Page 4...1he Portland ()bserver...Oetober 2,1991
Fifty Years in the Life of Muhammad Ali
A New Documentary on A&E’s “ Biography" on October 8
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He is known the world over as
"T h e G reatest.” But M uhammad Ali
is much more than a boxer. His extraor­
dinary life to date is chronicled in an
all-new episode o f BIOGRAPHY,
O ctober 8,1991, at 8 pm and 12 am ET/
9pm and lam PT, on the ART &
E N T E R T A IN M E N T N E T W O R K
(A&E).
BIOGRAPHY
traces M uham ­
mad A li’s popular following and suc­
cess in the ring from his early years as
Cassius Clay to the present. W hen he
em braced the Muslim religion and re­
fused induction into the arm ed forces
during the Vietnam W ar, it led to the
loss o f his title and his prime boxing
years, creating a national controversy.
His full-fledged return to the top in­
cluded a series o f w orldw ide, spec­
tacles, among them the “ Thrilla in
M anila,” considered the best o f his
three historic bouts with Joe Frazier,
Colorful, brash, outspoken, even po­
etic, Ali will be rem em bered as a vi­
brant, key player in the Am erican ex ­
perience of the 60s and 70s. His life
today is much different, but the adora­
tion o f people from all walks o f life
remains.
BIO G RA PH Y : M U H A M M A D
ALI, narrated by series host Peter Graves,
includes new interviews with prom i­
nent Americans who know the former
cham pion well, including tennis star
and sports historian Arthur Ashe, actor
Jam es Earl Jones, ABC News sports
reporter Dick Schaap, and Thomas
Hauser, author o f the acclaim ed 1991
book M uhammad Ali - His Life and
Tim es. Mr. A li’s childhood in L ouis­
Starting Business
Workshop - Basics
’’Before You Must’
• Make a Decision -
"Inquire about the services we offer"
Cox Funeral Home, Inc.
281-4891
24 Hr. Service
We are interested in your problems
Volunteer.
American Heart £ f t
Association
ville, his stunning title-w inning defeat
o f Sonny Liston in 1964, the taking of
his title three years later, his rocky road
back to an historic upset of champion
Larry Holmes, 1980 are all exam ined.
O ut of the ring, BIOGRAPHY docu­
m ents Mr. A li’s role in the Civil Rights
m ovem ent of the 1960s, a rocky per­
sonal life including four m arriages, and
a debilitating medical condition known
as Parkinson’s Syndrome.
“ It is rare to produce a biography
on someone not yet 50 years old, but
Muhammad Ali has already lived many
lives,” said Brooke Bailey Johnson,
Vice President of Programming and
Production, A&E. “ Ali may indeed be
the greatest boxer ever, but it is the
combination of superb athletic ability,
rare skills o f com m unication, w illing­
ness to speak out on controversial is­
sues, and personal charisma that have
made him a living legend.”
BIO GRAPHY: M U H AM M AD
ALI is an A&E/CEL Com m unications
co-production. Charles Grinker is the
Executive Producer, and Lilibet Foster
is the Producer. Michael Cascio is the
A&E Program Executive.
A & E’s rich variety of quality en­
tertainm ent is available to more than
51 million viewers nationwide via 7,000
cable systems. The netw ork’s 24-hour-
a-day schedule is a lively mix o f the
best in comedy, drama, documentaries
and the performing arts. Since A&E
began in 1984, it has received more
ACE Awards than any other basic cable
network, including eight ACE’s for 1990
programming. In addition, the network
has recieved two nominations for the
Golden Ace, cable’s highest honor.
Northwest Film Center Presents
James Baldwin Film October 17 -19
“ Starting Business W orkshop -
B asics” will be presented on Saturday,
O ctober 19, from 9:00 a.m. to4:00p.m .
at the Portland Com m unity College
Sylvania Campus, Health Technology
Building, Room D8R.
In this workshop you will leant the
pros and cons of owning a business,
idea developm ent, determ ining m ar­
kets, basic pricing, set-up issues and
more.
