Newspaper Page Text
November, 1975 - SPELMAN SPOTLIGHT - Page 5
Canterbury Renaissance
By Sherrie Marshall
Canterbury Center Episcopal
Chapliancy, Atlanta University
Center, is a social service agency
located at 791 Fair, St. across the
street from Morehouse College.
Formerly called Canterbury
House, the new Canterbury
Center reopened June 21, 1975
after renovation. The agency has
been in existence for 15 years.
The primary function of
Canterbury Center is to “marry
the academic (students, faculty
and staff of the Atlanta University
Center) with the community,”
accordging to Father Michael
Randolph, Director of the Center.
Black students in the AU Center
don't relate to the community
Father Randolph said. He feels
this is most unfortunate and is
seeking to alleviate the problem.
The operation of Canterbury
Center is three-fold. It concerns
itself with community, academic,
and congregational activities.
The Canterbury Center is
attempting to establish its
presence in the general com
munity through contacts and
coordination with such
organizations as The Atlanta and
Dekalb Chapter of the NAACP,
the Butler Street YMCA, The
JFK EOA Center, and others.
Four students from the Inter
denominational Theological
Center will be conducting a
community resource research
project which will aid in pin
pointing areas of need for other
projects and programs in the
community. Four students from
two of the night law shools in the
Atlanta area will be operating a
law advocacy project, con
centrating on landlord-tenant
relationships and conducting
legal referrals. This project will
be supervised by two faculty
members from the Atlanta Law
School and a practicing attorney.
The Canterbury Center with
serval community agenicies is
presently planning a program
which will serve to improve the
the delivery of health services to
the immediate community.
The Canterbury Center’s
presence in the academic com
munity of the AU Center is
maintained through a working
relationship with The Department
of Counseling and Guidance-
Atlanta University, The
Continued from Page 4
Spelman guest book which dates
back to 1927. It is interesting to
note that the mandatory chapel
services facilitated the access of
the students to these public
personalities concerned with the
public weal. And it was the
charisma of the Florence Matilda
Read, fifth president of Spelman
College, which played a
significant role in bringing those
personalities to the campus.
A NEW ERA
While 1954 brought America to
the end of separate but equal
educational facilities VIA the
Brown decision, its brought to
Spelman the first black and the
first male president of the
college, Dr. Albert E. Manley.
This erh was ushered in by
successful civil rights cases, won
throughout the country by
organizations like the NAACP,
and SCLC led by Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., and later, non
violent student organizations like
the Student Non-Violent Coor
dinating Committee (SNCC).
Spelman students played a
signifcant role in the posture of
the civil rights movement in the
south of that period. Many were
arrested for their efforts. And yet,
young women like Marian Wright
Edelman emerged, who shortly
after her Spelman experience
became the first black woman to
pass the Mississippi bar
examination.
SPELMAN TODAY
Spelman today is more liberal,
more liberal than it was in the late
sixties. Her students today,
Department of Drama, Spelman
College, The Department of
Communications, Clark College,
and others.
During evening hours, Can
terbury Center will provide a
quiet place for study and
meditation for the academic year.
Congregational activities involve
administrative duties and prestly
functions.
The above information is listed
in a Proposed or Planned Projects
unlike yesterday, can be seen on
campus wearing slacks and any
other apparel they themselves
may deem appropriate. There are
no longer curfew hours for upper
class students.
Freshman students, with the
consent of their parents, may
reside in upper class domitories
where they too may enjoy the
non-restrictive curfew hours. All
of the students have won the right
to open visitation. And, man
datory chapel has not been heard
of since 1973.
According to a number of
Spelman students, the biggest
problem the college will en
counter during the next few years
will be that of student apathy
getting the students to become
more involved in the life of the
college and the surrounding
Atlanta Community.
One young teacher here, an
alumna of the college who was
actively involved in the civil rights
movement of the campus during
the sixties, perceives the apathy
simply as being a decision the
student has made as a result of
her new-found freedom, a
decision that says, “i am not
going to get involved, because I
don’t have to.” She does not
believe that it is a decision af
fected by a morality, as was the
decision to participate in some
Spelman students in the sixties.
But rather, SHE VIEWS IT AS A
DECISION AFFECTED BY A
DEGREE OF ASTUTENESS THE
STUDENT MAY OR MAY NOT
HAVE ACQUIRED. “Some
students are simply more astute
than others,” she assessed.
and Programs and pamphlet
which may be obtained from the
Canterbury Center.
The Canterbury Center is
financed by the Episcopalian
Church and grants from various
sources. There is also an offering
taken in Sunday services. The
Center is presently operating on a
budget of $1500 a month. This
amount is insufficient to handle
the operating cost of the Center
according to Father Randolph. He
expects that by the end of the
year the Center will face serious
financial problems.
One of the most innovative
ideas at Canterbury Center is the
Jazz Mass held every Sunday
with a live Jazz band - The Life
Force.
