A00005 - Sidney Poitier, R.I.P.

 

It was with deep sadness that I heard and read about the passing of Sidney Poitier

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/07/movies/sidney-poitier-dead.html

For me, as an African American coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s, the two great role models were Martin Luther King and Sidney Poitier.  Their racial integrationist philosophies were the ones that I adopted as my own, and are the philosophies which continue to guide me to this day.

Over the next few days, I am sure that I will remember many of Mr. Poitier's roles.  However, the one that I am most attached to is his portrayal of a teacher in To Sir with Love

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Sir,_with_Love

Later in life, I learned that this portrayal is based on the real life story of E. R. Braithwaite

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._R._Braithwaite

However, Poitier's portrayal of a black man who becomes the father figure for a class of predominantly white students was a remarkable statement in 1967,

Yesterday, while watching the BBC World News, his photo was accompanied by the underlying title "Sir Sidney Poitier".  I subsequently read his New York Times obituary which confirmed that he had been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and his wikipedia bio which notes the following:

He was also named a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974, which as a Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time, entitled him to the prefix "Sir".^[118

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier

So, in my Friday tradition, it seems only appropriate to listen to Lulu sing a most appropriate tribute song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXaEf4ktpPA

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Fairfield, California

January 8, 2022

A00004 - Meklit Hadero

 

It is Christmas Eve and I am about to begin my Christmas tradition of watching Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth.  However, before doing so, I wanted to note that there is much trouble in the world and one of the more troublesome places is Ethiopia.  Those familiar with what is going on there cry out for the horror to stop  ... but it does not.  There is not much I can do to change what is.  However, I will note that the Bay Area has a large Ethiopian community and sometimes, because of my height and skin coloration, even Ethiopians ask me if I am from Ethiopia.  Well, I am not, but during my life I have had cultural connections to Ethiopia.  One of the more recent cultural connections is through the Ethiopian born Meklit Hadero.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meklit_Hadero

You can learn more about her through this NPR interview

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125120472

and you can glimpse her talent through her channeling Nina Simone through this rendition of "Feeling Good"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TojsZnspz0

However, the cultural connection that Meklit Hadero made with me is through her collaboration with the Kronos Quartet on the spirit filled "The President Sang Amazing Grace".  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBQOQVsdzbE

Perhaps, in this song, we can find solace and comfort from this world of trouble and sin. My friends, as always, it is my sincere wish that your Christmas and all your days be filled with

Peace, 

Everett Jenkins

Fairfield, California

December 24, 2021

A00003 - Tio Feco y El Rey

 

A little over a week ago, there was the notice of the passing of "El Rey", Vicente Fernandez

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/12/arts/music/vicente-fernandez-dead.html

I probably would have not paid much attention to this obituary, except that this notice reminded me of Felix Diaz, Tio Feco (see the email below).  I actually attended the memorial service for Felix Diaz.  I intended to speak but before I could get up to tell my high jump story, one of my Bell View Heights neighbors got up and told a story that dwarfed my own.  My Bell View Heights neighbor happened to be one of the best basketball players in the history of Victor Valley Senior High School.  However, his older brother was arguably the best.  To the best of my knowledge, Victorville has produced only one professional basketball player, and that was his brother. The two brothers starred at VVHS during the mid-1960s and everyone in the neighborhood idolized them.

My Bell View Heights neighbor said that he felt compelled to speak because Felix Diaz had spoken at his father's memorial service, at his mother's memorial service, ... and at his brother's memorial service ... the same brother who played for one year in the NBA.  Felix spoke at each of these memorial services because he was a close friend of the family.  In the 1950s, when he met my neighbor's father, and learned that he was born on Veteran's Day, the patriotic Uncle Feco -- Tio Feco -- made a point of sending my neighbor's father a birthday card in celebration of the day and his birth.  He sent a card to him every year for the next 42 years.  My neighbor recounted how Felix Diaz would often have his entire family over for dinner, and these fellow barrio boys would eat their fill.  During the heyday of their high school basketball career, Felix Diaz surprised the two basketball stars by driving their parents the 90 miles to the God forsaken town of Ridgrecrest (trust me it is more remote than Victorville) just so their parents could see them play.  Uncle Feco made no distinctions based on color... we were all from across the railroad tracks and that made us brothers.

