A short article by our youngest and multitalented Brandon Lien reflects on the meaning of oral histories after co-conducting one with musician and producer André Fischer in Minneapolis. We celebrate the life of Harry Belafonte with images by photographers Charles Williams, Guy Crowder, and John Kouns. We also report on a visit by the visual artist Andy Zermeño, creator of beloved art and cartoon characters for El Malcriado newspaper as part of the Farmworker Movement. Prach Prasertwit, the University Library’s intern, introduces the Hassina and Deeptha Leelarathna Photographic Collection. The Leelarathna couple was the founder of the first weekly newspaper to serve the Sri Lankan diaspora in the United States, Sri-Lanka Express. And we celebrate the newest Ph.D. of the Center—Dr. Keith Rice—before he picks up his diploma at a commencement ceremony this month.
Interviewing André Fischer
By Brandon Lien
On April 14th, Dr. Keith Rice and I touched down in Minneapolis, Minnesota, welcomed by the warmth of the 80-degree weather and the hospitality of the airport and hotel workers. Over the next two days, we conducted an oral history interview with Grammy-winning record producer, arranger, record executive, and drummer André Fischer. André is best known for his drumming work with the band Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and his producing work, such as Unforgettable by Natalie Cole, his wife at the time. We filmed at The Terrarium recording studio and André’s apartment; and even though the weather outside had flipped to snow and rain, the sheer nature of hearing someone’s life story—the intimacy, vulnerability, and importance—made it easy to forget what was outside of the walls of our conversation.
I realize now with every oral history interview we conduct at the Bradley Center that each is a culmination. A culmination of our interviewee’s life up to that point, a culmination of my own life up to that point, and a culmination of my skills as a videographer and filmmaker. Listening to an interviewee share a bit of their life allows me to learn a little bit about the world through their experiences and viewpoints. Sometimes they are experiences I can relate to, sometimes they are not. It’s this dichotomy of past and present, familiar and new, me and you, that makes this work fulfilling to me. It is a reflection of the richness of our similarities and differences. Perhaps this musing comes more naturally this time because of having to travel almost 2000 miles away.
What touched me with this idea of culmination was how André referred to it in his life; his art, family, philosophies, and experiences are all intertwined. His father Stewart was a trumpet player and his mother Frances was a singer and pianist. His father was white and his mother was Black; they married before André’s birth in 1948 when interracial marriage was illegal. His parents took him on the road on gigs, giving André a more worldly view from a young age, and instilled in him a strong sense of self and values. Aside from his parents, other family members were also musicians: his uncle Clare Fischer, a renowned composer, and arranger; his uncle Dean, a bassist; his aunt Suzanne, a piano teacher; his grandmother, a choral director; and his grandfather, the president of the Barber Shop Quartets of Greater Michigan.
The circumstances and context of my life may be different from André’s or anyone else’s, but we all have to navigate the highs and lows of it. And the moments shared with André and Keith constitute another experience to help me navigate through, even if I don’t yet know where it will culminate to.
Dignity and Courage: Harry Belafonte
Singer, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte died last April 25. He embodied the best example of an artist engaged politically and socially with the country and the world. Most people know him as a determined participant and supporter of the Civil Rights struggle with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He helped to organize the Freedom Rides, a series of bus trips through the South to challenge segregation on public buses. Belafonte also helped to raise money for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He helped bring performers and supporters to the March on Washington in 1963 and to the March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. He is also well-known for his support of the anti-apartheid movement inside and outside South Africa. Most people don’t know he was also a critic of US imperialism, called for nuclear disarmament, backed the Cuban, Sandinista, and Bolivarian revolutions, and pushed for the freedom of Indigenous political prisoner Leonard Peltier. We provide here images of Harry Belafonte by three talented photographers whose work is preserved and disseminated by the Bradley Center: Charles Williams, Guy Crowder, and John Kouns.
Andy Zermeño at the Bradley Center
Andy Zermeño visited the Bradley Center last month. Marta Valier, Brandon Lien, and José Luis Benavides had a chance to interview him and his wife, Anita Zermeño. Andy created the famous cartoon characters for El Malcriado after César Chávez asked him to do it and had him create Don Sotaco (Mr. Shorty). Zermeño created the rest of the characters based, he said, on what was needed for the story and what the real people looked like—Don Coyote, Patroncito, etc. Zermeño needs wider recognition—he hasn't stopped creating art even now in his 80s. Thanks to LeRoy Chatfield, who provided a copy of some of Andy’s work for a book Andy had to self-published. You can see Andy’s work in this blog post by Chatfield.
Peek in the Stacks: The Hassina and Deeptha Leelarathna Photographic Collection
By Prach Prasertwit
The Hassina and Deeptha Leelarathna Photographic Collection is an invaluable historical archive that offers a glimpse into the lives of two Sri Lankan immigrants who made significant contributions to the Sri Lankan community in the United States. Moving to California in the late 1970s, Hassina and Deeptha Leelarathna founded the first Sri Lankan newspaper, the Sri Lankan Express, in the U.S. A paper they distribute nationally. The collection, consisting of over 800 color images from 1977 to 1985, covers their early years in the U.S., their travels across Sri Lanka, and their involvement in Sri Lankan media and culture…
(You can read the rest of Prasertwit’s description of this collection at the University Library’s Peek in the Stacks.)
Celebrating Dr. Keith Rice
This month, our colleague Keith Rice celebrates his doctoral degree in History during the Commencement Ceremony for Class 2023 at Claremont University. We congratulate him and his family on this accomplishment. The best is yet to come for Dr. Rice.