Seattle "Folk balladeer & activist Earl Robinson honored"

Steve Shay (West Seattle Herald-WA):

Thanks to the inspiration of professional documentarian, college professor, and West Seattle resident B.J. Bullert, and her colleague, civil rights and peace activist, Seattle icon Kay Bullitt, Friday, May 28, has been officially proclaimed "Earl Robinson Day" by Mayor Mike McGinn and the City of Seattle. The late Earl Robinson will be honored and remembered during two events at Northwest Folklife Festival Friday and Sunday evening.

Earl Robinson was himself a civil rights and peace and labor activist, and folk balladeer, blacklisted during the McCarthy era. (He was a proud member of the Communist Party, then became disillusioned with it.) He also happened to be raised in West Seattle where he returned before he died. He sang at Folklife Fest two months before his passing, in May, 1991. He was born 100 years ago.

Many who do not recognize his name will recognize two of his famous compositions, "Black and White," popularized by the pop group Three Dog Night, and "Joe Hill," a Joan Baez standard. Robinson co-wrote "Black and White" in 1954 with actor Alan Arkin's father, David.

Bullert produced and directed the documentary Earl Robinson: Ballad of an American, in 1994. It runs on the Seattle Channel, channel 21. Bullert's work also include Alki: Birthplace of Seattle (1997), Chief Seattle (2000), Duwamish Life with Prof. Kenneth Tollefson (2000), Space Needle at 40 (2002), and Fishermen's Terminal. She is working on the sequel to Fishermen's Terminal. Her films air nationally on PBS, and locally on KCTS as well as the Seattle Channel. Bullert began working in film with Seattle filmmaker John DeGraaf.

Bullert's documentary on Robinson is narrated by folk singer Judy Collins, with interviews by Pete Seeger and the late Alan Lomax, the well-known American folklorist and ethnomusicologist.

"I grew up at 2640 Walnut Avenue Southwest, and the house Earl live in was next door," said Bullert. "He moved back to West Seattle in 1989, on 41st and Manning.

"My documentary was not a conventional story of 'the tortured victimized artist of the Blacklist Era destroyed by the system,'" Bullert said. "This was definitely about a live wire, a consistent theme throughout the film. Earl took the social movements of his day and wrapped songs around them. He gave social movements voice. He was a composer more than a lyricist. He collaborated with Paul Robeson, who sang his song, 'Ballad For Americans,' and Yip Harburg."

Harburg wrote the lyrics to "Brother Can You Spare a Dime," "It's Only a Paper Moon," and all the songs in The Wizard of Oz, including "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Robinson embraced New Age philosophy toward the end of his life, which, according to Bullert in her documentary, was thought to be off-beat by some of his fans and colleagues.

"There was this concert he gave at the Olympia Capitol Rotunda in the spring of '89," Bullert recalled. "We went for a walk and had a cup of coffee. Earl told me about how he had written 'Joe Hill' in a communist summer camp in upstate New York and his work with Paul Robeson and Joan Baez. Earl said 'Joe Hill' was a very important song because of the line, 'I never died said he.' Earl told me that (lyric) was his link to the New Age. He then told me tales about his conversations with dolphins."

Bullert attended Lafayette, Madison, and West Seattle High School before moving to Pakistan where her father worked in the Army Corps of Engineers. She attended Boston University and studied with author, historian and activist Howard Zinn, who passed away last January. She earned her Masters at Oxford in England where she studied the history of ideas. She is a professor offering an interdisciplinary master's program at Antioch University, Seattle.

She said she was heavily influenced by Zinn.

"Howard was just an incredible guy," she said. "He was great at bringing music into his classes and making us aware how culture was something we could use at changing the way people can see the world. He said we have to end all war and that there is nothing humane about war. We stayed in touch throughout the years. I took history and American politics from him.

"I never thought I'd be a film maker," she said. "I always thought people who made movies were kind of flaky. I grew up with stereotypes in my head of the nutty 'Hollywood-esque' filmmakers. I was much too serious. I was going to be a philosopher. The power of using media, television and film, that was what I wanted to do."

Northwest Folklife Fest's website schedule lists the two Earl Robinson events. However, Bullert offered these details:

Friday, May 28, 7pm-9pm, Seattle Center, Center House Theatre:
Bullert's hour-long documentary, Earl Robinson: Ballad of an American is shown, then music performed by Earl's son, clarinetist Perry Robinson, his nephew Gregg Robinson of Jump Ensamble, singer Nancy Nolan, and Rev. Pat Wright and The Total Experience Gospel Chorus performs "Ballad of an American" that Paul Robeson once performed.

Howie P.S.: I was fortunate to get to know Earl after he became my mother's second husband, some years after my father died. He was very generous and friendly with me, taking me to a Jimi Hendrix concert, as well as many other notable events and gatherings where I met many of the musical legends of the sixties and seventies.