Ishmael Reed with Bob Holman

Conductor
March 9-March 26, 2023
New York

Elizabeth Murray, my wife, asked me to pick lines for her mosaic for the 6 train at 59th Street/Bloomingdales station. She chose Gwendolyn's Conduct your blooming within the noise and whipof the whirlwind', which is definitely the vibe of the subway station's multilayered passageways. It may be hard to answer a question in Ish's mammoth intellect spew and his non-stop provocateurship. But one thing is certain: what we are experiencing now, he wrote about back during the ties. This means that we can look forward fifty years to seeing what he was predicting.

Reed reflects on his time in New York, when he helped to create the Umbra scene. He even takes a look at his piano playing, jazz as poetry, and his albums. There's no denying that his vibe is infectious. Ishmael is more than a conversationalist. You are fighting a corrupt, ponderous system with words. Your ammunition is words. But your heart is pure art.

Grace's Hands
is...

That's what you have to say to my Ukrainian piano teacher.

Ukrainian American, you're aware.

He is a Chopin fan. He's always correcting me. Yesterday, the Russians threatened his city with bombing.

It is too much. Anthology, so I'm also officially hyphenated now, Ish.

You probably know that Ukrainians weren't considered white people.

Rail:
And I'm Jewish besides!

Okay, there you are! We are all mongrels.

This is certain.

Reed:
A mongrel conversation between mongrels.

New York City will be the home of this new restaurant. So, here you are, bringing all the dirty laundry from the San Francisco School Board.

It's also happening in New York.

It's happening in New York --

It's happening in New York and it's not being reported. The intelligentsia of New York is asleep at brunch. They are obsessed with academic theories which doesn't make sense to the working-class Black residents of my neighborhood. Apart from the police shootings, the biggest stories in the past year were the American universities' use of Black prisoners to test their theories and the ongoing robbery of Black equity, no matter what their class.

New York's Parent Leaders for Accelerated Education and Education Organization are also against the lottery system. A spokesperson for the group from China was quoted. The Board of Directors list shows that there are not many Chinese Americans on it. Most are white and the founder is a former New York City cop. The same thing happened here. However, Siva Raj, an Indian immigrant, was used instead. The recall would not have been possible if right-wing billionaires behind it wouldn't.

The Manhattan Institute is in San Francisco, and causing trouble. This think tank gave us "broken windows", which led to a crackdown against the Black, Brown, and Poor. The new district attorney appears to be following these instructions. John McWhorter is their chief spokesperson. He seems to believe that Blacks should be spliced with their genes or given a serum in order to make them less violent and intelligent. Governor DeSantis graduated from Yale with history degrees and has been named the leader of monoculturalism. He is the little Knight crusader, who wants to save Western civilisation. This would not be possible without Arab scholarship. David Duke, Klan leader, also studied history. The story was narrated in part by Shelby Foote (pro-confederate), who likened the Klan to French resistance. John McWhorter is their spokesperson, who is the most dangerous Black American in America.

While East Coast intellectualsia members are enjoying fancy wines and debating Critical Race Theory, 1619 theory or waiting for the arrival of the next unintelligible theory, The Manhattan Institute is trying sneak John McWhorter in as the Black writer students should read. These theories are offered by people who have Security of Employment jobs. These theories distract from the real issues people are facing, such as the fleecing Black assets by criminal bank to the tune of hundreds and millions. Blacks have seen their appraisers give a lower value to a home they are selling than whites. The continued experiments by Universities and Pharmaceutical Companies on Black prisoners. The rising suicide and homelessness rates of young Blacks. The flooding of drugs and guns into cities from the suburbs, and members of the minority. The attempt to extinguish Black culture which was used successfully against Native Americans in past.

One of the M.H.I. is like a nation under occupation, where the dominant group demands that we assimilate. Black scholars are being boycotted by the media and other media. He suggests students read John McWhorter who defend Shapiro's insult. Is Shapiro in agreement with his Nazi thoughts? McWhorter would have done more research before he spoke out about this racist idea. Jennifer Doudna was the Nobel Prize winner for the exact genome-editing technology CRISPR. Others have also warned about the ethical consequences of the procedure.

You certainly pulled the string. The play features a large part of Indians. You even have the plot point of India shooting down an American spy plane. This results in all the Indians trying to fly back home to India. Those who are unable to make it to India flee to Canada. Your satire is endless and never stops.

This is the result of casteism being introduced to this country by upper-caste Indians. You'll see many of them in these right-wing areas, you know. Indians are the head of Manhattan Institute. Indians who are knowledgeable about Black culture and history, such as Rishi Nath from Brooklyn, require more space than British-trained writers, who use the British language of teen years and see Black Americans as 'untouchables' who have emigrated that caste.

