New Ebony’s bittersweet goodbye

By Sari Janczlik

(AGR) The New Ebony Bar and Grill has been around since 1934. Asheville’s oldest African-American owned bar has given witness to the great depression, segregation, and cultural renewal in the section of downtown around the intersection of Market/Eagle Street. On Oct. 1 the doors of this business, which opened right after Prohibition, will be closed for good. Just strolling by, you are drawn to the New Ebony’s character and charm. Upon entering, the proprietors Deana Banks and Sam Fain will cordially greet you with soul food, beer, and wine. Within a crowd of drinkers and diners listening to R&B music, selected by Deana up in her DJ stand, you can count on having a relaxing time as you chat and check out the huge fish in the aquarium.

Deana speaks warmly with regard to the history of the joint she has run since it passed hands to her just before the blizzard of 1993. She says during the storm the New Ebony was the only place that was open downtown, and she actually housed some snowed-in customers for several days. Deana remembers the May of that same year when the liquor store, shoe shine shop, and pool hall across the street closed down and a parking deck appeared which blocked the view of the New Ebony from Biltmore Ave. Then she recalls the appearance of signs directing traffic one-way, from behind the police department to the center of town. The City of Asheville admits this change had to occur because school buses could not get through the way it was. Without warning and unforeseen, the loading zone in front her business turned into a metered space and the city began to ticket delivery truck drivers. Deana says she ended up paying $3,000 dollars in fines and now picks up the groceries herself. The threats of gentrification to the livelihood of the New Ebony became front row reality.

For seven years, the New Ebony has been considerate and patient in asking the Eagle-Market Street Development Corporation to help get them up to code. Those same developers are closing the establishment with no promise of relocation after the redevelopment. They did say that the New Ebony could move out of its 4,100 sq. ft. residence and up the street into a 1,000 ft. smoke-free space without a kitchen. The developers suggested that she only sell drinks, and if she really wanted to serve food that it be of the “microwavable Sysco brand.” The New Ebony would not practice such ruin. Instead, she takes time in preparing “Deana soul food.”

This traditional-style soul food will be available for only a short time longer, but you can get some big plates of it this Sunday night, Sept. 21, from 6pm until 10, when Eagle Street serves as a fairground for “Music on the Block.” This is a live music and food extravaganza that Deana has been putting on regularly since 2000. But this will be the last one.

The New Ebony is unlike the average dark smoky bar; it is a business that provides a joyous feeling toward life. This is evident by the walls and countertop, decorated in documented photographs of the patrons in all sorts of celebratory fashions through the decades. The closing of Deana’s place is unwelcome and upsetting because it marks the passing of a beautiful piece of culture in this community, and the end of a really good place to chill in the evening.

Workshop addresses sexual abuse and assault

By Sara Durks and Courtney Chappell

(AGR) On Sept. 10, nearly 50 people attended a free workshop in downtown Asheville about sexual abuse, assault, and rape within personal relationships and communities. Prior to the event, organizers Andrea Golden and Cindy Crabb distributed a zine entitled “See No, Hear No, Speak No.” Inspired by the writing of a male friend who had been an abuser, the zine contained questions that served as a starting point for people to talk about these issues:

What is consent? If someone consents to kissing, do you assume that means they want to have sex? Do you ask before touching in different ways or taking things to more intense levels? Do you ever try to get yourself into situations that give you an excuse for touching someone you think would say no if you asked? Do you ever feel obligated to have or initiate sex? Do you seek consent the same way when you are drunk as when you are sober?

The workshop was organized to facilitate open dialogue. Participants were encouraged to explore the roots of sexual violence and the ways it manifests in our interpersonal relationships.

“Abusive behavior is such a terrible thing. It damages this fundamental part of ourselves that effects so seriously the way that we’re able to be in the world. Nobody wants to admit that they’ve done it, yet so many of us have. Not talking about it perpetuates the whole gender dynamic and perpetuates patriarchy. So, we wanted to create a forum where people could start talking about behavior that’s abusive, and really look at it. We wanted to make it more of a normal thing to talk about and not so scary,” said Cindy. During the meeting, participants discussed the definition of consent, gender dynamics, and accountability.