This seminar is co-sponsored by
the PCC Small Business Developm ent
C enter and the U.S. Small Business
A dm inistration. The cost is $20. To
register or for additional information,
please call Portland Com m unity C ol­
lege at 244-6111, ext. 5205.
Former Black Panther Leader
‘Seizes The Time’ Again
Describing himself today as a “ revolutionary humanist,’ ’
Seale indicates that he fights for human rights fo r all humanity
Before you dig. please call
246-6699. Well show
you where the power lies.
Portland General Electric
I
’ i
In the late 1960s and early ’70s,
the name Bobby Seale exploded on the
American scene as he co-founded and
chaired one of the m ost controversial
activist groups in the nation, the Black
Panthers Party.
Today, more than 20 years later,
Bobby Seale’s name will be echoed
again, as he plans to run for Congress to
capture the seat vacated by Rep. W il­
liam G ray, who until recently was the
highest ranking Black legislator on
Capitol Hill.
Seale’s presence will also resur­
face in bookstores nationwide with his
protest-era classic S ieze The Time, just
republished by Black Classic Press.
The book focuses on how Seale
and fellow Black Panther Party co ­
founder Huey Newton seized the time
of the socially volatile ’60s and early
’70s, advancing Malcolm X ’s philoso­
phy o f “ the ballot or the bullet” and
“ by any means necessary” to bring
about social change for African A m eri­
cans.
It’s perhaps through the Panther’s
radical presence that the political party
was significant in forcing considera­
tion o f human and civil rights issues.
W ithout the existence of the Black
Panther Party, many o f the civil rights
concessions gained by the moderate
civil rights groups probably w ouldn't
have occurred, says Seale.
“ A lot of people thought the Black
Panther Party was outside of the civil
rights movement. We actually were
part of the overall civil rights struggle,”
he stresses in a recent interview.
Today, the 54-year-old Scale is
seizing the time once again, hoping to
step into the powerful shoes Gray leaves
behind as representative of Philadel­
phia’s Second Congressional District.
Says Scale, “ I intend to be the most
profoundly accountable congressional
representative ever to take national
office.
He plans to use the proceeds from
the sale of the republished Sieze The
Tim e and his 1988 cookbook, Barbe-
que’n with Bobby, to help finance his
grassroots campaign.
Asked how he has made a living
over the years, Seale says that he has
been on the college lecture circuit,
addressing topics ranging from Black
economic power to saving the environ­
ment. He points out that he speaks at
some 30 to 40 colleges a year.
He is also a com m unity liaison at
Temple U niversity’s D epartment of
African and African-American Stud­
ies.
Describing him self today as a
“ revolutionary hum anist,” Seale indi­
cates that he fights for human rights for
all humanity. Helping Blacks, he notes,
aids in the liberation o f all oppressed
people. W hatever title he wears, Seale
is a man who some would call “ a
survivor.”
He was chairm an of the Black
Panther Party from 1966 to 1974. D ur­
ing that time, he was under constant
surveillance by the FBI and other law
enforcem ent agencies. W hile trying to
defend his rights in a Chicago court­
room, he was beaten, schackled and
gagged. In Connecticut, he faced the
electric chair in a m urder case. And in
1973, again si the odds, he ran for mayor
of O akland. He alm ost won.
Scale tape-recorded and wrote most
of Sieze The Time w hile incarcerated
in the San Francisco County Jail in
1969-1970.
“ We fight racism witth solidar­
ity..” he says in the book. “ Those who
want to obscure the struggle with eth­
nic differences arc the ones who arc
aiding and maintaining the exploita­
tion of the masses o f the people.”
In a new introduction to the book,
Scale writes, " S ic /c The Time contin-
The Portland Art Museum N orth­
west Film Center will screen JAM ES
BALDWIN: THE PRICE OF A TICKET
Thursday & Friday, O ctober 17 & 18 at
7 & 9 p.m. and Saturday, O ctober 19 at
2 p.m. in the Art M useum ’s Berg Swann
Auditorium , 1219 S.W. Park Avenue.
