MUSIC MONDAY: “Calypso” – a Collection in Celebration of Artist and Activist Harry Belafonte’s 95th Birthday (LISTEN)

words by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson); art and music by Marlon West (FB: marlon.west1 Twitter: @marlonw IG: stlmarlonwest Spotify: marlonwest)

This week’s Music Monday share is in tribute to the one and only Harry Belafonte, who turned 95 on March 1st. We celebrate the renowned singer, actor and activist by sharing refreshed and updated list of Calypso music, a genre that Belafonte popularized worldwide with his recordings (his Calypso album from 1956 became the first by a solo performer to sell a million copies) and contributions to the style.

Not only is the refreshed playlist the creation of GBN contributor Marlon West (his original post on calypso can be read here), but he also created the artwork that honors Belafonte as the superhero and champion for civil rights and human rights that he has been for decades (which includes marching on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., funding the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, fighting against apartheid, organizing USA for Africa for famine relief and acting as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador) and still is.

Luminaries such as Spike Lee, Alicia Keys, Laurence Fishburne, Whoopi Goldberg and Cornel West turned out to celebrate Belafonte’s milestone last week at The Town Hall Theater in Manhattan for the first Harry Belafonte Social Justice Awards given by Sankofa.org, a social justice organization founded 10 years ago by Belafonte, his daughter Gina Belafonte and the music executive Raoul Roach.

You can celebrate Belafonte by listening to his own words about his life and activism by checking out the unabridged audiobook of his autobiography, My Song: A Memoir:

Also included in today’s post is a conversation with Belafonte from 2012 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. 

Sankofa.org is a social justice organization founded by Harry Belafonte that enlists the support of today’s most celebrated artists and influential individuals in collaboration with grassroots partners to elevate the voices of the disenfranchised and promote justice, peace, and equality.