Ben Carpenter and Kim Hunt, two community educators from Our Voice (the former Rape Crisis Center), were invited to facilitate the meeting. Our Voice provides a variety of services to victims of sexual assault in Buncombe and Madison County, including free counseling, a 24-hour crisis line (255-7576), and a court advocacy program. Volunteers will accompany rape victims to the hospital at any hour of the day or night. “We’re not there to make choices for people. It’s about providing support and advocacy and options,” Hunt said.

In North Carolina on an average day, 100 women are victims of rape or attempted rape. According to statistics compiled by Interpol and the UN, somewhere in America, a woman is sexually assaulted every 2 minutes. (These statistics refer to the number of reported rapes. Less than 1 in 3 rapes and sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement.). The United States has the highest rape rate in the world, 13 times higher than Britain’s and more than 20 times higher than Japan’s. While all people are vulnerable to sexual abuse and assault, women and transgender people are the primary targets in our society. Many people struggle with the ongoing effects the sexual violence on a daily basis. It is the source of so much pain. Communities that deny and ignore this betray those that are forced to experience it and struggle with it throughout their lives.

“If we really care about each other, we need to learn to listen to each other,” Andrea explains. “This is hard when a lot of people don’t even feel like they can talk -- like myself sometimes. I don’t know how to make someone listen to me, but I guess that’s what we need to figure out.”

The next workshop will focus on how communities can address abusers and hold them accountable.

“Sexual violence has ripped communities apart all over the place,” one participant explained. “It’s important that we take care of each other in our own community. We need to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions.”

A voice of resistance: David Rovics show touches Asheville

By Ed Stein

Sept. 10 (AGR)— With frequent comparisons to folk giants past, David Rovics champions the genre while blazing new trails with topical, politically-tinged tunes that bring audiences to frequent laughter, a few tears, and sometimes a short, dazed silence as they recover from an emotionally devastating song that challenges their world-view and consciousness. I caught up with David before his Sept. 10 show at the Asheville Community Resource Center and we discussed his music and the current political landscape.

AGR: The show tonight’s being billed as a fundraiser for you to do a tour of the Middle East, what are your aspirations for that?

DR: That was more Cecil’s sense of humor a bit because he knows I’m doing a trip to the Middle East and doing it out of my own pocket. You can call it a fundraiser at least because that’s what I do with my money, but it’s basically a paying gig.

AGR: Considering the content of a lot of your songs and your empathy for the Palestinians, it would be interesting to see if you could actually gain entry to perform over there.

DR: Yeah! It’s an interesting challenge. I’ve never done a tour in a war zone before. I can only imagine what challenges are involved... for one thing, right now the occupied territories are completely shut off, nobody can go in or out, and that’s regularly the case. You’ve got hundreds of check-points all over the city, it can take days to get through, where they can deport you, and for people there on the ground trying to organize a tour, in the midst of all that, getting buildings bombed by F-16s, tanks killing kids throwing stones, men being rounded up, that’s the atmosphere, and it seems to be getting worse, so I’m not sure how this will work... but, that’s the idea.

AGR: It sounds like the challenges of that would be prohibitive, to actually go over there and do it.

DR: Yeah, like the organizer of the tour, George Rishmawi with the International Solidarity Movement in Bethlehem, he goes regularly to the US with all kinds of reasons as an activist and through his line of work as a travel agent, heh, not much tourism these days, but... he tried to come to the US two weeks ago but couldn’t get out of Palestine and he was supposed to be in Hartford today, but I haven’t heard from him and don’t know if he’s there...

AGR: You’ve made it clear that Phil Ochs played a big role in your musical development... would you consider yourself a student of Oches?

DR: Absolutely. Phil Ochs is one of a number of people who’ve had a profound influence on me, as a songwriter and a singer... The kinds of things he wrote about, the way he wrote, I can only aspire to write melodies as beautiful as his... people don’t often talk about that, they refer to his politics, witty songwriting, satire... but some of his best songs are the really melodic ones. People comment much more on his lyrics than his beautiful melodies and chord structures... but he’s one of so many in a similar tradition and many of the best never got as well known as Ochs... Jim Page from Seattle, is an absolutely phenomenal songwriter...

AGR: I’m not well versed in folk music, other than what got radio play, but Ochs certainly stands out for his chord changes and structure, compared to the other folkies from that era.

DR: Yeah, the thing about Phil Ochs and Jim Page and many others, but was not the case with most folksingers, especially in the political folk-scene... there was this idea that if you have the right thing to say, then it doesn’t matter whether you do it well. Phil Ochs was certainly a real musician. Buffy Sainte Marie, Joan Baez, as well... a lot  were content with simple strumming then.

