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I started exhibiting at the Brooklyn Museum. Marinio Gallery and the A.C.A. Gallery. Around this time I was in and out of Walter Williams' studio a lot. Harvey Cropper was also steady working. He had an exhibition at a gallery down the street from the museum of Modern Art about that time, and we were all proud. We saw this as a breakthrough. Karl Parbosingh had an exhibition at Pandora's Box Cafe that showed the influence of Diago Riveria. Walter Williams had his first exhibition at the Roko Gallery (strong expressionistic paintings of urban life).
Joseph Ducayet and Earl Miller were doing abstract paintings. Arthur Hardy, Phil Martin and Arthur Monroe were working out of the figurative tradition. Virginia Cox was doing sensitive studies of children, Jack Morton, Selvin Goldbourne, Tom Feelings and Edger Fitt were into woodcuts and graphic art. Dave Brown was doing jazz musicians, studies in gouache. Cliff Jackson was doing expressionistic paintings with a social content. Sam Middleton was getting into abstraction and space. Tommy Ellis was doing figures influenced by Soutine. Richard Mayhew was into figure studies and landscapes. Ted Joans was into surrealism (rhinoceros) and Jimmy Glittens was doing powerful heads in sculpture.
Imamu (LeRoy Jones) Baraka was writing furiously and just getting his poems published. Percy Knight and Carl Macbeth were into philosophy. Alan Polite and A.B. Spelman were attending New York University and doing research. Cecil Taylor, the "avant guard" musician was just breaking new ground. Ed Watkins was into photography. Frank Cucchionotti was into classical composing. We were like a little renaissance group, groping for light.
At that time we had a four-story brownstone on DeKalb Avenue in which a bunch of us painters lived. A whole lot of people moved through there because we used to give these fabulous parties, and people stayed for days afterward.
Randy Weston, Max Roach, Willie Jones, Monk, Art Blakey, The Baroness daughter—the doors were wide open, the record player going on all floors and people in and out all day.

About that time Harvey Cropper hooked up with the great Charles "Yardbird" Parker. We say a lot of "Bird" during the last years of his life. Bird liked to reflect on composers like Stravinsky. Bartok and Hindermith. Also Lester "Prez" Young was around Brooklyn a lot staying at Jimmy Gittins' studio. I would run into him at the local jazz clubs. Pres, like Bird, was very friendly, just a regular cat. He would be sitting around with Duke Jordan and Wilber Ware rapping and just hanging loose.

Int: How did you survive all these years? What did you do for money?

Vinc: Well, man. I'll tell ya. We knew the bars where at 12 noon until one, for a glass of beer, you could eat all the food you wanted. Things like Italian bread, cheese, fish, salads, you know. We knew all the thrift shops where for a few dollars you got your summer or winter wardrobe.

I hear that artists today aren't too tight with each other. We weren't like that. We rapped all day about everything. We got pots of food together at each others lofts. We pooled money, sold a few paintings, and occasionally we would get a job for a few weeks.

We were just beginning to really experience the cold racism in the arts as it affected our work, our livelihood, our sense of dignity as serious artists. But we persisted. Art was our light and our bible. Existentialism was our cry, all we could do was to express our outrage in our paintings and poems.

Int: When did the group begin to disperse?

Vinc: About 1960. Well, actually, we never really dispersed, because we have kept in touch all these years.. We got a few grants. I got one, stayed here for a long while, then went south in the early sixties. The fellows one by one started moving out to Europe, Mexico, etc. Progress, baby. Things just started changing up.

End of Part I

[[Image with caption saying:]]
Ode to Zimbabue   Oil Sand Fabric Collage
Crotona Social Center   Bronx, NY 1980

AUTO INDUSTRY

continued from page 5

In the first half of 1980. A.O. Smith experienced a sales loss of 22% from 1979. A.O. Smith employs a large number of Blacks, especially at its Milwaukee plant, and there is no doubt that they have been affected by the upheaval. With the Granite City plant closing 1,600 workers are affected. As of August, the company had laid off 2,500 from a total workforce of 13,000 employees.

GLASS COMPANIES

Libby-Owens—Ford, a major supplier of glass to the automotive industry has reported sales and earnings losses in its second quarter. In July, the company reported that its earnings for the quarter were $7,190,000 on sales of $273,618,000 compared with last year's earnings for the same period of $20,201,000 on sales of $318,477,000.
Don T. McKone. President and Chief Executive Officer said, "... the deepening of the recession continued to impact the company's second quarter sales to the automotive and truck original equipment, automotive replacement and housing markets."
"With the additional sales decline in the second quarter, we have reduced operations in our automotive -related glass and plastics plants. LOF currently has approximately 25 percent of its workforce of the Glass Division and Plastics Subsidiary on indefinite layoff."
"At this time, LOF's management views the outlook for the remainder of the year cautiously. Significant improvement in LOF's earnings level is not expected until sales of domestically produced autos and trucks begin to return to more normal levels ....."
Although this company also has ties with the housing industry, which has experienced its own recession. LOF is also reliant on the auto industry to help infuse its operations with vitality.

TEXTILES

In the area of textiles, there have been fluctuating levels of impact experienced as a result of the auto slump. National Scene attempted to get information from three textile companies and only one responded in any detail—Dupont. The others would only say that they have experienced some setbacks due to the automotive industry downturn but would not elaborate.
Dupont, a company with a wide range of products did experience a drop in earnings for its second quarter going down 13% from the first half of 1979. Dupont's domestic sales were about the same as last year in the second quarter but volume declined by 14%. In the area of fibers. (used by the automakers) second quarter worldwide sales were up 4% but earnings were about half the level of last years at the same point in time.
As we have shown, the ring of ripples that began with the splash of the automotive industry extends far into the mainstream of America's economy. In some cases, exact figures on how many Blacks specifically are affected were unobtainable. However, based on the areas of the nation most affected and the nature of the industries involved, there is little question that many black Americans are not only feeling the ripples, but even tidal waves. In our final article of this series, we will discuss the future plans of the American automotive industry and how we can be a part of the needed recovery that is vital to us all.

Alex Haley Keynote Speaker At Awards Dinner
[[Image with the caption below]]

The African Travel Association held its annual awards dinner recently at the exclusive Excelsior Club in New York City. Alex Haley, author of Roots and most recently writer of the T.V. series Cooperstown U.S.A. gave the keynote address. A host of diplomats from African Nations were in attendance. From left to right are: Fran Blackwell-International President of the African Travel Assoc.; Alex Haley; Bette Saunders-KLM Royal Dutch Airlines; Gil Noble-New York Television newsman. Dr. A Esmat Abdul Meguid-U.S. Ambassador from Egypt and Nabil Herkal-Director of the Egyptian Government Tourist Office

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