
The American Masters Digital Archive includes over 1,000 hours of never-before-seen, raw interviews: a treasure trove of the movers and shakers of American culture, including Maya Angelou, Patti Smith, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Matthew Broderick, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Dionne Warwick, Lee Grant, Sidney Lumet, Betty White and many others.
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