AGR: You’ve got a full band on your new release, you must be pretty excited about that. That’s a big step.

DR: I’m real excited about it. Sean Staples, the producer, did a phenomenal job, really talented, he’s a great musician and he’d never actually produced a CD... he’s such a versatile musician... I loved his musical sensibilities and the way he accompanied me, and the passion he has as a mandolin player. He knows all the great musicians in Boston, got a stellar cast of them, and a great studio... I’ve never had a positive experience working with a drummer before, I don’t count very good, but Sean got us working together really well and it just sounds so smooth... I think it’s just great! And Evereviled Records is the reason why I was able to afford to do a studio CD like that, they’re putting it out, so I didn’t have to go into debt again trying to come up with some piddling amount to do the kind of recordings I’ve done before... they’re okay, but I’ve wanted to do a recording like this(with a band) for a couple years now.

AGR: Are you glad it’s happened now, rather than earlier in your career?

DR: (laughing) No! Not necessarily! I think the material I recorded for Living In These Times and Hang A Flag In The Window  I’d like to see done with a band if I ever get around to rerecording much of that, but I might get to some of it... in a way, it’s also too late because I keep writing new material and am more interested in recording that than older stuff, but I certainly would’ve not minded if I could’ve done this a bit earlier.

AGR: You’ve got 6 or 7 releases out now... what are your most requested songs... the ones that seem to be lasting the longest?

DR: There’s certain ones off each of the CDs I’ve done since ’98, since We Just Want The World, that are more requested than others, for sure...

AGR: Got any that you wish would go away, that you’re sick of doing?

DR: It depends, I guess, sometimes if I’m playing for the anarchist crowd, which I love of course, they tend to request more upbeat songs, more funny songs, and I like doing those sometimes, and I do them a bit more because I know people like them, but I’m more into ballads really. I could easily do 2 or 3 in a row, but people would start falling asleep! You gotta mix it up. (laughs)

AGR: Or bursting into tears...

DR: Yeah, you gotta lighten the load a little bit here and there! (still laughing)  

 

AGR: In keeping with the theme of “Striking A Chord Against The Empire”...there’s lots of folks now that see an evolving fascism in America through the entrenchment of corporate power, privatization... the lack of punishment of white-collar corporate criminals... got any thoughts on that?

DR: I thinks it’s all just coming to a head. The concentration of wealth and power is just unbelievable and it just gets worse and worse all the time. I think it’s interesting to see how the most extreme representation of that concentration of power is within the Bush administration. It’s interesting to see how they operate. They’re just so out of touch with reality that they are believing their own propaganda and it seems that’s what happens when you get that much power and you start losing your grip on reality.  To think that there’s any possibility that the Iraqi people would welcome the US with open arms after they’d been suffering under US-led sanctions for 12 years, wiping them out, their living standard, it’s unbelievable, you know?  It was obvious when they sent troops into Iraq that they would meet with resistance from people who want to defend their sovereignty and feel like they’re fighting the colonization process that’s been plaguing the middle east for some time now.

AGR: To use the expression ivory tower, that applies now, possibly more than ever before in the history of our country, to the way the Bush administration deals with our international neighbors, and to how they’re dealing with issues here. Radical changes within the Department of Interior, the EPA, US Forest Service, and on and on...

DR: Absolutely. Concentration of wealth... more and more people ruling with no connection to the actual population, the astronomical divide between the rich and poor, a further removal, geographically as well as economically, with the expansion into the suburbs... those people don’t even go into the cities in the US, let alone actually travel abroad a lot of the time. They just have no clue to what’s happening it seems, and I wonder if they really are that stupid or if I’m just missing something? All these political appointees to the government that Bush has been putting in... they’re not even listening to the advice of their military or the CIA, you know?... in carrying out their plans. It’s not like the military and CIA are opposed to world domination by the United States, of course, it’s just that they’re not listening to those people when they predict we’ll be welcomed with open arms and we can occupy the country with only 130,000 troops instead of  500,000 or whatever. It’s just, you know, what do they think they’re doing?

AGR: One of my favorite memories of seeing you perform was when Katuah Earth First! did a lock-down inside a Staples store in Atlanta a couple years ago during the Staples campaign for more post-consumer paper products. You walked down the aisles singing and playing, creating a real party atmosphere for that action, even as people were being arrested. Do you still find opportunity to entertain at events like that?

