Transcripts For KQEH Tavis Smiley 20140329

And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Tavis march 31 is the birthday of one of the most charismatic and important leaders, cesar chavez. He got a nice farm workers and took on big agriculture, demanding fair play for those in the field. The movement he created remains a touchstone for many and the nation. The crusades of cesar chavez is a new meticulously researched biography. Lets take a look first at news chavez of shop as announcing a strike. They will not recognize the association. I . Is a pretty charismatic in a very untraditional way. He was not a very good speaker. He was not comfortable speaking. He was not charismatic in the way we think of Martin Luther king, bobby kennedy, yet he exudes real power over people. Charismatic,s certainly alec, but initially thested the call to be leader. Is cesar chavez the same way . It was the reverse in some ways. He became the leader, and the movement grew up around him. Tavis there was no resistance on his part to accepting leadership . No, he took it and ran with it. I have read a couple of thatles that talk about one is trying to research the text of the people say a person didnt want to be cooperative. How much trouble did you have getting this done . I knew i wasnt going to have cooperation from the family, and fortunately, it. He left a meticulous record of his life and documents, and there were also many oral ,istories done over the years so i knew he was an incredible resource, and i also knew i was not going to have cooperation from the family. Tavis why not cooperate if you are a member of the family . This is a guy i would think if you want to see more celebrated, his birthday, the holiday in daye states, perhaps one nationally, but why would you not want to see this kind of treatment given to him or this elevated stature . I think thats a good question and one that should be directed at them and not me. The family has very much wanted to maintain control of his story. They have felt anyone who was not designated should tell the story. I was not the person they wanted to do that. This to your point about treasure trove of information, i was going to ask whether it was by design. Clearly it was by design, but was it i design for the historical record . He had a sense of his own historical importance. Theres no question. He talks from the tapes often. Here was a guy who in his life created to some degree his own mythology and used that as an organizer. He made his birthday a union embellished things in the interest of organizing, that the fullood story needed to be told. He made sure the history could be told. Tavis that public and interesting tightrope because its such a fine line that am the one hand he would use these realities, use these holidays, tc. , if you are hand not careful you become narcissistic. How did he balance that . There is a point at which the movement evolved into a cold of personality. That was tragic for the union itself. I think its really hard. To salinas, california, to the middle of nowhere with no money and try to organize a union for farmworkers. This is kind of a crazy idea, and in 1969 he was on the cover of time magazine. Trajectory. Markable the union became synonymous with him. That had consequences. The movement eventually evolves into a cult of personality. Controllingvery figure, and a lot of the strongest organizers and people around him and it of being driven out in one way or another in various ways. He did a lot in the interest of keeping control and shaping the movement in the way he wanted it to go, and that was a difficult transition. Never wanted to be a traditional labor leader. Between asomething movement, and when it became a difficult balance he pushed from the union to the movement. In the laterngs years have a lot of consequences for the union. Tavis to be clear. He was withdrawn, but was it fair to say he was a bit error noise . There are people who say that. Im not a psychiatrist. I could not make a diagnosis. In some ways his reputation grew exponentially as he got away from the field. Whereas it was farmworkers when he started, he became a tremendous symbolic figure four chicanos, for the growing movement. He was tremendously demanded as a speaker around the country. He became a sort of brand. Thes all told, did substance of what he could cobble it measure up to the symbolism of what he portrayed . It depends on how you define the substance. What he accomplished was to give a generation of people as sense of their own power. Is very much a generation of organizers who took those lessons you see in the immigrants Rights Movement where there are a lot of people growing up using the techniques they learned from chavez. He had an enormous legacy but not necessarily in the way in which we might think of him in terms of a sustained organization. Tavis lets go back to the beginning. Who is cesar chavez, and what is happening in his life that motivates him to become this kind of organizer . He was born in arizona and grew up in a farm. The family lost the farm in the depression. He was 12 years old in 1939 and was part of a farmworker family, so he experiences firsthand all the exploitation, the physical hardship, and the indignity of the way farmworkers were treated and carries that with him for a long time. 1952 he is working the fields. He is working the lumberyard. He is working his way out of the field and meets a community named fred ross. That is beginning of his apprenticeship as an organizer. He spent 10 years working with fred for the Community Service organization and really working to organize across california. That timearies from also. He was required to do reports, so you can read. Every day he wrote exactly what he did that day, whether it was driving mrs. Garcia to the doctor or going out to try to sell christmas trees, so you can really see his evolution and who he becomes and his frustration with that organization. You define hisd unique leadership style . Ability he was charismatic. He had an ability to organize people one by one, to look in their eyes, to have them want to do things for him, and he led by example. When he was at his height of popularity, its not because of what he says but because of what he did. It is incredible commitment and persistence. He made people want to join in and make people feel good about themselves. The boycott was really what led to the first contract. The boycott was a way for people all over the country you are helping these poor farmworkers. A strategic genius about figuring out ways to overcome obstacles like that. Tavis how would you define what his enduring legacy is . I think his and during legacy is to give us lessons in his complexity and multidimensions, to give us a sense of the poor people who have nothing but their own lives to give bud really can organize and accomplish things. Thats a remarkable thing he did. I dont know that we have seen it a lot. We are seeing it in some pockets now. Farmworkers a sense of their own dignity and their own power. Unfortunately, thats not true anymore in the field. I think the other thing he left us with is a generation of