The Power of Gil Scott-Heron

My experience with Gil Scott Heron is (woefully) limited to his seminal work “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and his final album I’m New Here. I didn’t know how much I was missing until the day he died and my Twitter and Facebook feeds blew up with paeans to the man’s influence. I have a lot of catching up to do.

And it’s with that in mind that I offer you this piece by Abdul Malik al-Nasir in the Guardian, about how Gil Scott-Heron saved the life of a multiracial kid living in Liverpool in the 1980’s. It’s a great read.

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Brian Spears is Senior Poetry Editor of The Rumpus and the author of A Witness in Exile (Louisiana Literature Press, 2011). His poem “Upon Reading That Andromeda Will One Day Devour Triangulum and Come For Us Next” was featured in Season 9 of Motion Poems.

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