DR: Oh yeah, as often as I can. If there’s any kind of advance notice and I’m in the same part of the country, I’ll always try to make it to things like that, whether they’re big or small events... I just happened to be in Tennessee when there was a last-minute, thrown-together, but well-done demo against Bush visiting there just a few days ago, he was speaking in Nashville, so I sang at that. I always make it to the SOA rally in November and others are planned far in advance enough that I can try and plan a schedule around making it to FTAA and that sort of thing...

AGR: Any notions on making it down to Miami or Cancun?

DR: Not Cancun but I’ll be in Miami and then afterwards at the SOA.

AGR: Ever find yourself looking into an audience that did not take kindly to the content of your music?

DR: Yeah... the first and only time I toured in Israel, was, ahhh, (starts to laugh)

AGR: That sounds pretty funny in and of itself.

DR: I’ve been writing so much about the Palestinian struggle for so long that it’s hard to remember when I wasn’t focusing on that in songwriting... so I did this tour and the organizer knew how I felt about the ’91 invasion of Iraq and I’d written anti-war songs about that... but nonetheless she booked this tour for me through this Israeli folk music society... and I was kind of going along thinking ‘are most Israeli people as brainwashed and racist as I’ve been led to believe’ by the “alternative press”, and I was dismayed to find that, well, yeah, in the folk music scene that I experienced, most people were pretty darned racist... but I also met a wonderful bunch of people who really understand what’s going on and were struggling against the occupation in all kinds of ways, including religious Jews, so that was kinda nice to see too. After a couple gigs there I started addressing Iraq, if not the struggle there, because I didn’t have any material on it... I sang Contras, Kings, and Generals for an audience and that was the first time I did a song for a real attentive audience that was there for the music and had been very enthusiastic with every song I did before then and I did that one and nobody clapped.  Just silence. After about ten seconds of silence and disapproving looks, this one sort of Scottish/socialist, as he considered himself, he started clapping and he was the only one, no one else joined in! (laughing) And then it spun into this acrimonious discussion of eastern politics and US foreign policy and Iraqi designs on conquering Israel and whatever... that was one incident.  There’s been others... the most fun one was last January at the National Conference On Organized Resistance. I’m not a vegetarian, but certainly sympathetic to vegetarianism and was one for eight years, but I’m not one now. I’d been to Argentina and got these Argentinean free-range pants. I made the strategic mistake of wearing them to the concert where many in the audience had just that day come back from an anti-fur protest(starts to laugh) and I’d forgotten that COOR’s founding members were animal rights activists from American University... I knew it was a cold winter and the leather pants were just great for the cold, comfortable and warm, and I wore them to the concert. At the beginning, a woman politely asked me if the pants were leather. I said ‘yes’ and she went back into the crowd... by the end of the second song there were a bunch of people in the back holding up cardboard signs, too far back to read, but one big one said “DAVID, TAKE YOUR PANTS OFF!”  That was interesting, created a real ruckus... no one could settle down and listen to the concert because of this... I didn’t know quite what to do! After a couple of songs it was clear that it wasn’t going to work. Someone came out of the audience and offered me a pink skirt. I asked the audience if I should put it on and the response was overwhelmingly for the skirt, so I took off the pants and donned the skirt and everything worked out okay... and somebody was heard to say later that “...that was the first campaign we ever won.”

AGR: Do you still own the pants?

DR: They’re behind you (in the van).

AGR: Is there a future song coming out of that? Cause that’s a sort of metaphor for a lot of things.

DR: You know, I hadn’t thought about it (starts to laugh) but it certainly could be, if I thought of a good hook-line!

AGR: Do you have a ‘dream gig’, a show that you’d really like to see come about?

DR: Well, yeah, the gigs that are just the most exhilarating are large protests with enthusiastic crowds of, you know, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people who think they’re gonna make a difference, and they’re excited, and with so many, the energy is just amazing. It’s so exciting to sing for them. Every little thing you say or sing, every note you play, has a visible effect on the crowd, somehow. It’s really wild. You run the risk of thinking it’s some kind of a power-trip, I dunno, fuck, whatever it is, it’s exciting. It was Jerry Garcia, I think, that described moving the neck of his guitar across the audience and seeing a sort of wave move across the crowd... I’ve never done something that cheesy, but I understand what he’s getting at. Everything’s amplified, not just through the speakers, but through the audience, it’s such a participatory thing.

