All Things Censored... : Huntingdon And SCI Greene Sessions Spoken available on June 05 2017 from Amazon for 11.88
UPC bar code 721616022124 ξ1 registered May 24 2016
UPC bar code 721616022124 ξ2 registered June 05 2017
Product category is Audio
Manufacturered by Alternative Tentacles
Product weight is 0.25 lbs.
Alternative Tentacles In 1994, journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal was hired by National Public Radio's All Things Considered as a special commentator, only to be fired shortly before his series began due to political pressure from police groups and Republican Senator Bob Dole. This set from the ultra-leftist Alternative Tentacles label compiles these essays, recorded by Abu-Jamal in prison just before the state of Pennsylvania banned any journalists from visiting death row, essentially ending any recorded correspondence from the former Philadelphia journalist, convicted of murdering a police officer in 1982. Aided by vocal support from folks like Dr. Joycelyn Elders; Martin Sheen; famed attorney William Kunstler; authors Howard Zinn, Manning Marable, and Alice Walker; activist Cornel West; and MOVE survivor Romana Africa, Abu-Jamal focuses not so much on his own imprisonment but on the failure of the prison system as a whole, "the war on the poor," and the ongoing story of Philadelphia's MOVE. Some essays are fleeting, underdeveloped ideas ("It's Not Nice to Fool With Mother Nature" is a pedestrian statement of eco-apocalypse). Most, however, are remarkably insightful, and are served well by Abu-Jamal's concise, direct use of language, and calm, exacting voice. "A Rap Thing" criticizes that music's fixation on excessive materialism while knowingly pointing to the reactionary economic and social climate of Reaganism that fueled much of its development, and "Sweet Roxanne" is a loving eulogy to the late Roxanne Jones, renowned activist and state senator from Philadelphia. The echo of the concrete floors and cinderblock walls of Abu-Jamal's prison visitation room, together with the rough editing and production of the sessions, serve to highlight the immediacy of the recordings, and the timeliness of Abu-Jamal's message. ~ John Duffy, All Music Guide This spoken-word CD by Mumia Abu-Jamal is a collection of speeches and essays by the death-row inmate and features supporters as diverse as Alice Walker, Cornel West, Martin Sheen, and Dorothy Allison. Before he was jailed for murder in 1981, Abu-Jamal was president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists and a civil rights activist. His eloquence as a writer shows in his numerous essays, which touch on everything from poverty to racism to rap, but unfortunately the author is not a natural speaker. His voice lacks the fire and brimstone of a Jesse Jackson or a Martin Luther King Jr.; instead, Abu-Jamal delivers his politicized speeches with the even-toned, calming tenor of a newscaster (not surprising when you consider that he also worked for WUHY-FM before his arrest. And although the topics might seem almost commonplace to us in this age of feminism and affirmative action, it's still a message worth hearing. --Tricia Romano
^All Things Censored, Vol. 1 by Mumia Abu-Jamal (CD, Dec-1998, Alternative Tentacles)UPC 721616022124 (revised Feb 2023)
^Mumia Abu-Jamal (1998). All Things Censored... : Huntingdon And SCI Greene Sessions [Spoken Word], Alternative Tentacles. Amazon. UPC 721616022124 (revised Jun 2017)
By A Customer The one and only criticism I have about this work is that Mumia's oration invariably sounds vapid, but not so much that it detracts from the overall value of this album. I highly recommend it to anyone who seeks to hear the actual voice of the "Voice of the Voiceless". The substance of all the essays is ever absorbing and compelling. I stand in reverence to the man who has been able to maintain such a resilient spirit in the face of ongoing horrendous trea..
I'll grant that Mumia Abu Jamal is a gifted writer, and that he has plenty of important things to say. The problem is that after an hour of pontificating on a few select subjects, he starts to sound like a broken record. He's also so incredibly one-sided that his writing hasn't even a smidgen of balance to it.These short editorials were made from his prison cell on Pennsylvania's death row, where he was then incarcerated for the alleged murder of a Philadelphia cop..
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