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I am in Los Angeles hanging with my friend Ty Davis and his wife Rose. We all three are attending the annual Thanksgiving group gathering to celebrate the holiday at the home of Cedric the Entertainer.
Aside from the Thanksgiving holiday dinner, I am also in LA to launch the first leg of my new documentary to tell the story about those behind Muhammad Ali’s return to the boxing ring in 1970 entitled, “Ali’s Comeback.”
Early research brought several unusual individuals to my attention relating to this seminal event that lived in or near Los Angles. Jerry Quarry, Jr, son of Ali’s October 1970 opponent and his mother Kathleen, Robert Kassel; the neophyte boxing promoter who put up the $600,000 letter of credit to pay for the fight, Margaret B. Ware; personal assistant to the late Sammy Davis, Jr who attended the fight, Howard Bingham, Ali’s long time friend and photographer, Stan Sanders, close friend to Howard Bingham, Kareem Abdul Jabar, and Jim Brown the coordinator of the 1967 Cleveland Conference where several top pro sportsmen professed their loyalty and support of Muhammad Ali’s stance against joining military during the Vietnam War.
I am a director in LA without a crew. But with the phenomenal help of my producer, Brittany Wyatt, and Henry Woods (“Mr. Resourceful”), who later becomes executive producer to Ali’s Comeback, they harness this special opportunity to make several phone calls. They are able to lock in interviews with Robert Kassel, Jerry and Kathleen Quarry, Stan Sanders, and Margaret B. Ware. Margaret later stepped in with Howard Binghuam, but learned he was in hospice. Kareem simply bowed out. Henry, assiduously worked on Jim Brown through his wife, Monique. But she would only give us a definitive “maybe.”
I commandeered my friends Ty and Anne Loreano to provide transportation and camera support in cruising down to Palms Desert to interview Robert Kassel, and to swing around to several other LA locations to acquire the other interviews. It is several days later and we still have nothing from Monique on interviewing Jim Brown.
It is now 8:30am on Sunday morning. The phone rings. It is Henry. “Art, just got off the phone with Monique. If you can over to Jim’s home by 10:00 she says he will give you that interview.”
I jump out of bed, take the fastest shower ever, then Ty and I make a bee line straight to Jim Brown’s place. Monique greets us at the gates, guides us to the lower level into a spacious room with huge bay windows. Upon entering there is an imposing action oil painting of Jim during his pro football days. The power and strength of this painting made me think of Superman flying against the forces of nature. Instead of an “S” emblazoned across his chest there was the bold number “32.”
Monique made I clear, “You get 30 minutes.” Ty and I wasted no time setting up the two cameras. We set up the lights and did a preliminary sound check. Then waited… and waited… but no Jim.
Going over my interview script with Ty, I see his eyes suddenly get big and he freezes as if someone struck a gun in his back. I looking back over my shoulder, and strolling in with a walking cane in hand is this giant of a man. I now know what Biblical David must have felt like when he first got a glimpse of Goliath. This huge, broad shouldered, Godiva chocolate man dressed in a brown casual shirt and piercing eyes approaches. He extends his hand saying, “Hi, I’m Jim Brown” (Like I needed him to say that!). I extend my hand Only to see it disappear inside his. I then turn to Ty, who still looks mesmerized, and say, “This is my camera man, Ty Davis.” When Ty shakes Jim’s hand I am praying that he doesn’t explode there on the spot.
I guide Mr. Brown to a high chair we found in the room. Then adjust the lights to model his face. I grab the lav mic and said, Mr. Brown, I need you to tuck this up under you shirt and bring it out at the top.” I clip the mic to Jim. Then say, “Can you please give me a count down backwards from ten. From the time he said “10,” I saw the audio meters jump as if they were awestruck by Jim too. By the time he got to “Nine” I chimed in and said, “Thank you. Got it.”
The interview went extremely well. He spoke of his early career as a sportsman, his time as a movie star, and his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. We discussed the Cleveland Conference of 1967 orchestrated by him and several other top African American athletes of that day to support Muhammad Ali’s stance against joining the military on religious grounds. He spoke affectionately when discussing his relationship with Muhammad Ali. “We were like brothers, but I was the older one.” Jim chimed.
Monique had returned but saw that Jim was engaged in recalling important memories. So did not interrupt. Nearly an hour later we wrapped. While packing Jim says to me, “Young man, you asked some good questions.” He asked had I also interviewed Bill Russell? I said, “No.” He then offered to put me in touch. I had already extended my return flight to cover a few additional interviews. I was leaving the next day, so declined. But, in hindsight, should have taken Bill Russell’s’ information anyway.
Everything packed back into Ty’s BMW, we’re cruising down the winding Hollywood Hills back to his house, and a song of Oscar Brown, Jr comes to mind: “I’ve always live by this golden rule: Whatever happened don’t blow your cool. Your have to nerves of steel, and never show folks how you honestly feel.” And just like the character in his song, I lost it screaming, “I just interviewed the great Jim Brown!”
I told him where to sit in his own home.
I told him what to do with the mic.
I told him where to look.
I looked him in the eyes and asked questions that engaged him for nearly an hour.
Hearing of his passing yesterday opened the floodgates to all those wonderful memories of my hour with Jim Brown.
Life is truly not measured by the amount of breaths we take. It is about those moments that take our breath away.
Harlem Bespoke: We just took the above photo on Sugar Hill and really soaked in the history of the neighborhood. This distinct corner at 148th and St. Nicholas Avenue is really unique because of the barrel front townhouses that line the avenue and also for the jazz clubs that used to be in a few of the commercial spaces. A fire burned down one of the brownstones over a couple of years ago but much still remains intact in this landmark district.