Admission $5 general; $4 museum
members and seniors: $3.50 matinees
h 11 SC31S
Bobby Seale
ues to have universal appeal as an ac­
count of an oppressed people’s struggle
for hum an liberation.”
“ The book is historically signigi-
cant to Black people, and th at’s the kind
of book we publish,” says Black Clas­
sic Press publisher, W. Paul Coates.
“ T here are lessons to be learned from
Sieze The Time. The book is in many
ways a doctrine of the d o ’s and dont’s of
advancing the interests o f oppressed
people.”
C oates, who once headed the Balti­
more chapter of the Black Panther Party,
says the book was in demand when it
was first published in 1970 by Random
House. “ But by the m id-’70s, you
couldn’t find the book.” He has repub­
lished 5,000 copies of the 459-pagc
book in paperback and says, like the
other titles Black Classic Press pub­
lishes, he pains to keep it in p rin t
Right now, Scale is preparing to
make appearances at book parties planned
for W ashington, Baltim ore, Philadel­
phia and New York.
He is also preparing for a role in
filmmaker Spike Lee’s upcoming movie
on M alcolm X.
Seale views the republished Sieze
The Time as having a message to de­
liver. “ T here’s a need to show young
Black people, especially males, what it
means to have principles and to stand up
to the ills o f society,” he emphasizes.
JAMES BALDW IN: THE PRICE
O F A TICK ET, Karen Thorscn’s por­
trait of the late novelist, essayist and
playwright, reveals the com plexities of
the man who was once the m ost cele­
brated African-A m erican writer o f his
time. In this docum entary, w ithout
narration, Baldwin tells his own story
through the use of rarely-seen archival
‘What The Butler Saw’
Opens in Salem
The W illam ette University T he­
atre presents “ W hat the Butler Saw ” ,
by Joe Orton. This contem porary B rit­
ish farce takes sexual stereotypes and
twists and m anipulates them with such
glee that by the m adcap finale, you
w on’t know who is who!
Perform ance dates arc O ctober 4,
5, 10, 11, and 12 at 8:00 p.m. and
October 6 at 2:00 p.m. Performances
will be held in the W illam ette U niver­
sity Krcsgc Theatre.
Admission is $6.00 for the general
public and $4.00 for students and sen­
iors. For more information or reserva­
tions, please call the W illam ette T h e­
atre Box Office at 370-6221.
sim ply hacked oft a chunk from a
large block.
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footage, intimate interviews, eloquent
public speeches and astounding cin­
em a-vérité glimpses of James Baldwin
alive. The film also includes original
footage of Baldw in’s own funeral serv­
ice, location footage of his homes on
three continents, plus interviews with
his friends, family and colleagues and
critics, among them his brother David,
writers Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka,
W illiam Styron, Ishmacl Reed and
Yashar Kemal, and entertainer Bobby
Short. Like Baldwin himself, the film
explores what it is to be bom black,
impoverished, gay and gifted in a world
that has yet to understand that ‘ ‘ all men
are brothers.”
For more information, call the Film
Center at 221-1156
PacifiCorp
Assists Minority
Entrepreneurs
A $10,(XX) donation from the Paci­
fiCorp Foundation will help the O re­
gon Association o f Minority Entrepre­
neurs remodel and add to their existing
headquarters building in North Port­
land.
The donation was presented to the
association this morining at its regualr
monthly meeting. John Bohling, ex­
ecutive vice president of operation.
Pacific Power, presented the check
Pacific Power, adivisionofPadifiC orp,
provides energy services to customers
in North and Northeast Portland and
serves approximately 6(X),(XX) custom ­
ers in six W estern states.
The Oregon Association of M inor­
ity Entrepreneurs encourages business
opportunities and development among
minority groups by providing techni­
cal, financial and other assistance
“ The association has a proven track
record in helping small businesses
succeed and we wanted to help them in
that effort,” said Bohling
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