My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race & Defiance. Harry Belafonte with Michael Schnayerson by Harry BelafonteMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Unflinching look at Harry Belafonte's life as he's lived it, with peeks into why he lived it that way. In the case of civil rights for African Americans (and some Africans) as well as artists having power and controlling their own destinies in an unforgiving entertainment industry, ALL roads lead to AND through Mr. Belafonte. That's not hype or something Belafonte even says in this book. It's just a fact. There is NO reason why Belafonte should go down in history with the current generation as "that cranky old guy who complained about Beyonce and Jay-Z," although that's what I fear has happened. That's everyone's loss. There are now generations of people who have benefited from Belafonte's struggles, sacrifices, and generosity -- the personal and financial, the professional and political. In the book, Belafonte tirelessly recalls the everyday, ordinary people that so many historical figures were, in recounting his friendships and other such encounters with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., both 1960s Kennedy brothers, Paul Robeson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Fidel Castro, and the recently passed Nelson Mandela. Hollywood isn't left out, for he speaks candidly on his relationships with various artists -- ranging from close to rocky to somewhere in between -- with Sidney Poitier, Marlon Brando, Bill Cosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Miriam Makeba, Norman Jewison, Robert Altman, Tony Curtis, Roger Moore, Danny Glover. Along the way he was duped by both Hollywood and Washington insiders; was an unsuccessful target of intimidation from (oh-so-many people!!!) Jackie Gleason in nightclub owner mode to, well, the U.S. and a handful of other African governments; worked against apartheid by promoting disinvestment from South Africa alongside Randall Robinson in TransAfrica; contacted Ken Kragen and made USA for Africa and "We are the World" HAPPEN; and worked for UNICEF alongside Audrey Hepburn. Just like he was in the southern states in the 1960s, he was in Rwanda in the 1990s. AND he made time to sing with the Muppets! Now, you might ask, if accomplishing all this -- and I've yet to mention his successful international recording and concert touring career and forays into film and television as actor AND producer -- meant his relationships with spouses and children back home suffered--? Belafonte admits to the absentee father practice of showering his four kids with gifts, and he didn't let still being married to the current wife interfere with his dating the future one. A complex past of extended family's fortunes and opposite, along with poverty-stricken, abusive parents -- who were not exactly in the USA legally -- may have contributed. Bottom line? Belafonte is a man of substance AND flaws, who has lived his life -- and still is living it! -- on his own terms.
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