The passing of Vicente Fernandez reminded me of Felix Diaz because, at his memorial service, I learned for the first time that Felix Diaz had his own mariachi band and that singing such music was one of the passions of his life.  Thus, while listening to the operatic machismo of Vicente Fernandez's A Mi Manero 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F_BRjGi3L8

or the heartbreak of his Por Tu Maldito Amor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoMOJ3vIIhI

or the sentimental longing of his Volver, Volver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZVKe_0n7tg

I found myself hearing a bit of Tio Feco in El Rey, and smiling at the memory.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Class of 1975

-----Original Message-----
From: skipjen2865@aol.com
To: 
Sent: Wed, Oct 20, 2021 4:32 am
Subject: Felix Diaz, R.I.P.

This past weekend I attended my 50 Year High School Reunion in Victorville, California.  It was a great event which afforded me the opportunity to chat with friends, some of who go as far back as 1959 when I was in first grade at Eva Dell Elementary School.  The reunion was unique in that we celebrated with the Class of 1970.  Because of COVID, the Class of 1970 was not able to have their reunion last year, so the organizers for both classes got together and had a joint reunion.

One of the highlights of this joint reunion was that I got to dance ... something I never did while in high school.  And one of the great accomplishments was that I got the opportunity to dance with one of the prettiest and brightest girls from the Class of 1970.  God is good, very good indeed.

After the dance, I began to make my rounds to say my final goodbyes.  After all, sadly, this might be the last time I would see some of these folks so I wanted to give those I knew one last hug.  Just as I was about to exit, it was announced that Felix Diaz, a beloved teacher and community leader had passed away that very night.   

https://www.vvdailypress.com/story/news/2021/10/19/victorville-community-leader-and-army-veteran-felix-diaz-dies-87/8514854002/

The barrio that Felix Diaz emerged from is the same barrio where I graduated from elementary school in 1965.

In many ways, we came from the same roots ... with many of the same values.  The following is an article that explains more profoundly Felix Diaz's philosophy.

https://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20110711/LIFESTYLE/307119991

Obviously, Felix Diaz was a good, decent man who mentored many during his long life.  One of those he mentored happened to be me.  Felix "Uncle Feco" Diaz was my high jump coach in 1969 (my first year in high school) when I first learned how to do the "Western roll".  Thanks to Uncle Feco, I learned how to do the Western roll well enough to set the "Class C" High Jump record at Victor Valley High School, my first and only significant athletic achievement.   However, in learning the Western roll, Uncle Feco taught a philosophy that I have carried with me to this day.  He would tell us to aim at leaping three inches above the bar.  An amazing concept which seems to defy logic but which actually tended to work. Later in life, I came to adopt this as my high jump philosophy of life.  Aim higher than you actually anticipate needing to achieve.

Later in life, I became aware of a Chinese proverb with the same philosophy: "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you will still be among the stars."

I thank Felix Diaz for teaching me this lesson ... and I thank him for helping me to learn how to fly.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Amherst College Class of 1975

Victor Valley Senior High School Class of 1971

A00002 - Meditations on Rumi: The Music of Shujaat Khan

 According to NPR's The World, the best selling poet in the United States for the last twenty years is the Afghanistan born Sufi mystic, Rumi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi

