Gayle Wald’s New Book: It’s Been Beautiful: Soul! and Black Power Television
 |
| Professor Wald’s latest book is available from Duke University Press |
GW English and American Studies are very excited to announce that Professor Gayle Wald’s new book, It’s Been Beautiful: Soul! and Black Power Television (Duke University Press), has just been released. The book examines Soul!, the first African American black variety television show on public television, which between 1968 and 1973 was instrumental in expressing the diversity of black popular culture, thought and politics, as well as helping to create the notion of black community.
Critically-acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni has this to say about Professor Wald’s project:
“The next step should have been, needed to be, had to be a strut. And no one strutted like Ellis Haizlip. We on the radical side of Civil Rights needed someone to listen; those on the more traditional side needed a platform from which to explain their views. Soul! brought it all together. Opera to Rap; Muslim to Christian; men to women; straights to gays. Soul! didn’t back off of any aspect of our community. Brave, Bold and downright Simply Wonderful. Haizlip led all the shows that followed: Blacks on national television shows doing news; doing entertainment; from Tony Brown’s Journal to Don Cornelius’s signature “Peace, Love and Soul!” Ellis was the leader. Now his story and the story of that great show can be told. Excellent job, Gayle Wald. Ellis would be proud.”
For more information, visit the Duke website for the book here.
And some really great news: to save 30% on the paperback edition of It’s Been Beautiful, call Duke University Press at 888-651-0122 and give them the coupon code E15WALD.