Asked about this concept,
Father Randolph explains that
Jazz is very dear to him. He once
hosted a Jazz program on a New
York radio station. Jazz is a form
of music developed by black
people; thus it is deep in the
heritage of black people said
Father Randolph. “We must
synthesize our blackness in
workable forms and pass them on
to our people.” This is what the
Jazz Mass attempts to do. The
Jazz Mass has received quite a
bit of attention, both negative and
positive, from the Atlanta
community Father Randolph
said. But Canterbury Center only
works on a positive foundation.
Worship services are held
every Sunday at 11:00 a.m., in
Danforth Cahpel on the
Morehouse College Campus.
Canterbury Center is open 9
a.m. to 5 p.m. week days during
the school year and 9:30 a.m. to
4:30 p.m. during the summer
months.
On the one hand there is the
student passivist, and on the
other, there is the student ac
tivist. Both however, survive in
an identical academic and social
environment yet one becomes
involved, the other does not.
Another teacher feels that
many of the students of today who
are not involved feel duped by the
broken promises of the black
power movement of the sixties.
Promises yiat could not have
been kept because they had
behind them no plans for their
implementation. According to
her, “black students (today) do
not read enough, they do not
travel enough, and they have not
internalized the lessons of the
sixties.” Lessons which she
believes if internalized, would
aid black students in constructing
their role in the movement of
today.
That historic role has been an
unambiguous answer to the
threat of injustice throughout the
society at large. For, as the late
civil rights leader Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., asserted in his
“Letter From Birmingham City
Jail,” “...injustice anywhere is a
threat to justice everywhere. ’ ’
Spelman women have learned
long before the seventies to go far
beyond the peripheral demands
of those in need of her intellect,
her courage, and her versatility.
And doubtlessly, despite the
obstacles place upon her by the
environment, whether those
obstacles be natural or man
made, she will continue the role
trust upon her by her heritage.
Neyeswah
Music
About a couple of years ago, if you attempted to talk about jazz or
what is termed black progressive music aroud the AU Center, you
probably found that no such discussions existed. Black classical
music i(i.e., jazz, or, gospel): has been so ignored by media, and
frightened away by our own people that this new resurgence in this
music has me in shock.
In about a three-year span progressive black music has taken a grip
of the AU Center. In this span many misconceptions about jazz and
its relationship to the black experience has opened up. This two part
series will try and clear up a few of these myths.
Be ye forewarned that whatever reviews you may happen upon in
most of your national music magazines are usually lacking in a basic
understanding of black people and our encounters with our en
vironment. Thus nearly any European-oriented critic will tend to
overlook the tradition of our music. They begin to judge our musical
expression on their standards for listening.
There are Black critics writing who need to be read. Stan Crouch is
one, also Vernon Gibbs, and A.B. Spelman.There is a white critic who
does extend black music to a respectable level, Gary Giddins, but
stick to The Black cats if at all possible.
Jazz encompasses so many ways to express ideas, and so many
different musicians express themselves differently, that it is non
sense to say that any one musician is “better” than another. Take,
for example, two jazz bassists, Ron Carter and Stan Clarke. To say
that Ron was better than Stan, and vice-versa, doesn’t make a lot of
sense. After all, they’re both masters of the bass. Each of them have
spent years perfecting their particular techniques. Each has chosen
to express himself through his separate and unique living ex
periences.
If you’re going to say whose good, you’d better have a good
definition of good. Perhaps another musician may play to your liking,
but who are you to say who is better, because when you look at it,
musicians are not in competition with each other for being better.
Perhaps there are some imitation musicians who believe doing this,
but no true musician does.
Beware of the imitators. These are the cats who use every gimmick
in the world to get over with their music. They usually do this and
claim “to reach a wider audience”. Remember, no artist com
promises his or her talent for the sake of the masses. If they do, they
are not being true to themselves, regardless of who they happen to
be.
So the next time you hear a saxaphonist who sounds “just like
’Trane”, think! Has this musician taken techniques and learned from
them or has he copied Trane’s style until he no longer realizes the
difference between his own talent and someone else’s expression?
But then again, its truly hard to tell the difference between an
imitator and an innovator. We will talk about innovators later. But
suffice it to say that you need to read up on your black music before
you even listen, and try to decipher what is going on today.
Check these albums out until next issue:
Woody Shaw “Moontarin”—Muse
Wooay’s a hard-bop trumpet player from the sixties and his playing
is still hard edged and gutty, a welcome relief from that crap Byrd
and Hubbard are doing, and it’s freak cause those two cats used to be
on Miles’ a-!
Yusef Lateef “Ten tears Hence”-Atlantic
This recording is live and thank God! It’s about time we can hear
just what he’s been doing live instead of trusting his studio music.
Dig the piano player, Kenny Barron. He’s been bad for so long
that he needs to be heard by someone other than critics who ignore
his contributions to jazz.
That’s all tor now-see you next month. And remember, be bouyant;
it keeps you above water.
THEM CHANGES