Rumi's poetry is filled with love and passion and it is spiritual. It is difficult to convey the feelings that it conveys, however, a recent musical offering from Shujaat Khan's This Pale begins to convey what is so important about the work of Rumi.  If you are wishing for a brief respite from this world, please listen to these selections and pause to meditate in the world of Rumi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oER4L2heyc0&list=RD29b_QKhqamo&index=3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkOH0dacov4&list=RD29b_QKhqamo&index=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29b_QKhqamo&list=RD29b_QKhqamo&index=2

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Fairfield, California

December 10, 2021

A00001 - Songs for Native American Heritage Month

 In connection with my Alumni activities for Amherst College, for the last ten years I have been an active "facilitator" for both the Black Alumni listserv and the Class of 1975 listserv. This past week, I posted an item entitled "Songs for Native American Heritage Month".  This post continues to move me, so I decided that it should be the first "regular" post for this new beginning.  I hope that it moves you as well.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Fairfield, California

November 28, 2021

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In the United States, November is Native American Heritage Month 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_Indian_Heritage_Month

and this year is a special anniversary marking the 400th anniversary of the "First Thanksgiving"

www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/thanksgiving.htm

In celebration of this coming together of two peoples in a harvest of peace, I resume a Friday tradition of sharing music by presenting four selections of some of my favorite Native American musical artists. 

The first is "Until the Eagle Falls" sung by Janice Marie Johnson, the lead singer for A Taste of Honey whose "Boogie Oogie Oogie" is a disco classic.  According to Wikipedia, 

"Janice-Marie Johnson, who is of Stockbridge-Munsee-Mohican heritage according to her website's biography, was inducted in the Native American Music Association Hall of Fame in 2008."

Here is "Until the Eagle Falls"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqhd6yMUWFI

The second is a cover of Sam Cooke's classic "A Change is Gonna Come" sung by Jana Mashonee,  According to Wikipedia,

"Jana is a Native American of Lumbee and Tuscarora descent. She was first introduced to music by her father (who is a singer and drummer).^[2] The surname Mashonee was a native name given to Jana by her family. Of the Siouan language, the translation means "money belt."

Here is her "soulful" rendition of "A Change is Gonna Come"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbCq2sCGqjU

The third is a spirit filled remembrance of Manitoba days, William Prince's "Gospel First Nation".  According to Wikipedia, 

"Born in Selkirk, Manitoba, Prince's family moved to Peguis First Nation when he was a boy.  Prince's father was also a musician and preacher, who recorded a number of albums, and Prince travelled with his father playing gigs in northern Manitoba."

Here is "Gospel First Nation"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU2iejDT7eQ

The fourth is an instrumental that I often play when I return to Amherst College and want to honor those who have gone before ... all those who have gone before.  The song is "Amazing Grace" by R. Carlos Nakai.  According to Wikipedia, 

"Raymond Carlos Nakai was born in Flagstaff, Arizona on April 16, 1946, to a family of Navajo and Ute descent."

and here is his blessed rendition of "Amazing Grace"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulm_pw3Su5s&list=OLAK5uy_nP1csQQcLA0ANJ7yIgoTl3G5OFfEka2Vc&index=13

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Seals & Croft - "Summer Breeze"

 

A wave of nostalgia and sadness washed over me today after reading about the passing of Jim Seals

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/arts/music/jim-seals-dead.html

and recalling so profoundly the memories associated with his signature song from a summer from half a century ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQQbjpomexo

Ahhh, time flies .... but thank God some memories do remain.

Peace, 

Everett Jenkins

Fairfield, California 

June 7, 2022

Maze - "Golden Time of Day"

  

I am retired now.  There is no longer a need to commute to anywhere nor to engage in office politics.  These days, one of the highlights is to venture out to my backyard to check on my strawberry plants and to watch the sky turn golden as the sun sets.  In so many ways, these are the golden years, and I live in the Golden State where tomorrow my Golden State Warriors shall resume their quest for the golden trophy.  Life is good ... indeed, it is golden and every day there is a golden time of day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGJXN4vEdXc

Peace,

Everett Jenkins

Fairfield, California

May 17, 2022