Congo Players Wanted

• Columbus, OH

• March 1970

From Our Choking Times. Courtesy of The Ohio State University Libraries.

Notes: I was originally interested in the ad on this page in which Umi, Audrey Weeks, is looking for drummers to accompany the Afro-modern dance company she is part of. But then, as I zoomed out on the newspaper page, I saw it was primarily a story about Malcolm X/El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Considering how much Malcolm inspired the art of her generation and subsequent ones from Sanchez, Baraka, and The Last Poets to all of hip hop, the juxtaposition was a surprise but not surprising.