Sistas' Place

Craig Harris’ “Brown Butterfly” Liner Notes

Sista — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 03:12:13 +0000

Brown Butterfly

“Moving clockwise, continuing that famed shuffle of his,

Clay–with his hands down…looks like a dancer up there, the way he bobs and weaves, for a man of 212 pounds.”

Announcer Les Keiter at the start of the Ali- Cleveland Williams fight.

The music in this two-CD collection is a tribute to the genius of Muhammad Ali.

And much more.

Brown Butterfly is Craig Harris’s tribute to the magical attributes that have sustained African Americans for more than 400 years: Weightlessness, grace, speed an ability to walk in space.

“I’m telling the story about one of my greatest heroes,” Harris says. “I’m celebrating the physical contributions of this sound architect. Muhammad Ali was a composer.”

In preparation for recording the music in this collection, Harris studied several aspects of Ali’s life. He studied his personal life and his religious beliefs. He took fight films apart, watched them in slow motion and watched the fights speeded up.

Craig assembled footage of several Ali fights and watched them without the sound. He wanted to take in the breath-taking magic of Ali’s dance. “He was like music in motion,” Harris says.

As Harris watched fight film, he jotted down rhythms that corresponded with Ali’s feints, jabs and shuffles. With the rhythmic patterns on paper, Harris added melody and harmony, then he gave the charts to his band. During rehearsals, he had the musicians look at the film and allowed them to improvise their own interpretation of the ballet they were watching.

When Ali made a particularly incredible move, Harris pointed it out and shouted “‘Play that! Play that!’ What I had to convey was that this was about a dance, not a fight. It’s a dance. His physical gestures are so musical. He’s just not boxing, he’s an extension of the African American continuum, which comes out of Africa.”

Brown Butterfly is the reflective journey that every African American living in the United States must make if he or she is to be truly free. A journey through fear, through brainwashing and finally to embracing the power and majesty of blackness. Harris, 63, took that journey, for as a young boy growing up on Long Island, he was afraid of Ali. Many blacks were. “He scared me at first,” Harris says, “I’d never seen an African American talk that much shit.”

Ali took the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston in February 1964, in a fight that remains one of the great upsets in boxing history.

More than a title changed hands.

Muhammad Ali changed boxing the way Charlie Parker and John Coltrane changed music.

Harris’s family–his uncles in particular–were Sonny Liston fans.

Liston was the Bear, powerful, lumbering menacing. He was an ex-bouncer, an enforcer with possible mob ties. Liston was the classic heavyweight, out of the Joe Louis mold, who looked to knock out an opponent as quickly as possible.

Liston lumbered.

“Ali was unorthodox, he did it all wrong. Moving backward and throwing punches. No fighter ever moved backward throwing punches,” Harris says. “People told him ‘You’re going to get knocked out.’ That’s what really drew me to him: fighting with his hands down, his whole style, his innovation as a heavyweight boxer.”

Ali represented a new, unapologetic view of boxing and blackness. “Ali broke the mold,” Harris says. “He comes along with this whole other kind of look. He scared a lot of people.”

I have watched that 1964 fight with Liston several times over the years.

What I didn’t see until recently was that Ali ignored the parade of fighters being brought into the ring during the introductions–until the great Sugar Ray Robinson was introduced. When Robinson went over to Ali’s corner, Ali bowed—twice—in deference and respect to Robinson.

Sugar Ray Robinson was to Muhammad Ali as Lester Young had been to Charlie Parker. Speed up many of Lester Young’s solos and you hear Bird.

“Charlie Parker took inspiration from Lester Young’s rhythmic innovations and added notes and velocity,” Harris says.

“All Ali did was take Sugar Ray Robinson’s style and put it on his 6 foot 3 inch 225 pound frame,” Harris explains. “That is the essence of innovation and, Harris argues, the African American creative mystique. “Our goal is to take something and do something with it,” Harris says. “That’s what we do. It’s the Hoodoo that we do, with that past present and future view.”

For all the history of the 1964 Ali-Liston fight, Craig said his favorite fight was Ali’s November 14th bout with Cleveland “Big Cat” Williams.