With that said, there is also a little known fact the wealthy Bradhurst family of the early 1800s had a cottage here when this was all countryside. Nothing is really left but streets named aft the famous country folk in the heights but some early photos have documented these charming homes. Check out our past post on a rare image of the Bradhurst Cottage that would have been situated at this corner of Harlem before the neighborhood was called Sugar Hill: LINK
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, poet Amanda Gorman vowed to fight back. Her poem, “The Hill We Climb” was challenged by the parent of two students at Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes, along with several books.
“I’m gutted,” she wrote. “Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech.”
Gorman, who at 17 became the country’s National Youth Poet Laureate, said she wrote the poem “The Hill We Climb,” so “all young people could see themselves in a historical moment,” and that she’s received countless letters and videos from children who were inspired to write their own poems.
She became an international sensation at Biden’s inauguration, where she was the youngest poet to read at the ceremony since Robert Frost was invited to John F. Kennedy’s in 1961.
In “The Hill We Climb,” Gorman references everything from Biblical scripture to “Hamilton,” and at times echoes the oratory of Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. With urgency and assertion she begins by asking, “Where can we find light/In this never-ending shade?” and used her own poetry and life story as an answer.
She said she planned to share a message of hope for Biden’s inauguration without ignoring “the evidence of discord and division.” She had completed a little more than half of the poem before Jan. 6 and the siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
The poem and books are still available in the media center for middle school-aged children, Ana Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade school district, said in a statement.
While book bans are not new, they are happening much more frequently, especially in Florida — where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has championed policies that allow the censorship of books some have deemed inappropriate for children in schools, causing national uproar.
DeSantis, who entered the 2024 presidential race Wednesday, has leaned heavily into cultural divides on race, sexual orientation and gender as he gains support from conservative voters who decide Republican primary elections.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned the decision to ban Gorman’s poem, saying Biden and his administration stands with her.
“The President was proud to have Ms. Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet, speak at his inauguration,” she said.
“Banning books is censorship, period,” she added. “It limits American freedom — Americans’ freedom — and we should all stand against that type of act.”
Yecenia Martinez, principal of the K-8 school, which is part of the Miami-Dade public school system, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment about the poem’s ban. The school is named after Bob Graham, a former Democratic governor and U.S. senator from Florida.
Daily Salinas, the parent who objected to the poem and books, told the Miami Herald she’s not “for eliminating or censoring any books.” Salinas said she wants materials to be appropriate. It was not immediately clear what she objected to in Gorman’s poem.
After her complaint, a materials review committee made up of three teachers, a library media specialist, a guidance counselor and the principal, determined one of the books in question was balanced and age appropriate, and would remain available for all students, the newspaper reported.
The other four were deemed “better suited” or “more appropriate” for middle school students. The books were to remain in the middle school section of the media center, the review concluded.
“And let’s be clear: most of the forbidden works are by authors who have struggled for generations to get on the bookshelves,” Gorman’s post said. “The majority of these censored works are by queer and non-white voices.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — About 10% of people appear to suffer long COVID after an omicron infection, a lower estimate than earlier in the pandemic, according to a study of nearly 10,000 Americans that aims to help unravel the mysterious condition.
Early findings from the National Institutes of Health’s study highlight a dozen symptoms that most distinguish long COVID, the catchall term for the sometimes debilitating health problems that can last for months or years after even a mild case of COVID-19.
Millions worldwide have had long COVID, with dozens of widely varying symptoms including fatigue and brain fog. Scientists still don’t know what causes it, why it only strikes some people, how to treat it -– or even how to best diagnose it. Better defining the condition is key for research to get those answers.
“Sometimes I hear people say, ’Oh, everybody’s a little tired,’” said Dr. Leora Horwitz of NYU Langone Health, one of the study authors. “No, there’s something different about people who have long COVID and that’s important to know.”
The new research, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, includes more than 8,600 adults who had COVID-19 at different points in the pandemic, comparing them to another 1,100 who hadn’t been infected.
By some estimates, roughly 1 in 3 of COVID-19 patients have experienced long COVID. That’s similar to NIH study participants who reported getting sick before the omicron variant began spreading in the U.S. in December 2021. That’s also when the study opened, and researchers noted that people who already had long COVID symptoms might have been more likely to enroll.
But about 2,230 patients had their first coronavirus infection after the study started, allowing them to report symptoms in real time -– and only about 10% experienced long-term symptoms after six months.
Prior research has suggested the risk of long COVID has dropped since omicron appeared; its descendants still are spreading.
The bigger question is how to identify and help those who already have long COVID.
The new study zeroed in on a dozen symptoms that may help define long COVID: fatigue; brain fog; dizziness; gastrointestinal symptoms; heart palpitations; sexual problems; loss of smell or taste; thirst; chronic cough; chest pain; worsening symptoms after activity and abnormal movements.
The researchers assigned scores to the symptoms, seeking to establish a threshold that eventually could help ensure similar patients are enrolled in studies of possible long COVID treatments, as part of the NIH study or elsewhere, for apples-to-apples comparison.
Horwitz stressed that doctors shouldn’t use that list to diagnose someone with long COVID — it’s a potential research tool only. Patients may have one of those symptoms, or many -– or other symptoms not on the list — and still be suffering long-term consequences of the coronavirus.
Everyone’s doing studies of long COVID yet “we don’t even know what that means,” Horwitz said.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
