"I was expected to be dead within two, three days. I was born two months early, and everyone had given up on me. But my mother insisted on my life. She went throughout the black sections of Miami, where I was born, looking for help to save her child. She went to the church, and she went to the few people she knew. Absolutely heavyhearted, my mom passed a fortune-teller's stall, and she sat with this lady. She said, "I need you to tell me about my son." And the woman said, "Don't worry about your son. He will not be a sickly child. He will walk with kings. He will step on pillars of gold. And he will carry your name to many places." - Sidney Poitier
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Sidney Poitier: When I was a boy on Cat Island, I used to go hunting with a slingshot. And I would hit birds with my pebbles. Later in life, I learned the value of a life. I wanted to be my own man, but I wasn't allowing the birds I destroyed a life. I had to go back and examine my killing of those birds, frogs and insects.
Oprah: No, you didn't.
Sidney: I surely did, my darling! And you know what? I learned that an insect, a frog, a bird are such miraculous creations, and who am I to destroy them since I cannot create them? Do you know what goes into the design of a little beetle that flies? There I was, killing them at random! And the remorse helped me to never kill again.
Oprah: I'm with you. But I can tell you for a fact that I do not feel a thing for flies. I am not that evolved. Do you save flies?
Sidney: If a fly's on my arm, I will brush near it.
Oprah: But you won't hit it?
Sidney: I wouldn't swat it.
Oprah: Now that is honor beyond that which I know.
Sidney: I have this feeling that life is so magically created that if I respect it, that respect will come circling back to me in ways I don't even know.
( https://www.oprah.com/omagazine/oprah-interviews-sidney-poitier/all )
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Hey y'all, let me say up top how appreciative I am of your support for the show, tuning in whether regularly or occasionally, and your kind words about enjoying the music and connection. Especially in these times when I have to do the show alone at home, it means a lot. I'm really grateful we get to continue this tradition.
This week on the Railroad we received the gift of a brand new DJ Tee Money mix, along with lots of other funk old and new, and of course some remembrance of the incomparable Sidney Poitier. Hope you and yours are maintaining and I'll see you soon <3
PARTIAL PLAYLIST:
Sidney Poitier - Only The Wise Are Brave (from his 1967 jazz/spoken word album "Journeys Inside the Mind: The Dialogues of Plato)
Will Smith - Sidney Poitier monologue from "Six Degrees of Separation"
Michael Rose - Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Reality Poem
Courtney Pine ft. Omar - Rules
Lupe Fiasco - Strange Fruition
Sly & Robbie - Conference (mixed w/ Guess Who's Coming To Dinner dialogue)
Mother Nature & Boathouse - GEMZ
Public Enemy - Toxic
Reks ft. Pharoahe Monch - The Complex
Kid Sister ft. DJ Gant Man- Switch Board
Fela Kuti - JJD
Alchemist - Broken Bottles
Sidney Poitier - On How He Got Started In Acting
Mach Hommy - Self Luh
Blackalicious - Inspired By
Mother Nature - HANDZOFF
Sa-Roc - Something Real
Kota the Friend w/ Statik Selectah - Sunset
Lucky Daye & Yebba - How Much Can a Heart Take
Robert Glasper - Cold
Sidney Poitier - Looking back on life, 1992 speech
Yazmin Lacey - A Mother Lost
Sidney Poitier - The Immortality of the Soul
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TEEMONEY'S HIP-HOP CHILLOUT MIX:
Thundercat featuring Genivieve, “Satellite”
Mereba, “Glock Paradise” [Thundercat and Mereba are taken from the new Insecure soundtrack Vol. 2]
Styles P & Havoc, “Nightmares 2 Dreams” [from their new album Wreckage Manner]
The Alchemist, “The Bravo” [from his new original ambient score for Cycles, a psychedelic short film on YouTube]
Sleep Sinatra, “Gray State” [rapper from Nebraska]
Burial, “New Love” [first ambient album since 2007 from a formerly mysterious artist from the UK]
Anthony Hamilton featuring Lil Jon, “I’m Ready” [from Hamilton’s new album Love Is the New Black]
Rubi Rose, “Twork” [artist from Atlanta who started out as a video model for the Migos]
RuPaul, “Pretty Pretty Gang Gang” [brand new RuPaul album Mamaru released last Friday]
Malaya, “Anxiety” [former American Idol contestant on Snoop Dogg’s new West Coast compilation The Algorithm]
Latto, “Big Energy” [first winner of Jermaine Dupri’s The Rap Game reality show in 2016]
Telemakus featuring Chino Corvalan, Ted Taforo, Corydrums, “Mars Blues” [Bay Area jazz pianist and players]
Naytronix, “Somebody” [Nate Brenner from Oakland’s Tune-Yards]
Kevin Allen featuring Rexx Life Raj and Jane Handcock, “Childish” [taken from Allen’s new album Nothing Lasts Forever - he was formerly known as Erk The Jerk in the hyphy era]
Coldcut and Mixmaster Morris, “Autumn Leaves Revisited” [taken from their new album and mix called 0...Coldcut made some of the UK’s early cut and paste hip-hop productions, plus collaborations with Lisa Stansfield, Junior Reid before starting the Ninja Tune label - this is a new remix of one of their latter classics]
Gwen Pearson
2022-01-10 20:38:44 +0000 UTC