On Saturday, January 22nd, 2022, I left the house around eleven in the morning to take some books to Robin Books. I had been listening to American composer Steve Reich on Spotify, Works 1965-1995. When I got home about an hour later, I discovered that the music was still playing in the kitchen on the Google speakers. But I didn’t recognize the piece—I wasn’t even sure if it was still Steve Reich. It turns out that it was one of Reich’s earliest tape compositions, Come Out. I was intrigued so I googled it and read a Pitchfork article about it while I replayed the music. I had no idea this moment was to become a powerful educational minute about a horrible episode in American History perpetrated upon a group of young black men who became known as the Harlem Six. As I read the Pitchfork article, written in 2016 by Andy Beta—”Blood and Echoes: The Story of Come Out, Steve Reich’s Civil Rights Era Masterpiece“—I was riveted. I felt some powerful emotions in that moment of reading the article and listening to Come Out for the second time. Had I learned about the Harlem Six? Not really. Had I heard of the Harlem Six? Yes. Did I have a basic understanding of the police brutality enacted upon the young black men? Vague details from secondary news stories and from conversations. Had I heard of Wallace Baker and Daniel Hamm and what became known as The Little Fruit Stand Riot? No. Not at all. I leave below a link to Steve Reich’s Come Out. Andy Beta’s article in Pitchfork can be found here. It should be read. Read it while you listen to Come Out. I dare say a reading of the article combined with a listening of the composition will cement the details of this terrible episode of our nation’s past in your mind and soul. Injustice and horrific acts do not need to be depicted in art before they become memorable, though. But art can help make it resonate forever. So others can learn and atrocities are not forgotten. I didn’t know, but now I know. Pitchfork article: ”Blood and Echoes: The Story of Come Out, Steve Reich’s Civil Rights Era Masterpiece,” written in 2016 by Andy Beta.
#theharlemsix #stevereich