The Williams fight marked the first time Harris became aware of the magic of Ali’s movement. Here was a 6 foot 3 inch, 212-pound heavyweight boxer moving like the wind. In the pre-fight hype, writers pointed out that Big Cat Williams, at 6 foot 3, 225 pounds, was fast and quick for his size. Hence the nickname, Big Cat.

Ali made Williams look like a tortoise and knocked him out in the second round.

“I said ‘this is it. This cat is really bad.’ ”

Less than a year after that fight, in June 1967, Ali was convicted of draft evasion and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was a pariah to some, a hero to many more.

As the former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson said much later when asked the difference between himself and Ali, “I was a boxer. Ali was history.”

So it was for 12-year-old Craig Harris, who began to see Ali in a totally different light. “When he refused to be drafted, he became an icon.”

Harris joined the Sun Ra Arkestra in 1976 at age 22. His tenure in the band set the stage for a convergence of artistic genres: dance, poetry, drama. A year after Harris joined Sun Ra. The Arkestra went to Nigeria to participate in FESTAC 1977. FESTAC celebrated African culture.

While he was in Nigeria Harris saw a man about 5 foot 4 run up the side of a wall. “He went about 10 feet, straight up the wall. No gimmicks, no nothing.” Harris says. “He defied gravity and ran up that wall—perpendicular.”

“This was more than athleticism. It’s the coming together of the body and the mind– and you have to have technique to do that. You defy nature. That’s what Ali did. That’s what Connie Hawkins did and Elgin Baylor and Michael Jordan and LeBron James did.”

The FESTAC experience put Harris on a path that eventually led to the creation of Brown Butterfly. He began to see Ali– and other black innovators—through an entirely different prism. “I began looking at Charlie Parker artistically, I began looking at what these people do, not just the technical thing. It’s about the magic and spirit of what they do.”

Harris returned from that trip to Africa with a widened worldview of the African creative instinct and a deep appreciation for creating one’s own shot. “It’s not enough to just imitate, you have to create. Imitation is fine, but in our world, that ain’t it. What do you add to the Continuum?”

The foundation of Craig’s inspiration from Ali is summed up by the phrase “Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee.” This is more than a clever slogan. It is the national anthem of the black presence in sports.

Defying physics.

It’s the 300 pound lineman who can run down a speedy halfback—the 7-footer who is as nimble as a 5 foot 11 player; the 5 foot 11 player who dunks.

But it’s also John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. It’s J. J. Johnson, the innovator on Craig’s instrument, the trombone, playing fast, graceful lines. It’s that innovation that we create as African people.”

In 1988, Harris began writing pieces that went outside the so-called straight jazz world.

He went beyond playing traditional concerts and started incorporating other disciplines into his music and reaching out to younger artists. He was combining forms and discovering powerful ways to attract a wider audience without compromising the music.

“Our audience was dwindling. A good way to expand the audience for the music is to start working in other genres: modern dance, poetry, theater,” Harris says. Today Harris is dedicated to passing the torch through teaching, expanding the audience beyond category and labels.

“Craig has always tried to remain open to everything that’s happening simultaneously,” says musician/producer Bill Toles. “He’s a really good vehicle for younger performers.”

Toles was a member of the Black Rock Coalition in 1988 when he met Harris. Toles played a major role in the original stage production of Brown Butterfly in 2002.

“When we first did Brown Butterfly we had a young saxophonist with us who was just incredible,” Toles said. “Craig hunts these people, out in the tradition of Art Blakey and all the people who made sure that they’re relating to the next generation and pulling them through this music.”

Says Harris: “That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. Reaching out to the next generation and telling our stories. I always go into the heritage of African Americans to find work, and I’m unapologetic about it because if I don’t do the piece on Ali, who’s going to do it? If we don’t tell these stories, who’s going to do it?”

In this collection, Craig Harris tells a convincing story. Brown Butterfly is a timeless soundtrack to Muhammad Ali’s divine, eternal dance.

– – – – – – – – – – –

Hear excerpts and purchase the Brown Butterfly tribute to Muhammad Ali CD by Craig Harris.

Liner notes by Craig Harris.

Get a PDF version of these liner notes.

