One evening I decided to give it a try and see what it was
like. It was pretty neat. After passing through the door there were
two hallways: one to the left which was
dedicated to poetry readings (I didn't care for them) and to the right led to a
room where guitar players would sing folk songs and the like (which I
liked). The hallways were dark and on the walls were
designs painted with fluorescent paint illuminated with black lights
(ultraviolet) like the pictures below.
You get the idea. I
became a regular at the Ravens Nest.
I didn't care for the espresso coffee but I liked the
music. In general, the performers were
pretty good and usually got a mild applause from the audience. But then there was one night where the
performer was spectacular. Absolutely
spectacular. The audience went wild
with applause after each song. Not just
applause but also loud cheering. And I
was enthusiastically applauding and cheering loudly along with the rest of
audience. I don't have the words to
explain how good this performer was. He
played a 12 string guitar which I had never heard of or seen before. The singers name was Josh White.
The audience was electrified and between songs he would
talk. I remember him explaining about
the 12 string guitar and its qualities.
In a sense he was teaching the audience about a 12 string guitar. When I left The Ravens Nest later he was
sitting outside with several young white men and he was talking to them about
segregation and discrimination. I
think that he was trying to educate the young men about the racial problems of
the day. They listened intently to him. He had
a mild manner of speaking that put the young men at ease. At the time I didn't know who Josh White was. His accomplishments and accolades accolades
are much too numerous to list here. Go
to the Wikipedia site on Josh White.
You will be absolutely amazed.
In 1965 I left Miami and
moved to Arizona to attend Arizona State
University . One day around 1967 while walking to class I
saw a demonstration of anti-war protesters on campus. The students were sitting on the grass. That grassy area in the center of the
picture below.
They were sitting silently and listening intently to a guitar
player/singer. Yeah, you guessed
it. It was none other than Josh White
himself. I recognized him. The young college students were entranced
by his music and mild demeanor. I
stopped briefly to listen and I heard him telling the students that if they
wanted to hold demonstrations be sure not to do anything for which they could
get arrested. He told them to be sure
to finish college and graduate. Then when
they were in a position to have some influence to then make those influences
manifest. I thought that was good
advice that he was giving to those students about not getting arrested. Again he was educating others. I wanted to go speak to him but I was on my
way to class and couldn't wait. I was
really impressed by this man. I
honestly never realized how great he really was until I started researching his
life for this blog.
I also collect commemorative postage stamps as a hobby. I was glad to see a United States
postage stamp issued in his honor in 1998.
So this is my story of my two encounters with the legendary
singer Josh White. I wish now that I
had talked with him on both of those occasions. Please feel free to add anything that you
know of Josh White or encounters in the comments section below.
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