Missouri Books

I have the distinct impression that there are large and powerful forces in the United States who most definitely want to forget about, not know about, and or leave undocumented important cultural movements like the Black Artists Group documented in Benjamin Looker's book. If you watch the series on jazz that Ken Burnes did for PBS in the '90s, for example, you will be informed absolutely nothing, zero, zilch, about the extremely talented, re-structuralist (to use a term of Anthony Braxton's) musical artists (and forget about the poets, playwrights, dancers and visual artists)in this book.
In other words, ACCORDING TO MAINSTREAM USA MEDIA, THE PEOPLE IN THIS BOOK DO NOT EXIST AND NEVER EXISTED.
The extremely fertile cultural movement exemplified by BAG, which was inspired by the great creative music organization founded by Muhal Richard Abrams in the early 60's called the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, phenomenon of this type is IGNORED to an extent that is really CRIMINAL. And I am told by people involved in this music scene (which still exists and thrives despite the neglect) that PBS will fund, produce and/or broadcast a series on the AACM, BAG and other collectives like it probably around the same time that HELL FREEZES OVER. I have seen Laurence Welk reruns on PBS, and Ken Burnes pathetically mediocre jazz series. But the AACM and BAG.... oh, well, never mind.
If you have any interest in quality art that speaks to the human condition and creativity, music that can make you really think and feel, I strongly recommend that you buy this book. Please.
This is the book I was thinking about writing myself, but never even came close to getting around to doing it. My life is just to loony and disorganized I guess. Benjamin Looker actually makes extensive use of an interview I did with on the the BAG founding members, Floyd LeFlore, (who I have played many concerts with and who happens to be one of the best friends I ever had). Floyd and I actually perform 2 of his poems with music on an album of mine, Consonants and Dissonants (Vid Recordings) by David Parker. (It's not listed in the books discography because technically the album isn't LED by a BAG member.) You can find the CD if you search Cadence Magazine's website, as well as someday on my website if I ever get the Vid Recordings website back on line (what I wrote earlier about being hopelessly disorganized).
It occurs to me that Laclede Town, which is written about fairly extensively in Benjamin Lookers book, should be documented a lot more in books. It is a neighborhood, brimming with an idealistic vibe, that sprang up in st. Louis in the 60s, that no longer exists. yet another historic reality that the powers that be doesn't want you to know about. I lived there for maybe 5 or 6 years old, our house just a stone's throw
away from LaClede Town's Circle Coffee Shop and Bookstore, (although I had no interest whatsoever at the time in the music that Oliver Lake and Floyd LeFlore were playing there). I remember attending Berea Presbyterian Church. Actually I remember very little, other than a general, and to me very very important highly idealistic and loving vibe that I think the USA needs a lot more of. (I actually heard Oliver Lake say the same thing, more or less.) I hope someone writes a book about Laclede Town.
Is there anyone out there reading this who grew up and or remembers Laclede Town. You are more than welcome to write me (ranpar2000@yahoo.com). I would like to hear your memories.
Dominic Schaeffer (his family, in fact, is an interesting story) has a little article about Laclede Town on the internet, http://www.thecommonspace.org/2003/10/communities.php . Dominic endorses this book as well.
Oliver Lake, by the way, endorses this book on his website.

Oh to hell with it, let's just forget the past and become a bunch of mindless zombies repeating what they tell us on TV. Thinking creatively just takes too much effort.

David Parker

The Civil Rights Movement (and urban crisis) inspired African American artists to explore political and cultural issues through various experimental media including theater, visual arts, dance, poetry and jazz. As artists created collectives in major urban centers like Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit and New York, this "Black Arts Movement" (BAM) flourished from the mid-1960's through the 1970's.

St. Louis was home to one such collective, the Black Artists' Group (BAG) from 1968 to 1972. BAG was not the best-known BAM collective, nor the longest lived. But a close examination of its intensely productive life is instructive as it uncovers the impact of racial dynamics, debates over civil rights, black nationalism, and the role of the arts in political and cultural struggles found any time social concern meets artistic innovation.

As the author states, "Although the critics' gaze has focused mostly on the coasts, a richer, more complex, and more problematic vision of the Black Arts Movement emerges when regional cooperatives such as BAG are brought back into the light." Consequently, the book is more than simply a role call of famous innovative artists nurtured by BAG (Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, and Emilio Cruz, to name but a few) as the author explores issues of controversy such as the recruitment of funding from white liberal sources...crucial to both BAG's founding and ultimately, its dissolution. But dissolution was simply another beginning as members moved on to play dominant roles in other spaces, both in the US and abroad.