Emergency Zoom Webinar on “The Role of the CBC in U.S. Foreign Policy Against Africa.”

Sista — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 09:04:20 +0000

Thursday, June 16th, 2022 at 7 pm we invite you to join us for an emergency national Zoom webinar on “The Role of the CBC in U.S. Foreign Policy Against Africa.” The webinar will examine and expose the U.S.’s foreign/economic interests in Africa and the role which the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), in general, and Cong. Gregory Meeks, Chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, in particular, plan in this naked attempt to crush Africa’s right to self-determination and an independent foreign policy. Register at https://bit.ly/independentafricanpolicy.

On April 27^th, the House of Representatives passed Queens Congressman Gregory Meeks’ bill “Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act.” The bill is currently in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The bill is the U.S. government’s strongarm response to Africa’s refusal to vote for the UN resolution condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine. U.S. UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s condescending statement that “we have to do additional work to help these countries to understand the impact of Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine” is saying that Africans do not have the right or intelligence to independently chart a foreign policy in their own interests.

Ironically, the “malign influence and activities” which the bill accuses Russia of conducting in Africa: “(i) manipulate African governments and their policies, as well as the public opinions and voting preferences of African populations and diaspora groups, including those in the United States; and (ii) invest in, engage or otherwise control strategic sectors in Africa, such as mining and other forms of natural resource extraction and exploitation, military basing and other security cooperation agreements, and information and communication technology” are the very things which the U.S. and Europe have been doing since Africans fought and won political independence.

Garvey, DuBois, Patterson, Robeson, Martin and Malcolm called our attention to the importance of Africa to the struggles of Black people in the United States. The first national African Liberation Day rally was held in Washington DC in May 1972. There CBC members Charles Diggs (MI) and Ron Dellums (CA) spoke in support of the African national liberation struggles being waged against apartheid and colonialism in South Africa, Namibia, Rhodesia [Zimbabwe], Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau.

Yet in 2022, we have Black Congresspeople essentially paving the path for the U.S./EU to recolonize Africa.

Spread the word and join us Thursday, June 16th at 7 pm! Register at https://bit.ly/independentafricanpolicy.

Get 11″ by 8.5″ flyer (PDF).

For more information contact 718-398-1766 or d12m@aol.com.

Viola Plummer, Last of Original December 12th Movement Co-Founders, Rests; Struggle Continues

Sista — Sat, 14 Jan 2017 07:12:58 +0000

Article last updated January 17, 2024.
By Nayaba Arinde,
Editor-at-Large.
Gratefully reprinted from Our Time Press (original article).

On the day after the January 15th death of Viola Plummer, friends and family gathered at her Sista’s Place jazz and community venue in Bed-Stuy, to commune, reminisce, and share food prepared by Attorney Esmeralda Simmons and others. Tears were held, but barely. Toasts were made to bless her journey, as her favorite song The Commodores ‘Heroes’ played in the background. “Viola Plummer was the last of the five original core founders of the December 12th Movement: Sonny Abubadika Carson, Coltrane Chimurenga, Elombe Brath, and Father Lucas, they are all gone now,” activist Omowale Clay told Our Time Press.

A snowstorm swept through New York City on Dr. Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 15th, 2024, as news broke of the passing of activist Viola Plummer, 86, co-founder of the Bed Stuy, Brooklyn-based civil and human rights organization, The December 12th Movement.

In the official announcement Tuesday evening, Attorney Roger Wareham of The Movement said, “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the Black Liberation Movement’s loss of Comrade Viola Plummer, Chairperson of the December 12th Movement.

Preliminary funeral arrangements at press time have a private wake in Queens on Friday, January 26, 2024, and a public funeral at Rev. Herbert Daughtry’s House of the Lord Church (415 Atlantic Avenue, Downtown Brooklyn) at 5 pm on Saturday, January 27th, 2024.

