Gary Winfield's Cultural Life
The New Haven state senator plays the violin but hankers for a turn on a piano. His cultural gems include James Baldwin, Doctor Who, "I Won't Complain" and one of the great American story songs.
State Senator Gary Winfield shares his cultural necessities in a poignant edition of Now You Know—The Cultural Lives of Others. He examines his coming or age through a poem and highlights the song that he shared with his late mother. The New Haven Democrat also includes the epic story song, Guess Who I Saw Today. If you are not familiar with it, listen to the end. The first time Gary heard it as a teenager he needed to listen to it again to understand the payoff. You may too.
Favorite author or book.
I’ll give you both. My favorite author is James Baldwin. It isn’t his writing alone. It is his writing and his life as a public intellectual. Listening to Baldwin articulate the Black American experience has had deep impact on me. My favorite book is Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. When I was very young this book helped me realize just how much I could miss even when I thought I was paying deep attention to a text.
The book you are reading.
Three Mothers - Anna Malaika Tubbs
The book you couldn’t finish.
There are many. Does this question really ask about the one book? Am I strange in that I have so many? I’ll just name the latest which is Ned Blackhawk’s The Rediscovery of America. I will finish this book. Some of them I lose interest in. This one is not like that. I didn’t have time it for when I sat down to read it. I will read it when I get some time during the holidays.
The book you’ve long intended to read but never get to.
I read the books I intend. There is a pull though that makes me sometimes wonder if some classics I have missed I should read. If I am honest, at this point, if it did not get read in school I probably never will. I have too many books on a very long list to ever get back to the ones I would read just because I am supposed to.
Most memorable live performance.
I laugh at this question. I have been invited to a Ray Charles show, gotten to meet Nancy Wilson (she could have sung ‘Guess Who I Saw Today’ or ‘Almost Like Being in Love’ to me any day), and watched Luther Vandross perform but the most memorable live performance was my step-son playing in his school band. He had a little section that I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the event to see. Watching him brought me so much joy. Even all these years later I smile when I think about it. If my younger twins ever ask I will tell them that their performances were the best.
Your best binge.
I have been a Doctor Who watcher since I was a kid. When the series came back in 2005 I missed it. Just before the last series of Jodie Whitaker’s run I decided I wanted to catch up and would watch an hour in the morning before going to the gym, some while washing dishes or cleaning the house. I wound up watching the runs of the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Doctors in about two months.
Favorite TV series.
I watch very few series - it is hard to keep up. Currently one show I have been able to keep up with and enjoy is Star Trek Strange New Worlds.
[Lucille Ball and the unlikely origins of Star Trek.]
A YouTube video you find yourself returning to.
I first saw it on PBS but have watched it on YouTube several times Wayne Dyer’s The Power of Intention.
[You can listen to the audiobook of The Power of Intention here.]
Favorite piece of music.
Among other things my mother was a singer. She had an amazing voice. I don’t. So, it is very unlikely we would sing together except that we did - once. We sang I Won’t Complain as the Rev. Paul Jones played. It is a song that I also sang at her funeral. It reminds me of her. Sometimes hearing it brings me joy. Sometimes sadness.
The music that cheers you.
Can you listen to Earth Wind and Fire and not feel better?
If you could own one painting it would be…..
It’s one that I would put in my office. The Advocate by Ernie Barnes. The reason it was painted and the reason I do the work that I do are entwined.
The lyrics you wish you’d written.
Sunny Day
Sweepin' the clouds away
On my way to where the air is sweet…
clearly, there are better songs but the Sesame Street theme instantly transports you back in time. It is shared as a treasure by multiple generations. My kids and I, separated by four decades both smile when we hear it.
The poem/song that makes you wonder.
The author - Gwendolyn Brooks
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
I encountered The Pool Players Seven at the Golden Shovel as a teenager. Like most teens I was trying to figure things out. Race complicated that. Though the poem was written some two decades earlier it spoke to me about youth, my youth, our absolute sense that we know it all and nothing at the same time. The structure of the poem is such that the word We is only on the same line with the rest of the sentence once…We real cool. The rest it is on the line prior making the statement less than emphatic. My teenage years were like that where even in making a statement about the things I knew about life I was asking a question and I wondered if adulthood would allow me to feel more certain about life. For a while it did. Then important deaths happened. Divorce. Parenthood. And, I grew up to realize that I valued getting to certainty less than I valued other things like love which is never certain.
The instrument you wish you’d learned to play.
Once upon a time I played the violin. Most people don’t know this but I even was part of the Bronx Borough Wide Orchestra. I thought I would learn many instruments at that time. The one I wish I really had learned was the piano.
Your guiltiest cultural pleasure.
Before streaming I spent way too much on music. I had five of the 200 CD case carriers and maybe 80 percent of the slots full. I would walk around everywhere with at least 2 of the cases in tow or not very far away like in the car. I love music. It plays a lot in my home. Oh, speaking of music I love to watch the Terrell Song Association show on YouTube.
You wasted an evening…….
If I did it would be singing karaoke. Laughing. Sober. With Friends. (If the question was how I wasted the day…golfing.)
Something that ought to be better known.
You should read bell hooks.
A recent discovery.
If 11 years ago is still recent – me. In the sense that since my mother passed, I have learned myself as an emotional being. Given that it is less than a quarter of my life I will say it is recent.
Two podcasts you try not to miss.
Though it isn’t updated regularly anymore like it once was I try not to miss any new installations to On Being with Krista Tippett - every listen is worth the time used to do so. I am also a regular listener to the (Redacted) History podcast with Andre White.
You’re having a fantasy dinner party, you’ll invite these guests…..
James Baldwin, Delores Huerta, Nell Irvin Painter, Joseph Campbell, Eric Foner, Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Dr. James Cone, bell hooks, Mary Church Terrell and my mother to see it happen.
The place you feel happiest.
At home being dad.
What a person thinking about a life in politics should read, watch and listen to.
Listen to people. Listen to their answer to why they do or feel as they do. Listen to their stories. It takes time and real concern but this is a business about people. Watch great storytellers in action. This isn’t a business just about stringing words together. It is about touching people who have way more to be concerned with than they need in order to stop for you or those you are trying to help. Learning to tell the story of the issue is a powerful tool too many of us spend too little time invested in. I’m not sure I know what book I would recommend for that.
A cultural event you are looking forward to.
Doctor Who (60th Anniversary Specials)
The Color Purple Musical Movie
Thank you, Gary Winfield.
Nancy Wilson made Guess Who I Saw Today her own. It began as a number in the hit Broadway revue “New Faces of 1952”.
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