The book is thoroughly researched and documented; the author conducted over 50 interviews with BAG artists and others, transcripts of which now reside at the Missouri Historical Society (when permitted by the interviewee.) I appreciated Looker's clear and concise style - his prose flows naturally and is a joy to read. I would have liked more images of visual arts, but this is a minor criticism and perhaps not even a fair one, since I've no idea of what's available. Additional resources include a discography of recordings led by BAG performers, 1970-73.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in the Black Arts Movement.

This is a most accurate account of daily living in a small Iowa town. The subtlety of the author's descriptions can only be fully appreciated by one who has grown up in that environment. Bauer makes no apologies for the foibles of the townspeople, but neither does he seem to satirize them. His insight into the people of Prairie City adds a natural warmth without lathering up with any undue sentimentality.

I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in small towns in the Midwest - and what makes them tick.

Enjoyed his slice-of-life descriptions of people he spent time with. At first I was puzzle at the choices of characters, all men (incuding his father)and mainly those who did manual labor. Where was the rest of the town? Then I realized that he examining the people that he (and me) had least understood growing up.

A bouquet of roses from the garden given as a gift sets off tragic events. It is a time when family, values and ethics were strong and rigid. This mid 1800s historical fact novel is a love story in samll town in Missouri. The author has done her research when she stayed true to the customs, mannerisms, speech, dress and lifestyle of the times.

"Pride of Missouri"is a book inspired not by fiction but historical events which did have bearing on development of the Owens family in Missouri. It is worthy and interesting reading especially to those who love the mid-west and greatly appreciate living in a part of this great nation where the values which founded America still have strong emphasis and influence.

I really loved this book. It's not just "short stories" but a carefully crafted work that interweaves the lives of the characters throughout. At the end, another complete story has revealed itself. A very cleaver and difficult thing to accomplish. What I really liked is that the stories didn't get showy and exaggerated. It left me feeling like these were real people that had interesting lives that were worth hearing about. Van Winckel's other books are a treat as well.

This collection of short stories, connected by common threads of gypsys, quakes and troubled lives, was one of the most enjoyable books I've read yet. I practically read it cover to cover in a single sitting, it is that enthralling. If I have a complaint, it would be that it ended too soon, before I was ready to put it down. I recommend this book to everyone.

for those nay sayers, here is yet another text that reveals how "color lines" still exist, and more than likely always wil. read and follow his footsteps for those who are not african american and want to see it again, hear it again, and feel it again...racism and discrimination against africans and african americans here in the U.S. in 2001.

If you need to know.. this will let you.. if you need to read about it ... this will tell you.. pick it up read it and pass it on.

The title made me shudder a little, since my time at Southwest (class of '86) was deep into the "fall." But the year-by-year accounts of my era were free of finger-pointing, and it was fun and informative reading the history of the old school and seeing all the many fine photographs. I'd highly recommend this for anyone with a connection to Southwest, of whatever era.

My one disappointment is that the book is a little skimpy.

As a graduate of that grand high school Southwest, I was overwhelmed by the memories this book brought me. My only complaint for the author is that I want more--more stories--please! This is a well researched and well told biography of a school that shouldn't have been killed by bureaucratic nonsense.

I hope everyone who ever walked through those magnificent front pillars on Wornall Road will have a chance to read this book and remember.

I put this book up and down over several months - and that was mostly an effect of the power of certain segments of the book.

The stories move through overlapping lives - and relationships. Universally overcoming their own obstacles - molestation, racismn, sexuality, living and dying... realizing one is aging. Strong and weak - the characters feed off of each other and show a need for one another even at their stubbornest moments.

Nina is the main character - but I aim to tell you - so that you give him your undivided attention - the real story is her little dog (who seems to have no name).

The book is strongest in the final two chapters - Chapters from A Dog's Life and Block Party. I smiled hard and cried harder through the final movements between Nina and her dog.

We are all witnesses to their ceremony...