Charles Barron, former Assemblyman/City Councilman, told Our Time Press. “My heart Is heavy, and my tears are soaking my soul! My beloved friend of over 40 years has gone.” With Viola Plummer passing on Dr. King’s national holiday, Charles Barron continued, “It is fitting that two people who loved our people will now be forever linked in history. My sister Viola Plummer was completely committed to our community.”‘It snowed heavily because this is how the strong ones leave their mark,” said Divine Allah, Youth Minister of the New Black Panther Party. “She was a bold, fearless, uncompromising Black woman. She was our sister, mother, grandmother, and auntie – our Powerful Black Warrior Queen. We are already missing her. We are thankful that we knew her, though, and we are grateful that we were able to be led and taught by her.”

Rev. Herbert Daughtry told Our Time Press that he has had seven family members and friends pass away in the last two weeks, including; “John Flateau, Sekou Odinga, and now Viola Plummer. You called her the ‘Matriarch of the Movement. I’ve been in it 70 years,” the 93-year-old ‘People’s Pastor,’ declared, “and as far back as I can remember she was on the case; fire in her eyes, her strong voice, articulate, persuasive. A voice that makes an impact – slow, deliberate, forceful way of making a point, of arguing the case.”

Pensive, Rev Daughtry continued, “Yeah, we had some disagreements, but we always agreed on one thing–that we wanted to see our people free. That united us. People with whom you have these arguments, you sometimes get brought closer – like a committed husband and wife because you realize that the person’s passion is not about themselves, but about the movement.”

He reflected on the beginning stages of the “Black United Front in 1980, with over a thousand people gathered in Brooklyn Armoury – Sumpter Avenue [now known as Marcus Garvey Blvd.]. Can you imagine all these super-Black ranking radicals, revolutionary brothers and sisters – all you can name, they were all there, argued and argued..and Brother Jitu Weusi – he was the center of it, they held it together. But, finally, they got a temporary constitution. I was voted temporary chairman, “ and tasked to go all over the country to bring back “all the people who were most passionate about their argument, the ones who went away the angriest, we realized that if we couldn’t bring these people back we weren’t going to have a National Black United Front. If you can’t bring people together with different ideas involved, then you don’t have a National Black United Front.

But, Viola was special. December 12th.

We lose her ubiquitous presence. We lose her voice, her passion and vigor, and her articulation of the causes that Vi espoused. We miss her. She was always on the case. In the movies they had a saying that bravery means you ride to the sound of the gun, wherever the battle is.

Wherever the cannons are booming, that’s where you want to go. Viola would be present where the issues were. She would ride to the sound of people debating the issues, and be in the middle of it all. She was fearless, and forceful with fire in her eyes and fury in her voice, and an absolutely loyal comrade. I’m glad that she’s coming home in our church.

December 12th Movement’s usually jovial Omowale Clay was somewhat somber when he told Our Time Press, “Over the past 50 years of my life, I have had the privilege and honor to be tutored and learn and follow the lead of my comrade Sister Viola Plummer in struggling to make fundamental change in the quality of life for the people. My legacy to her is to continue the struggle.”

An activist from her teenage years, Mrs. Plummer became a stalwart of staunch grassroots community advocacy. She was known for her love for people, whether it was in Brooklyn from her headquarters at Sistas’ Place, to anywhere in the USA where support was needed, or in the Caribbean or on the Continent of Africa when the call was raised. She organized thousands of meetings, protests, rallies, and community actions. She was forever on the front lines. The mainstream would cite her as being a member of the (ultimately acquitted) New York 8, who beat several conspiracy charges, including attempted government overthrow in 1985. Sis. Plummer stated at the time, “We are eight people who were doing nothing more than organizing and fighting for freedom.”

Taking on big topics was her favorite space, like arguing against racism at the United Nations, fighting for the people of Zimbabwe, Haiti, South Africa, or Venezuela, and getting into the details and minutiae of law and politics at the State Capitol in Albany or City Hall in New York City, as chief-of-staff for both Assembly/City Councilmembers Inez and Charles Barron.

“Inez and I are deeply saddened by the transitioning of our dear friend, Sister Viola Plummer. Our relationship with her spans more than four decades of battling on issues impacting the Black communities here in New York, in states across the nation, and in countries across the world. Viola Plummer was a forthright, unyielding, undeterred, bold, outspoken, unequivocating warrior-leader who stood flat-footed and did not retreat. Her strident voice was a clarion call that challenged and motivated our people to get involved and take a stand. She thought no issue was too big, too strongly entrenched, or insurmountable.”

