On a radio interview and History and Hollywood

Tomorrow around 4 pm, the students in this course will be live on the air at the University of Alabama's radio station, discussing the upcoming "world premiere" of their music video featuring music by Bible Study at 5:30 pm December 3 at Jemison Mansion (UA Art History Emeritus Dr. Robert Mellown will be our guest speaker). Check them out tomorrow if you can by visiting 90.7.

On other fronts...as the semester draws to a close, I thought I’d take one last opportunity to share with you some of the thoughts of the students enrolled in this class. While we are still concerned with emerging urban life in America during the nineteenth century, I have challenged them to see how some of the issues we’ve addressed have across-time resonances.

During  two class meetings in the past two weeks, I did as much by asking them to look at two motion pictures. One is the 2013 documentary Muscle Shoals, which explores all of the great music that came out of one Alabama town as white and black bodies came together in a music studio, particularly during the late 1960s and early 1970s. I’d earlier invited them to see  the 1991 film The Commitments as a means of continuing to explore the cross-fertilization of music and cultures, but this time with working class white Dublin, Ireland front and center. But given that we had just ended Martha Sandweiss’ study on Clarence King, a nineteenth century geologist who is best known for having mapped the West for the U.S. government than for having passed as “black” in order to marry an African American woman after the Civil War, I figured it might be worthwhile (and risky) to pick another film, maybe one that pushed us to think about nationality, urban life, labor and race, but also secrets.

The students took took the bait and watched the 1996 motion picture Secrets & Lies, which concerns a black British professional woman’s  discovery that her birth mom, a factory worker, who had earlier given her up for adoption was white.  In this case, London was in the backdrop. Her half-sister, also white, is a street sweeper.

Regarding all three movies, I was quite concerned about how the “city” functions in terms of how certain bodies come together and part and how ideas about nationality and race and even gender can teach us something we hadn’t thought about it earlier when we were solely concentrated on urban life in America before the turn of the century.

 No matter the quality of their participation, or whether they participated at all, I want to thank the students for being open to this exercise, which is the sort that might be more fitting for a graduate class. I think they did pretty good. See excerpts from their short reflections on the “History and Hollywood” hand-out below (I want to thank my colleague Jimmy Mixson for sharing all of these prompts, which he uses in his course on medieval history).

While continuing to think deeply about the urban space in a maturing America, they were pushed to consider how a movie captures via story lines music, lighting, setting, costume, dialogues some of the things we’ve discussed including urbanization, women in public spaces in an urbanizing world, class and racial politics. Here are excerpts from the students’ replies to Secrets & Lies:

Caroline: In Secrets & Lies, the role and struggles of women can be seen through the different narratives. One woman struggles to enjoy her mundane housework; another woman experiences personal shame of coming face to face with her decision to give up her child for adoption; one woman is shocked at the realization that her birth mother is in fact white; and another young woman with “unladylike” manners [is a street sweeper] and doesn’t have much motivation to broader her horizons. 

This movie’s plot correlates well with Clarence King’s story. It shows that it is in fact not unusual to have a white or black relatives without physically looking like it...Class differences can be seen in this film [and Muscle Shoals].   In Muscle Shoals, it is seen with successful city people come to a simple rural part of Alabama. In Secrets & Lies, it is seen in the different professions of the newly discovered sisters. While one sister is an optometrist, another is a [street sweeper].
Similarities between the mother of the two sister and Clarence King can be made. The mother had a dark past that she probably tried to hide from her family and King deceived Ada Copeland every day …in order to keep them  both safe.

Wayne: The mother [who gave away her child years earlier] lives in a lower class area of London….Her brother doesn’t visit often because his wife doesn’t like [his sister]…The [entire family] has issues….The only one who was able to face the consequences of their decision was the adopted child. The racial and social separation within one family all draw them together towards the end.

Voni : Shelter is a common way in which we see city values emerge. [It] narrates who can afford certain luxuries.

Devon: The lighting [in Secrets & Lies] is kind of dark, but I think that is because of English weather.

Jasmine: When the [social worker] asked the mixed [race] woman about her childhood, I felt like she [revealed] the fact that she was [in fact] mixed and how she [herself] felt about it.

Here are the students’ replies to Muscle Shoals:

Rae: I grew up mere miles ...from Muscle Shoals. I think we always expect[ed] this deep cultural/musical development from this area. I would love to know what influenced the great musicians to produce this music. Was it because of rural influences that so greatly differed from the rural space?... The [music] studio [has resonances with] the drive that we see in people in the urban space. This drive to develop something, to succeed, to survive and to be something different. This movie truly gives us a look at what the “common humanity” that music has …for an entire generation of artists. Music that flowed from Muscle Shoals was able to transcend race and class in the 60s and 70s in Alabama and the world…The filmmaker juxtaposed a vivid rural panorama with short clips of industry, transportation, technology and natural resources. [These things] helped drive urbanization in the nineteenth century and was influencing an area [that was] not so urban.

