It's Been Beautiful: Soul! and Black Power Television

by Gayle Wald

Soul was where Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire got funky, where Toni Morrison read from her debut novel, where James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni discussed gender and power, and where Amiri Baraka and Stokely Carmichael enjoyed a sympathetic forum for their radical politics. Broadcast on public television between 1968 and 1973, Soul , helmed by pioneering producer and frequent host Ellis Haizlip, connected an array of black performers and public figures with a black viewing audience. In It's Been Beautiful , Gayle Wald tells the story of Soul , casting this influential but overlooked program as a bold and innovative use of television to represent and critically explore black identity, culture, and feeling during a transitional period in the black freedom struggle.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822358379
• ISBN13: 9780822358374
• Release Date: April 2015
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.4" x 8.3"