And then there she was fighting overt racism in housing, education, and police brutality, and against drugs, gun violence, gentrification, and poverty alongside colleagues Sonny Abubadika Carson, Elombe Brath, Coltrane Chimurenga, the Barrons, and Father Lucas – Viola Plummer had an impact. All the while she stood on the Harriet Ross Tubman stance of “‘I freed a thousand slaves, I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves,’ what change we could have if we all united in great numbers.”

“I didn’t just want to be a witness,” she once said. “I wanted to be a part of the movement.” She was a local, national, and international leader on so many issues over her 50 years of people-centered activism. She left an indelible mark.

Perhaps the last victory she saw was the signing of the Reparations Bill last month, when New York State finally agreed to at least look into the demands she, the December 12th Movement, N’Cobra, Institute of the Black World, and the NAACP, and others had been making for decades to look into the impact of slavery on the Black people in New York.

“We are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of a great Movement Matriarch Viola Plummer, co-founder of the December 12th Movement,” State Senator Cordell Cleare told Our Time Press. “Viola Plummer was a community organizer for the majority of her 86 years of life. With her no-nonsense approach to advocacy, Viola was a fighter until the very end. My sincerest condolences to her family, friends, and everyone who knew her at home and abroad.”

A flurry of phone calls. There were tears. And wailing.

“We just love her,” said A.T. Mitchell, community organizer and CEO of Man Up! Inc. “Her legacy will live on through all of us who she embraced and showed the way of dedication to our people. If Sister Vi loved you, she showed you. And we will continue her work, I promise you.”

Colette Pean, a member of the December 12th Movement, told Our Time Press that Viola “was a trained teacher of elementary school and college, and she taught throughout her life. In her work, teaching was an important part of it. She taught people how to be better revolutionaries and to struggle for self-determination of the people. She traveled widely, including Vietnam during the Vietnam War, Namibia, South Africa, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and China – in support of liberation struggles.’

Retired East New York electeds Charles and Inez Barron reflected to Our Time Press, “She was not fearful, could not be intimidated, and refused to be silent. The countless battles that she waged on behalf of Black people are innumerable. Her legacy is broad and deep. Her leadership effectiveness is a model to be emulated, and her accomplishments are testimony to her mantra, ‘Do the work.’ We will miss our dear friend, but we are pleased to join the many voices who pay tribute to her life and her work. To our beloved comrade and “real” close friend, our hearts are heavy, and tears are soaking our souls. We’re going to miss you, Vi! Rest in peace and power, our sister, for a job well done. Viola, we love you forever.”

The People’s Republic of Brooklyn is in mourning of her passing, especially as it happened just one day after the Janazah and burial of political prisoner advocate Sekou Odinga, 79. There had been a decades-long concerted community campaign to release the former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member from prison after 33 years in prison.

Atty. Roger Wareham, December 12th Movement International Secretariat, told Our Time Press that he met Viola in 1974. He knew her for half a century. “50 years of struggle and love, and ups and downs, almost a lifetime in jail with the New York 8, and the December 12th Movement. Long live Viola Plummer. She’s alive as long as she is alive in our memories.”

The international lawyer said that to him, the pint-sized dynamic woman who was Viola Plummer symbolized “Resistance, revolution, never give up, commitment, love for her people, patience in terms of real faith in people, that they will make a revolution to change our conditions.”

“Viola Plummer is EVERY WOMAN,” cultural activist and mega clothing designer Brenda Brunson-Bey told Our Time Press. “She was kind when needed. Generous when something was asked for. Dedicated when called on. Committed when she believed in something. Strong when she had to face obstacles. Devoted to our culture through music and art. Loving to all of us, all the time. I strive to be like HER…Every Woman. Sister Viola, rest in Peace and Empowerment.”

“Mama Viola was fighting on the battlefield for Black people long before most of us got there and kept fighting long after some of us left,” said activist Bomani Mayasa of the United Front. “She was a true warrior. She taught this young warrior how to struggle. Long live Mama Viola Plummer.”

(Nayaba Arinde, a friend of Sister Plummer, is editor-at-large for Our Time Press.)