AGR: Does it make any difference playing to say, a coffee-shop crowd, after such an experience?

DR: Well, actually I don’t play in those venues too often these days. I try to play for concert type situations where people are there for the music, not for the espresso or beer or whatever because I have too much trouble playing in that environment...

AGR: It’s not conducive to listening to music...

DR: No, somehow it’s just... I feel I have these stories to tell in these songs and it’s really draining to play for people who’re not listening so I’d rather not do it. Or sometimes when I do play for a small group, I can’t help but feel why did I drive eight hours to do this?  I could’ve been out in the woods or whatever. But that’s life when you’re doing it independently and not working with a booking agency. Not that unusual, really. It can be a blast to just sing in someone’s house for ten people, or around the campfire or whatever. Or in a small venue with a small audience. It’s not good in a big place with a small bunch, like 20 in a place that could’ve held 100... 

AGR: I noticed that you set up your gear pretty seamlessly for the ACRC show, one little peep of feedback and you were through... good to go. It speaks volumes for how often you’ve done this... any idea of how many shows you’ve done over the last few years?

DR: I haven’t kept track at all. A real rough guess would be a hundred shows a year, hundred-fifty maybe? I’m afraid to give a number... I don’t know.

AGR: That’s pretty respectable. It’s a full-time job isn’t it?

DR: (laughing) Ah, yes! It’s a full-time job! Between the playing, the driving, the booking, and of course the writing. (laughs) If you count all that, it’s a lifetime job.

AGR: How do songs come to you... driving down the road and something starts in your head, or something on the news... what’s the motivating factor that makes songs come out of you?

DR: It could be the news, or something in reality, or in the world or just a random idea...(musing) or something that’s been germinating years in my head that pops up one day. There’s a lot of different factors. Or when I’m feeling I haven’t been writing enough about stuff I want to write about, that’s also often the case; somebody needs to write a song about that, and I might as well make an attempt at it and see how it goes.  If it requires research, I’ll do that too... and a good hook-line, it all requires a good hook-line!

AGR: Would Ballad For Hugh Thomsson be a good example of that? (The helicopter gunner who drew down on US troops to end the My Lai massacre in Viet Nam.)

DR: For sure. In that case, I heard about it, his story, and researched it some and wrote it.  

AGR: Think you might have a song percolating somewhere for Henry Kissinger?

DR: Yeah, he keeps on coming into my head as somebody who deserves a song... actually I’ve worked his name and deeds into a couple songs, but I’d like to write one dedicated to his glorious life. (laughs)

AGR: International A.N.S.W.E.R. has been criticized lately for dominating protests, any thoughts from your own experiences being around that?

DR: What I’d say about A.N.S.W.E.R., in a nutshell, is if they are not working for the FBI, they’re doing the FBI’s work for them very well.  I think these sectarian groups are really thoroughly counter-productive. Which doesn’t mean they can be ignored or that fratricidal battles within the Left between the sectarians and the everybody else is the answer... I wish A.N.S.W.E.R. would just go away and disappear because if they were not doing what they’re doing, then real grassroots organizations would be doing it a lot better. It’s not that they’re filling a gap, it’s that they’re taking initiative before more democratic groups that take longer to make decisions are able to take initiatives. They’ve done underhanded things such as grabbing permits when they’ve learned another group has settled on that date, and also undermined conferences and protests and run them themselves and preventing participation of other groups.  Not that grassroots groups are free from criticism either, there’s a lot of disarray that A.N.S.W.E.R. has taken advantage of. (sigh) It’s complicated.  Simplistic so-called Marxist thought is just incredibly destructive... to think that there’s only one issue at a time that the country can pay attention to is condescending... they’re a very centralized authoritarian structure... it’s a problem and there’s no easy and glorious alternative that I’d offer. 

AGR: That pretty much echoes what I’ve heard other activists state. Any final words or thought you’d like to throw out there?

DR: We gotta change the world now. Let’s get to it in whatever way we can. That’s all I got to say. I’m trying to do my little part and I hope everybody else does theirs... and a lot of other people are doing a lot more than I’m doing, that’s for sure!

AGR: You can’t underestimate the power of music in getting people to think about issues, I’d say you do that very well.

DR: Well, it usually doesn’t result in getting your head blown off by a tank or something, but, you know.

AGR: You should be glad.