Kelly Cherry's collection of short stories is an outstanding example of refined English language prose as well as a philosophical exploration into the meaning or meaninglessness of human existence. However, inspite of these grand subjects, Ms. Cherry often choses the most humble of subjects and the smallest events to story the plight of her sometimes hapless, often kind, characters as they forage for love and understanding in the Wisconsin college town neighborhood where these stories take place. There is heartbreaking irony and tenderness in these stories. Ms. Cherry deftly written sentences sweep the reader toward the edge of consciousness itself, and indeed we stare over the edge and into the abyss more than once, and then we are swept back again with great waves of emotion to the everyday existence we cling to. There is great humor in these stories as well as an undertone of darkness in every sentence. Only a poet of Ms. Cherry's brilliance could render such a remarkable display without calling attention to the language itself. These are stories, not merely for the student of literature but for the student of life. Above everything else there is a great reverence for human beings and their spiritual quest in a world that harbors few places of refuge for the vulnerable.

I bought this book because I came across a poem of Mitcham's a few years back which has become one of my favorite poems, "The Foolishness of God Is Wiser than Men." Though this particular poem is not included in this collection there are a number a very good poems here.

Many of these poems, including the best of them, deal with death and the relationships between parents and children. "Notes for a Prayer in June" describes a fatal car accident and how the author fears his son's judgement of him. "The Touch" describes a mother teaching her son how to dribble a basketball using it as a metaphor for how she "taught me what a softer touch could do,/how to go where I needed to, never looking down." "Home" has a beautiful stanza about a father playing a game with his children while "About Women" has a father trying to explain women to his son but realizing there are things he should never tell. "Last Words" and "Sunday" are both very powerful poems about a son losing a father.

There are other powerful poems here as well: "Epistles," which reworks the stories of the biblical figures Solomon, Salome and Jesus. And the poem sequence "Somewhere in Ecclesiastes" also has some powerful images though it, too, never strays far from the theme of death--the death of children and "unexplained death."

Some people find poetry of death & family too heavy. If you like this kind of poetry, however, as I do, you will likely find some poetry worth reading here. I have yet to come across a book of poetry that is uniformly powerful on every page but Mr. Mitcham does a very good job here.

This is one of the best books of poetry I have ever read. The way Judson Mitcham used his words and imagery packs a powerful emotional punch. Anytime you can feel the beauty or sadness of a poem in your gut, that physical feeling of being moved, you know you have found a good poet. Anyone who considers themselves an ardent fan of poetry must read this book to see what poetry is all about.

This superb book tells the story of an amazing man. His interesting life coupled with the author's determination to reveal his true story create a captivating read. I truly recommend this book; by reading it you will learn more about an important man in America's history; Stuart Symington.

This is the first full-length biography of Stuart Symington (1901-1988), Democrat from Missouri and one of the most significant political leaders of the middle part of the twentieth century. It is much anticipated, for the author has been at work on it for many years, but it is worth the wait. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, Symington was educated at Yale University. In the 1920s and 1930s he worked as an executive for several radio and steel companies. He moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1938 and became president of the Emerson Electric Manufacturing Co.

This was prelude to a career after 1945 in politics. Symington began working with the war demobilization effort at the conclusion of World War II, and in 1946-1947 was Assistant Secretary of War for Air. When the Department of Defense was established in 1947, he became the first Secretary of the Air Force, 1947-1950. In that context he established the newly independent Department of the Air Force as a co-equal with the Army and Navy and led the defense establishment into the cold war era. He served in several other public positions until resigning in 1952 to run for the Senate from Missouri. He served four terms as Missouri's senator, choosing to retire in 1976. Throughout his senatorial career Symington was a knowledgeable leader in international and defense affairs, as well as an able counselor to several Democratic presidents. He also ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party nomination for the Presidency in 1960.

James Olson's biography covers fully the broad career of Stuart Symington and ably pinpoints his skill as both a politician and an administrator. It is a valuable starting point for any study of his life and career. It should probably be read in conjunction with "Cold War Strategist: Stuart Symington and the Search for National Security" (Praeger, 2001), by Linda McFarland and George M Watson's "The Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, 1947-1965" (Office of Air Force History, 1993), both of which offer detailed assessments of Symington's role in the development of air power.

Allen Chapel AME Church in Kansas City, Missouri is prominently mentioned numerous times throughout the book. As a member of Allen Chapel, The Mother Church in Kansas City, Missouri; I was please to know how many aristocrats were past members. Good book for historical purposes.

Ms. Jo Lee Brooks

This is a valuable contribution to the field of African-American urban studies. Coulter tells the forgotten stories of a vibrant black community that develooped around downtown Kansas City in the early twentieth century. He tells the stories of men and women, professionals and laborers, young and old. This work will stand as a benchmark for the study of black communities in the mid-west.