Caroline: In Muscle Shoals, many aspects of urbanization were depicted. We get to see how women in public, especially strong women like Etta James and Aretha Franklin, was more widely accepted and even admired [unlike in the nineteenth century]. These women had a major impact on the music industry…The relationships between the black and white musicians [was an] incredible improvement [from the past]. The artists didn’t let the struggle between their races get in the way of what they were trying to make…The filmmakers were very deliberate with their portrayals of Muscle Shoals. After a big name artist or producer would talk about their incredible soul and magic in the town, the filmmaker [chose] to depict the stillness and natural beauty of Muscle Shoals. I think this was done to display how ironic it must have been to those performers that a place like this could create such a phenomenon.

Jeff: The music that came from...Muscle Shoals [was] some of the greatest hits [and] should forever be considered some of the greatest music because it came from the heart....It was music that moved...millions around the world.

Wayne: The movie notes how soulful rivers seem to develop near rivers and "seems to come out of the mud." Musically, the film uses long, sorrowful guitar chords and also folk style music during interviews. Yet, the music highlighted in the film is funk, rock 'n roll and soul music. The rock 'n roll and soul music played an important role in urban areas because it allowed people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds to develop a sense of unity [as they] became interested in new music. However, the music that helped urban [people] was produced in an area with high racial tension and by men who considered themselves to be "country folk."

Devon: The people who wanted to record  or play with the band from Muscle Shoals all expected them to be black. Everyone seemed to think that only certain types of people could play that type of music. However, everyone who worked there did so because of their passion for music.

Ben: I wished the film discussed what happened to Muscle Shoals as a music hub as not many hits come from it anymore. Was there an event or simply the change [in] popular culture away from funk and soul [that contributed to the decline]?

Jasmine: The scene showing the large bridges and dams as well as the big power plant and train shows urbanization in Muscle Shoals.

Finally, the students were also asked to share the unanswered questions that a particular film left them with and tell me whether they think film is an appropriate medium for teaching history (This issue is extremely important to me. I noticed when I used 1940s and 1950s films about America and even Europe's urban and frontier past in last year's class, the students with few exceptions - such as the time I showed  Bend of the River  starring James Stewart and Rock Hudson or Little Old New York starring Alice Daye - seemed bored. This time, more of them paid more attention as I cautiously used more recent films as teaching tools).

On the issue of whether film is an appropriate medium for teaching history, here's what some of them had to say:

Ben: I’d say [film] is a very good tool for anything from American history, music history or cultural history.

Emily: Films are never perfect. They don’t always apply perfectly to a lesson. They sometimes strive from accuracy for a good story.

Voni:  Film allows for a more interactive way of learning especially for visual learners. The disadvantages of film, like any media, that the creator has an objective they are trying to portray so we must extract the history from that.  

Undre: Film produces a teaching experience that can be interactive. This interactive lesson could come from pausing the video and discussing how it relates to the topic of the class. Disadvantages of using film could be that lesson valuable to the curriculum are over-kill [for]  students paying attention to the wrong elements of the movie. Another disadvantage can come from using non-biased films to teach a biased lesson.

Jasmine: The film [Muscle Shoals] is great for showing the emerging urban life in Alabama. It is a virtual time line not only covering music, but it also covers what is going on in the world outside of music (for example, the clip about Martin Luther King Jr. and clips of the segregation at the University of Alabama).

Wayne: I am a visual learner. I enjoy seeing images of urban areas and visually seeing personal expressions of racial and cultural situations....Muscle Shoals [in particular] is very useful as a medium for teaching history. Its advantages are that it is able to [present] American life outside the studio while also providing entertaining songs that most can sing along to...[The music] studio presented was a great example of the great [things] that can happen when open-mindness is allowed.

Rae: Film does a great job of illustrating history in a way textbooks can't. However, film can skew history or present it very one-sided. 

Jeff: [Film] is [an] appropriate medium because it is...entertaining. [But] sometimes it doesn't portray the entire history; just what [the filmmakers] want to show us.

the poster for our December 3 Music Video "World Premiere"

I was so happy to learn that the students are okay with using the above image by Caleb McCants, a student in the class, for the poster promoting our music video (the Faculty Resource Center's design staff did an amazing job on this). They all took terrific photographs unveiling the tensions between America's (and Tuscaloosa's) urban and rural past and present. Some of those images will be displayed December 3 at Jemison Mansion during a small reception before the video launch. Again, we thank Ian Crawford at Jemison for this opportunity. And of course, we thank Bible Study, a local band, for allowing us to visually interpret their wonderful tune "Druid City."