Interracial conflict is not something to be ashamed of.

Siva Raj, a high-tech billionaire who used Siva Raj as a minor face of recall, started a correspondence about the play. He was upset that I had told him that he had unleashed many of these MAGA nuts upon these women. They are still being threatened, even though they were recalled. He said that he didn’t want to cause any harm. He stated that I was destroying my legacy by supporting their cause. People who are on The Southern Poverty Law Center's hate list. This is the result of this recall. It's almost like a cult. It doesn't suffice to defeat Collins or Lopez. They must be destroyed.

Here's an Indian guy saying, "I have nothing to do" with India. I'm American. Jeopardy is always open to me answering all your questions. This is one of the most important signals that you write. You are presenting the stark reality of this character, while it's also funny and satire. That's what gives life and meaning to your writing. If you take a bite out of an idea, it will explode.

You know that the oral tradition uses humor to make serious points. These Existentialist and Marxist novels are aberrations. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was right when he stated that I came from the "toast" tradition, which may have West African roots. These were created in rhymes around the 1900s. These toasts were then given sophisticated audio equipment, and they became known for rap. Rap is not fifty years old.

This is how I came across you and was able to save my life when I went to Columbia to read your books. It opened up a whole new world, as you all know. I moved downtown because of that! Were we aware of the threats made to members of the Board of Education? We were told that they were changing the name of the school. Abe Lincoln was out. They were refusing to let the children go back to school during COVID. The play deals with this, but the main idea behind the lottery for special school places is front and center. Are you seeing the smokescreen?

These entrance tests are rigged and have been the subject of scandals all across the country. There was a scandal in which wealthy people paid for their children's school admissions. White children grow up with SAT coaches and Eurocentric materials in their homes. Even with all that, Americans tend to think of Europe as England or France. The American Curriculum does not include China, India, South America and Africa. It includes countries throughout Europe. Book review. It was changed to Kabbalah.

Rail:
Sure.

You know that Lowell High School was originally an affirmative action school for white men. Then, some parents protested and they began these admission tests.

Matt Haney, an Assemblymember, stated that he went to church and talked about Colin Kaepernick the football player. He thought some of the so-called founding fathers were scoundrels. That was the Hamilton play I covered. One columnist dismissed the idea that high schools should be renamed as a'sideshow' or 'circus. Are they defending George Washington's reputation for enslaving their Black sisters? Junipero Serra was Junipero Serra's Native American sister who was used as a sex slave. This is why Black and Brown feminists have issues with white feminists who the patriarchal media choose to represent them.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Haunting
.

I was accused of being sacrilegious for suggesting that the founding fathers were less holy than they are. They are victims of a Eurocentric education that views American history as a parade great white men. It's the curriculum that is stupid. Fox News and Hamilton's slaves were sold by Hamilton, according to evidence.

This one is in the hands of several historians.

Lyra Monteiro and Nancy Isenberg were the three women who started the debate about whether he was a slave-owner or not. I did not conduct their research. The problem with this country's historical establishment is that new historians are challenging its foundation.

Hispanics, Blacks and Native Americans give a different view of American history than Chernow and Meacham. He corrected himself and stated that slavery lasted one hundred years. Ron Chernow, who called Hamilton 'ardently abolitionist', led Lin-Manuel Miranda straitjacket. The culture wars are based on challenging the old guard and bringing in the new historians. The panic is due to the fact that the diversity side has won.

Filled with polemics, vinegar...

These are all the different plays that people have been performing since ancient times. Even the Aztecs had fools who could talk back and challenge the official version. We challenged the official versions of corporate press through underground newspapers and other publications. So I am still supporting that and challenging the official version. I fill in the gaps left by the corporate media. For example, they attempted to make it into a Black/Asian conflict. Collins and Lopez are supported by Asian Americans. That was left out by ABC News, which did not cover it. However, ABC News covered that fact. Lopez and Collins claimed that the high school had been the scene of racist incidents.

Look at DeSantis, he doesn't even know white history! DeSantis believes that the American Revolution was the beginning of the abolitionist movement. Jon Meacham was the one to correct him. He is a man who doesn't know much about slavery's history. Andrew Jackson was called a rockstar by him.

Today, the BLM has been dropped and all courses from African American History AP have been discontinued. De Santis plans to eliminate writers such as Ta-NehisiCoates and bell hooks.

The musical?

Rail:
Yes, yes. Yes.

All that bigoted stuff they have put up. This was done at Th