• Home
  • About
    • Straight Up
    • Jan Herman
    • Contact
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

STUDS TERKEL: WHERE CULTURE MEETS POLITICS

October 5, 2005 by Jan Herman

He’s the blackest white man you’ll ever encounter: Studs Terkel, at 93, speaking this morning about his memories of Mahalia Jackson, about the difference between spirituals and gospel songs, about interviewing Louis Armstrong and listening to his favorite jazz tune, Armstrong’s gorgeous recording of “West End Blues” (listen to it yourself), made with Earl Hines on piano, about James Baldwin and what Bessie Smith meant to him.
Studs Terkel
Terkel, left, who underwent open heart surgery six weeks ago, showed up at the downtown Manhattan firehouse that serves as Democracy Now!’s broadcast studio and put the broadest smile on DN anchor Amy Goodman’s face that we’ve ever seen. Besides his cultural commentary, we loved his political remarks. In fact, there’s no way to separate them. Of “the clown,” his term for the Bullshitter-in-Chief, he says: “This guy is a burlesque of Ronald Reagan. He makes Reagan sound like Abraham Lincoln.”
Studs Terkel's latest book As soon as Goodman’s interview with this national treasure is posted, we’ll put up the link. In the meantime, listen to this (give it time to download) for the pleasure of fabulous talk from a fabulous character who happens to be real. It’s a WFMT Chicago radio interview with Terkel. And if you really want to explore, listen to this radio drama: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, featuring Terkel and the novelist Nelson Algren — another black man who happened to be born white — from way back in 1960.
— Tireless Staff of Thousands
Postscript: It’s up. Here he is this morning being interviewed on Democracy Now! (Full disclosure: Studs is a friend.)

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit

Filed Under: main

Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
Another strange fact... Read More…

About

My Books

Several books of poems have been published in recent years by Moloko Print, Statdlichter Presse, Phantom Outlaw Editions, and Cold Turkey … [Read More...]

Straight Up

The agenda is just what it says: news of arts, media & culture delivered with attitude. Or as Rock Hudson once said in a movie: "Man is the only … [Read More...]

Contact me

We're cutting down on spam. Please fill in this form. … [Read More...]

Archives

Blogroll

Abstract City
AC Institute
ACKER AWARDS New York
All Things Allen Ginsberg
Antiwar.com
arkivmusic.com
Artbook&
Arts & Letters Daily

Befunky
Bellaart
Blogcritics
Booknotes
Bright Lights Film Journal

C-SPAN
Noam Chomsky
Consortium News
Cost of War
Council on Foreign Relations
Crooks and Liars
Cultural Daily

The Daily Howler
Dark Roasted Blend
DCReport
Deep L
Democracy Now!

Tim Ellis: Comedy
Eschaton

Film Threat
Robert Fisk
Flixnosh (David Elliott’s movie menu)
Fluxlist Europe

Good Reads
The Guardian
GUERNICA: A Magazine of Art & Politics

Herman (Literary) Archive, Northwestern Univ. Library
The Huffington Post

Inter Press Service News Agency
The Intercept
Internet Archive (WayBackMachine)
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Doug Ireland
IT: International Times, The Magazine of Resistance

Jacketmagazine
Clive James

Kanopy (stream free movies, via participating library or university)
Henry Kisor
Paul Krugman

Lannan Foundation
Los Angeles Times

Metacritic
Mimeo Mimeo
Moloko Print
Movie Geeks United (MGU)
MGU: The Kubrick Series

National Security Archive
The New York Times
NO!art

Osborne & Conant
The Overgrown Path

Poets House
Political Irony
Poynter

Quanta Magazine

Rain Taxi
The Raw Story
RealityStudio.org
Bill Reed
Rhizome
Rwanda Project

Salon
Senses of Cinema
Seven Stories Press
Slate
Stadtlichter Presse
Studs Terkel
The Synergic Theater

Talking Points Memo (TPM)
TalkLeft
The 3rd Page
Third Mind Books
Times Square Cam
The Tin Man
t r u t h o u t

Ubu Web

Vox

The Wall Street Journal
Wikigate
Wikipedia
The Washington Post
The Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)
World Catalogue
World Newspapers, Magazines & News Sites

The XD Agency

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit
This blog published under a Creative Commons license

an ArtsJournal blog

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in