It felt important right now to come back to the words and teachings of Howard Zinn, when the U.S. government is causing and propagating so much fear and racism and oppression and just plain meanness, and things seem tilted toward hopelessness. This is the third in my series of mix-tributes to Zinn, and the vocal samples here come from a few great interviews and programs you can find on Youtube, including a great interview Laura Flanders did with the amazing Staceyann Chin and Imani Perry a couple years ago: www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4R3-OyS2ho

The beats are from a variety of producers, all vinyl selections from the crates. Finally, in these times, I always turn back to this essay from Zinn: www.howardzinn.org/collection/a-marvelous-victory/ 'What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, it energizes us to act, and raises at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.'