AMERICAN TESTIMONY

THE COLUMBUS EQUATION

In 1992 I was asked to join a documentary crew from South Africa and create a piece about the Regatta to America celebrating the Quincentenary of Columbus’ arrival on these shores. I decided to bring a trunkload of books and get people to read some alternative histories of what happened during that momentous meeting and talk about how America has changed in the 500 years since.

My friends, Tiny and Riaan Laubscher, and I took two cameras and a couple of walkman cassette players to record these testimonies of folks from every walk of life. We were given full press credentials (a terrible mistake to give an anarchist like me that kind of power. :)

When we finally got to Los Angeles at the conclusion of our journey (after filming protest events in NewYork, San Fransisco, and Berkeley), we were given permission to film in the LA School system and talk to the kids about what they actually knew of this history.

Asking the children to read Native American oral histories (after learning of Columbus’ original plans for the indigenous people he met), was important educationally but often devastating to talk about.

I used the original Columbus Log as a through line for this project and found an amazing old grizzled actor to read the part for me. He sounded like Charles Bukowski after a major bender. Perfect.

I originally created these sound collages on a 4 track machine and am slowly trying to clean them up and recreate them now with my more modern equipment. I beg your indulgence for any mistakes found in the sound of these prehistoric recording capabilities. It was totally DIY.

Ironically, shortly after arriving in LA the insurrection broke out following the verdict in the Rodney King case, and I could not help but think this was a perfectly metaphor regarding the decisions and aggressive deadly behavior that had begun so very long ago.

“If there is here revealed a capacity to shock, to startle the lifeless ones from their profound slumber, let us congratulate ourselves; for the tragedy of our world is precisely that nothing any longer is capable of rousing it from it’s lethargy.” - Anais Nin

My plan is to slowly roll out these wonderful pieces as they are remixed. I wanted to give you Substack friends a first listen to the opening piece from this series. I am exploring where and how to stream this collection. Researching Soundcloud, et al. now so if anyone has suggestions I am all ears.

Looking forward…

bradford cat