Jasmine Wells, a Public Relations major at UA (and the person unknowingly featured in the photo which was taken during our recent downtown tour and creates room to push our thinking about the "public feminine" as defined by Gunther Barth and others), is helping with publicity. She even made a Facebook page. Ben Smith, who works in technology for the Athletic Department, has threatened to remaster my edited video. I welcome his skills.

On other fronts, yesterday we discussed Clarence King and Ada Copeland's relationship in New York City during the Gilded Age as presented in Martha Sandweiss' study. We pondered black-white interactions in and outside of the urban space by watching a good part of Muscle Shoals, a documentary highlighting the white musicians who played behind many African American singers in the 1960s and early 1970s. Next week, we will continue this conversation by bringing the urban space into fuller view although in the context of Dublin, Ireland, via the 1991 Alan Parker film The Commitments.

I am vigilant about historicizing black-white encounters and pushing the students to do the same. What happened in 19th century New York that couldn't or could happen in 1960s rural Alabama or 1980s Dublin (or 1863 New York for that matter) when it comes to how black and white bodies come together - and part?

Finally, I just received the best news. Dr. Robert Mellown, a recently retired, but ever-busy UA Professor of Art History will be our guest speaker at the Dec. 3 music video launch at Jemison Mansion. We are truly honored to hear him discuss his efforts to aid the restoration of local structures including Jemison and Bryce Hospital. He will sign copies of The University of Alabama: A Guide to the Campus and Its Architecture (University of Alabama Press, 2013) at this event.

trailer for class music video now ready

Five students and I as well as Dr. John Beeler attended the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society's Annual Award Banquet last night. Dr. Rachel Stephens of the University of Alabama's Department of Art and Art History and I were honored as Educators of the Year. Special thanks to Katherine Richter, Ian Crawford and Tim Higgins and so many others present for making us feel welcomed.

It was wonderful seeing A.J. Estep, a student in last year's class, join Emily Chadwell, Voni Cook, Will Jones and Ben Smith, four students from this year's class, at this event. Estep's classmates created the documentary "Tuscaloosa: The Nineteenth Century City"  and this this year's students are making a music video. As true last year, Tuscaloosa is in the starring role.

My students know I readily admit that my interest in Tuscaloosa's role in emerging urban life is best pursued with them by my side as the trailer for the class's music video, which is presented in this posting, demonstrates. See the students "discovering" Tuscaloosa's landscape and pushing their thinking about this city's urban and rural past and present - and their own. The music video features the music of Bible Study, a local band. It premieres at 5:30 December 3 at Jemison Mansion, 1305 Greensboro Avenue in Tuscaloosa. Light snacks and beverages and a student art exhibition will be followed by a Q & A.

Tomorrow we will continue exploring Clarence King's life and that of his wife Ada Copeland King in New York City during the Gilded Age. King was a geologist for the U.S. Geological Society who "passed" as an African American in order to marry a woman who was a born enslaved. I am greatly interested in how the students are able to insert King and his wife into the story of emerging urban life.  It is worth it, too, to think about King's interest in "slumming," (i.e. visiting African American neighborhoods; in his case lower Manhattan).

His quiet excursions appears to be an across-time phenomenon. Certainly over the Fall Break I read with great interest a story in Vanity Fair about the American-born George Whitman who opened the famous Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris in 1951. Prominent members of the Harlem Renaissance and the Beat Generation were among the writers who frequented the shop, which is now run by his daughter. 

As it turns out - according to the article at any rate - Whitman was born in New Jersey in 1913 and raised in Salem, Massachusetts. He spent four years trekking around North and South America (King might have been his nineteenth century counterpart up to a point). His curiosity about the world around him and perhaps those who are quite different from himself manifests in his interest in "urban back alleys." He shares such a desire  not only with King, but  with Carl Van Vechten, a white photographer-patron of the Harlem Renaissance. I think, too, about the women who appear in Carla Kaplan's recent study on 1920s Harlem (students in my graduate course will read excerpts from this book next Spring). Andy Warhol's friendship with Jean-Michel Basquiat also flirts in this direction.

At the risk of collapsing time too much, I have already asked the students to be curious about popular interest in black life and moreover, the ability of whites on both sides of the Atlantic to engage themselves in what generally surfaces as "black" music. As I asked them, what "work" does the "city" do in such encounters? Last week, I presented the 1991 Alan Parker film "The Commitments," which finds a white Irish band in Dublin playing 1960s R & B and the recently released documentary "Muscle Shoals," which unveils white musicians backing many African American greats in rural Alabama.

Muscle Shoals. Dublin. Harlem. Late nineteenth century and postwar race, class and gender dynamics. Let's come to class tomorrow ready to pull these connections apart, and if we are lucky, make some time to watch a bit of one or both movies. Thank you, Librarian Brett Spencer, of UA's Gorgas Library, who will soon be leaving for Penn State, for always ordering films and videos for this course and other courses. The History Department will miss you!