organizers who really did come out of the movement. There are so many people working on different causes who got their start in the ufw who are passing on those lessons to another generation. Tavis what is happening in the ether that is allowing for this renaissance . The book is out. The movie is out. What causes that, and what do impactnk the longterm will be as we get to know more about this man . I think some of it is the passage of time. Its kind of amazing there hasnt been a book or a movie. The movie is in the familys control. Just a coincidence and the passage of time. Some of it is the demographics of the country that are changing. Some of it is president obama drawing attention to cesar chavez, naming parks and ships ater him, so there is resurgence of interest. There is a new generation that doesnt know anything about him at all. There is a hunger to understand more. To you we will understand a lot more about him. The book is called the crusades of cesar chavez written by miriam pawel. Congratulations. Good to have you on. Coming up, a performance with guitarist Stanley Jordan. Stay with us. Fourtime grammy nominee Stanley Jordan is known for his guitar work and keyboard expertise. He is a musician who has pushed the boundaries of conventional expectations for jazz and pop music, including his most recent album entitled friends. He has excelled at innovation once again, going so far as to perfect a new technique for playing guitar. We will get a sample at the end of this. I am glad to talk to you on this program. Good to see you. I want to work our way up to this wonderful performance i know we are all going to love. I am fascinated by something you have been teaching for a while. Teaching a class on practice. I want to get into what you have been teaching your kids about practice. I was in a conversation some years ago with a great basketball coach, and we were talking about practice makes perfect. He said, thats not actually the truth. I beat into my players its not that practice makes perfect. What if you are practicing the wrong way . He said Perfect Practice makes perfect. You can practice all day long. If you are doing it wrong you are not going to be perfect at what youre working on, which is interesting. Your class about practice, what are you teaching Young Artists about what practices, how to approach it, and we all want to perfect whatever it is we are doing. I wonder if i can learn something from you about what you are teaching about practice. There is a lot of information about what to learn but not enough about how to learn, and thats what this is about. There are principles that are universal, that apply even apply music. That you can to music. One of the things is i slow everything down. Of musicians tend to try too much, too quickly, and by simplifying, you are able to achieve perfection. I tell my students its more important to be perfect than to play anything interesting. Do something extremely boring, but play it perfectly, and you will find even within three notes, as you repeat those three notes, theres a universe of sound and those three months. You know how i got into this is there was a time when i was beginning my career and i was doing a lot of meditation, and it occurred to me that by meditating i was training my mind and that i wonder if that can somehow be applied to the what, and i realized meditation does, it simplifies your mind to where you are focusing on one thing. You really master that one thought. That same thing applies to music as well. Tavis where do you come down on this Malcolm Gladwell notion that it takes 10,000 hours of at aice to become perfect particular thing . I think its true that it takes a lot of hours. I dont know if its 10,000. I dont know what the actual number is, but i do know there are ways of dramatically accelerating that process. Tavis the flipside of this practice, ictors am always curious about how artists approach life. I love talking to artist because i learn so much from them. This is almost the inverse of what miles said to his band. Miles didnt want his band practicing too much because he didnt want his band to get on stage and do it the way they practiced because jazz is at its essence something that should never be done the same way twice. When you talk about what you are practicing, i think that fits the same. He wanted his band to be creative, so he wanted them to practice being spontaneous, so doing something by road and playing it over and over again, thats not practicing what he wanted them to practice. In a sense they were practicing by not practicing. Tavis i get it. I am always curious to learn from artists. Tell me about this raw jack, friends. How did the concept come together where you and your friends were featured on these 11 tracks . Is is my dream team. I proposed it, and they thought it was great. One is the first time i did where the collaboration is the concept, so i gave them a lot of leeway as far as picking the music. I really went out of my way to help them feel comfortable in a musical setting. For example, when i contacted bucky and he said, what do you want to play, and he said, 7, 11. He said, thats a great idea. It was a pretty good guess on my part. Regina carter is a very sensitive violinist. She is so soulful. We did a thing where we gave a chance to really savor every note. We had kenny garrett, nicholas payton, charlie hunter. Tavis it must be nice to be a friend of shyima hall of Stanley Jordan. There is a lot of joy in the studio. I think it comes across. Tavis it does. Was there a piece brought to you and you had to think twice about , i am not sure i can do this or whether there is something i can work with, or are you open to all of these . I was very open to it. I letting the artist lay a big role, it stretched me beyond my comfort zone. I like that. Its always good for us to try new things. Tavis you are trying new things now. New things off this project. You will get a chance to judge for yourself. How always tickled by stanley plays, so just watch how he has both of his hands on two different instruments at the same time. He is a bad boy. We will conclude with his version of the katy perry hit. When you get back were going to talk about those who have a problem with you covering katy perry. We will talk about it next time. It is his cover of i kissed a girl. As they get ready to play, i will say good night. Thanks for watching, and keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Tavis hi, im tavis smiley. Join us next time for a conversation with acclaimed journalists about the epic battle for civil rights. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Next on kqed news room, the fallout temperatures after the fbi sting that led to corruption charges against state senator lee manned yi and others, some with alleged ties to organized crime. The first female chancellor of ucsf prepares to take the helm of the bill and mel linda gates foundation. Plus a new dance performance shows a radical transformation of san franciscos bay viewpoint. What should happen is the residents of bay view Hunters Point have a voice in how their neighborhood is being developed