Friday, March 16, 2012

Pat Thomas Travels Over Land and Sea With
Listen Whitey!: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power

March 16, 2012 – Seattle, WA. Fantagraphics Books and Light in the Attic Records are excited to announce that author, lecturer, and music-man Pat Thomas is hitting the road with Listen Whitey!: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power. Meet the mofo behind the book that pays tribute to the Black Power Movement of the ’60s-’70s. Heading up the West Coast and then across the pond to England, Thomas will be giving talks, signing books, and playing tracks at both bookstores and record shops.  

While researching this book project in Oakland, Thomas discovered rare recordings of speeches, interviews, and music by noted activists Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Elaine Brown, and others that form the framework of this definitive retrospective. Listen, Whitey! chronicles the forgotten history of Motown Records’ Black Power subsidiary label, Black Forum, which released politically charged albums by Stokely Carmichael, Langston Hughes, Bill Cosby, and Ossie Davis, among others. Obscure records produced by African-American sociopolitical organizations of the period are examined, along with the Isley Brothers, Nina Simone, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Watts Prophets, Roland Kirk, Horace Silver, Angela Davis, H. Rap Brown, Stanley Crouch, and many more. Thomas will give a slide and music presentation, and then sign copies of Listen, Whitey! and the companion CD of the same title from Seattle-based Light in the Attic Records. The album features rare tracks from African-American activists like Dick Gregory, Eldridge Cleaver, and the Last Poets, with protest music by Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Gil Scott-Heron, Roy Harper, and more.

Listen, Whitey! features nearly 200 pages of text accompanied by over 250 large sized, full-color reproductions of album covers and 45 rpm singles — most of which readers will have never seen before. The book creates a cultural context for the iconic images and the accompanying album. 
 
For a preview and more information, visit www.fantagraphics.com/listenwhitey.

LISTEN, WHITEY!: THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF BLACK POWER
By Pat Thomas
$39.99 USA
ISBN 978-1-60699-507-5
Published by Fantagraphics Books

Event listing information:

Monday, April 2, 12-1PM 
University of Southern California 
Ronald Tutor Campus Center 
Geoffrey Cowan Forum, Room 207 
Annenberg School across from Heritage Hall. 
3607 Trousdale Pkwy 
LOS ANGELES, CA 90089 
213.821.3015

Wednesday, April 4, 7pm 
Book Soup 
8818 Sunset Blvd. 
W. HOLLYWOOD, CA 90069 
310.659.3110 

Thursday, April 5, 7-8PM 
AMOEBA Records, LA 
6400 Sunset Blvd.
 LOS ANGELES, CA 90028 
323.245.6400 

Saturday, April 7, TBA 
Warbler Records & Goods
131 E De La Guerra St 
SANTA BARBARA, CA 93101 
805.845.5862 

Tuesday, April 10, 7:30PM 
The Booksmith 
1644 Haight St. 
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117 
415.863.8688 

Wednesday, April 11, 7:30 pm 
Pegasus Books 2349 Shattuck Ave.
BERKELEY, CA 94704 
510.649.1320 


Sunday, April 22, 7:30 PM 
Powell’s City of Books
1005 W Burnside 
PORTLAND, OR 97209 
503.228.4651 

Wednesday, May 9, TBA 
University of Southampton 
University Road, SOUTHAMPTON SO17 1BJ
+44 (0)23.8059.5000

Thursday, May 10, TBA 
SPONSORED AND PRESENTED BY 
THE WIRE MAGAZINE
Cafe OTO
18 - 22 Ashwin St. 
Dalston, LONDON E8 3DL

Friday, May 11, TBA
Rough Trade East “Dray Walk”
Old Truman Brewery 
91 Brick Lane, LONDON 
E1 6QL
+44 (0)207.392.7788 

Tuesday, May 15, TBA 
Durham University
Lecture Room of the Music Department 
The University Office
Old Elvet, DURHAM 
DH1 3HP
+44 (0)191.334.6305 

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