DR: (laughing) I am!

New CD documents years of repression in Chile

Chile: Promise of Freedom (AK Press)

Review by John Brinker

In 1973, the US was in danger of losing its grip on Latin America. A wave of social justice movements were gaining power, challenging capitalism and neocolonial power. Nixon declared the danger of the region becoming a “red sandwich,” a socialist continent framed by Cuba in the Caribbean and Chile in the south.

Chilean president Salvador Allende had recently overseen the flowering of a socialist democracy in his country. Power and wealth were being redistributed downwards, and innovation was bubbling up from the bottom of Chilean society. Allende’s unforgivable sin was to allow the nationalization of natural resources, especially Chile’s rich copper mines, which had previously been open to foreign exploitation.

As a result, the Nixon administration decided to make an example of Chile. After a destabilization campaign failed to produce results, the Chilean military stepped in. Allende, a freely elected leader, was deposed by an army coup. While it was not the first Latin American country to have its self-determination undermined by US intervention, nor the last, Chile’s case is extreme in the brutality of the regime that seized power. Chile: Promise of Freedom, a new CD from AK Press, documents the coup and the years of repression that followed in Chile.

History may now remember Sept. 11 for an attack on the US that cost thousands of lives. However, on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 1973, the US-backed coup in Chile also killed thousands and damaged an entire society. The presidential palace was bombed and a military state was put in place overnight. Stadiums became concentration camps where those suspected of harboring leftist sympathies were tortured and killed in large numbers.

But the junta never admitted the mass murder it carried out, letting the dead stay in a kind of limbo as disappeared people, or “desaparecidos.” For Chileans, not knowing the fates of their loved ones was worse than the certainty of their deaths. The widespread practice of torture also deeply effected society. In a chilling moment on the CD, you hear the junta’s ambassador the US nonchalantly describe torture as “a technicality that people from the police and others use to know the truth.”

To make matter worse, the military and police often dressed as civilians; not knowing who was an informant or a torturer, people stopped trusting each other, and the bonds that hold civil society together began to crumble. The effect on the daily life of Chileans was profound: “I found myself talking about torture at breakfast in front of my children,” says Isabel Allende, a relative of the deposed president. When they realized that Pinochet was staying in power, many leading artists, writers, musicians and intellectuals chose exile.

In the 1980’s, the US backed what was known as Operation Condor: a network linking the secret police of Chile with those of other right-wing regimes in the region: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Uruguay. The regimes shared information, and tortured and assassinated each other’s dissidents. At the height of the program, Chilean dissident Orlando Letelier was murdered in Washington, DC by Operation Condor agents. The resulting scandal embarrassed the US government, which was forced to terminate the program.

Then, in 1988, Pinochet made a miscalculation that lost him control over Chile. Thinking that his grip on society was complete, he allowed a referendum to he held in which he lost power to the opposition coalition’s candidate.

Chile’s return to democracy has not been complete, however. The country is still under the constitution written by the Pinochet regime. Pinochet is still free, and his allies still wield power in the government. With repression still fresh in their memories, Chileans are reluctant to punish leaders of the junta. Many bodies of the disappeared have never been found, and the atrocities of the past are still not discussed openly.

The modern history of Chile has many lessons for us. Despite the recent elections of several center-left governments in Latin America, regimes like that of Augusto Pinochet successfully pried open the door to the “neoliberal” economic policies that allow US interests to control the wealth of the region. The US continues to interfere in Latin America with all the means available to it, including the backing of military coups against democratically elected governments.

Chile’s experience also demonstrates how quickly a society can become totalitarian, and the huge psychological toll this takes on all of its members. But Chile’s underground resistance also shows us how grassroots organizing can flourish in the midst of the harshest oppression. As Isabel Allende observes on the CD, “People who were very outspoken leaders went into hiding, and people who no one had ever noticed before became heroes.”

This remarkable CD is comprised of historical recordings (from The Freedom Archive in San Francisco), interviews with Chilean dissidents like Isabel Allende and Ariel Dorfman, occasionally stiff narration, and a dazzling variety of Chilean music — everything from folk and avant-garde classical to synthesizer noodling and pop-metal dirges. As an audio documentary, Chile: Promise of Freedom succeeds in making a moving, personal story from the cold facts of history. On that next long trip (to Miami this November, for instance), why not pop this in your CD player instead of that Tom Clancy book-on-tape.