PLEASE note the videos in this post were added by me, not Mother Jones.
January 19, 2021
It's here. The last full day of Donald Trump's presidency.
So how are things looking for our outgoing commander in chief? Well, he's getting hit with the worst approval numbers of his entire presidency. While no one seems to want to attend Trump's sad going-away party tomorrow, the president is reportedly fuming over the big names performing down the street at Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony. The city Trump will soon depart is virtually unrecognizable, with roughly 25,000 National Guard troops—five times the number of service members currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan—patrolling its streets thanks to the murderous attack he had a direct role in inciting. Meanwhile, the US is on the verge of reaching 400,000 deaths from the coronavirus—a stark reminder that while many of us made it to this last day, so many people did not.
The past two weeks have underscored, in deeply tragic terms, the overwhelming challenges that await the incoming administration. But holy moly, I couldn't be more thrilled to see the man out of the White House.
—Inae Oh
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SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR ONCE
There’s a moment in Nina Simone’s tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., performed three days after he was killed, in 1968, when you can hear her exhale an under-the-breath “hm.” (Listen at the 1:34 mark.) It’s a sound of many things. It’s a note of contemplation, commemoration, exhaustion, and anguish. It’s also a sound of resilience and strength, a single syllable that reflects some of the history of ’68. Much has changed in the intervening decades, but her echoes continue.
As she began to sing, she told the audience, “This whole program is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King. You know that anyway.” Her bassist had written it hours earlier. It’s not just “a performance,” she added. “Not microphones and all that…but really something else.” In one verse she asks, “Will my country stand or fall? Is it too late for us all? He was for equality for all people, you and me. Full of love and good will. Hate was not his way…Folks you’d better stop and think, and feel again, for we’re headed for the brink.”
In commemoration of MLK Jr. Day this year, Healdsburg Jazz streamed a resounding celebration of his life by the bassist and artistic director Marcus Shelby, pianist Tammy Hall, and vocalist Kim Nalley, who performed Simone’s song with a topspin that lifted melodically what, for Simone, was a kind of sinking down. “Now more than ever we are compelled to use music as a healing force,” Shelby said.
Listen for Simone’s “hm” at 1:34 and “oh yeah” at 1:53. Here’s a second by Simone, with video, and, after, a jolting 2018 coda by the Surinamese Dutch singer Sabrina Starke.
—Daniel King
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