♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >>Welcome to "The Legacy Series: Living A Legacy."

I'm your host, Bremante Bryant.

Imagine, if you will, the nation's capital.

Late 1960s, after the riots, the emergence of go-go, the message of funk and soul, an outlet needed to express either frustration or motivation in the form of art and entertainment.

Along comes an Afro wearing, fist-raising teacher and an empathetic educator, preacher's kid hailing from Virginia by way of California.

The duo have only one thing in common -- The mission to make a difference.

This is the story of Carol, Darryll, and CD Enterprises.

Let's talk a little bit about the arts and entertainment scene in the District of Columbia in the '60s and '70s.

Neighborhoods.

Uh, churches, um, community organizations, civic groups took care of their neighborhoods pretty well.

Local bands were very active with cabarets.

But you also had D.C. Broadway, for lack of a better term, with all the theaters on U Street.

Bohemian caverns was a jazz place.

Right after the riots, the temperature changed.

And that's when, uh, another kind of activity as far as education and providing, stuff with -- for kids and neighborhoods, got a little bit more attention.

>>I didn't spend much time in D.C., because the riots had just occurred.

We had community theater in Virginia.

Believe it or not, it was fun.

The kids had a lot to do.

And until I got into the activities of the city, I didn't see many concerts.

>>How did you meet?

How did you start working together?

>>Besides teaching school?

I had developed a advertising agency and a PR firm.

So, my graphics guy, a guy named Hazel Leatherwood, had invited me to come out, because he thought I could be a part of this thing that was developing, which was a nonprofit arts organization.

They had a focus of trying to bring things to the community.

They were involved with different people that were maybe with the Park Service or Department of Recreation, and they had, uh, funds circulating saying that if y'all come over the program, uh, you can possibly get it funded and -- and do something good in the community.

Then, my guys one day said, "We need to go visit this lady."

Uh, and, uh, I'm saying, "Okay."

And I walked into her house and I'm saying, "What's this?"

Um, because it didn't make sense to me, but it made sense to me later because I found out -- and I'm gonna take her lead -- she was working with her sister, Virginia, who was an artist, and also was trying to get the toehold into the arts community in the DC area.

And a gentleman named Vantile Whitfield, who at that time was working with the D.C. Commission on the Arts, no.

>>National Endowment.

>>National Endowment of the Arts -- National Endowment.

And then, uh, that was like an open door for her to find a place to help her sister get integrated into the situation.

But also, she heard the story of what Tony and the guys are talking about as far as putting on a festival or celebration at that particular time was going to be called Roberta Flack Day, because Tony was trying to be a road manager for Roberta Flack.

And he had to believe in Caverns, because he was very tight with Les McCann, who played the Bohemian Caverns a lot.

So, it was a circle, a-a group of people who had a common interest in music, arts, education, etc.

And both of us are educators.

I was a phys ed teacher, and she was also a teacher in San Diego.

>>And what was your impression of Darryll?

>>Well, first, we didn't get along at all.

>>Why not?

>>He didn't know why I was in this.

And he didn't like, I guess, the dominant role that I had been given, which I didn't really want, but it was -- I was supposed to kind of take over the planning for Human Kindness for Roberta Flack Day, because they only had 5 weeks to go and Tony was way behind the eight ball.

And for some reason my sister suggested me and they all end up.

And I said, "Well, I don't want to do a Roberta Flack Day.

What does that mean to me?"

>>But you did it?

>>No.

>>You did not?

>>I did Human Kindness Day.

>>Well, talk about Human Kindness Day.

That's a good segue.

Uh, in many ways, it was kind of the springboard.

>>To everything else.

>>Everything else.

>>Neil Diamond did a song, "Touch of Human Kindness," which I love.

And so, I told Tony and the crew, "Well, geez, I'll do something honoring Roberta Flack, but I want to do something meaningful."

I want to work with kids, and I want to do something that spreads across and can make a real dent.

And I want to do something about human kindness because, let's face it, we all need to do something about human kindness at that point after the rise.

So, they let me call it Human Kindness Day in honor of Roberta Flack.

And I was very fortunate with Maceo Leatherwood to -- and Floretta McKenzie, the superintendent -- assistant superintendent, then of DC schools.

They let me set up art and writing contests and all kinds of things with the kids and got me involved in an exhibit.

We did the first exhibit at the Smithsonian, ever Black exhibit.

That was with the help of Coretta King.

So, we were trying to make an impact in a different way.

And it was not so big to begin with, but there was a lot of interest in it.

And at the same time, this proposal that we had written that had gone to the National Endowment for Summer Hut for an educational program in the parks, um, got accepted.

And there I was, or there they were, and they needed somebody to run it.

>>Talk a little bit about what it was like then, uh, the community, neighbors being involved?

What was the scene like?

>>I came out of HBCU.

I came out of Central State University.

I went to jail for protesting in Yellow Springs, because of something silly.

But it was something that our crew stood for at that time.

So, my conscious level, in reference to the community, culture, was pretty high and I granted -- Central State did that for me.

So, when I came home, I had an afro.

I was, you know, paying attention, wearing dashikis, and I was paying attention to things that made sense to my community.

And I ended up being a phys ed teacher in the hood in the southeast.

So, I also recognize the pitfalls.

I mean, we had a basketball court with no nets and, you know, go to the athletic department for strings.

They look at you like crazy.

So, I went to a sporting goods store and bought my own strings and put it up.

My whole corner lit up, you know what I mean?

So, I knew what that meant.

Tony Taylor was very adamant and a very good presenter of ideas.

Maceo was a very great graphics guy.

Lou Stovall was a great arts guy, so being in that environment also kind of complemented my attitude and my focus of what I wanted to see happen.

So, it was an easy sell, because after reading her proposal, recognized that the government had granted it a window, and then, it was up to us to now fundraise to match that and build onto that, us going out and having meetings with different organizations, businesses, etc.

I got a better understanding of who she was as a person, and I think she had a better understanding of who I was as a person, because basically we came in as somebody just threw us in the room together and said, "Oh, y'all figure it out," that didn't work for me.

But later on, the understanding of where her head was, her heart was, and her -- and the respect she had for the culture, as well as the respect she had for education, made a lot of sense to me.

And that was like really the focal point of our relationship.

And it's been over almost 50 years.

I think, also -- >>52.

>>Man.

Who's counting?

So, I think, that and the things that we were able to develop in the park, Summer Hut, for example, was an incredible statement for that era, because D.C. Department of Recreations would come over there and be a part of it and bring us stuff.

The National Park Service would bring us different things that they had programmed and integrated into what we already had established, but before they weren't getting that kind of activity, because all they had was a swimming pool out in the South.

It wasn't -- It wasn't anything proactively happening.

As Carol said, they used to call it the armpit of the nation, because nobody really -- nobody really put forth that kind of activity.

And then, to see the results of what we developed there, we ended up with like 500-something thousand people over a collective summer and got an award from the Anheuser-Busch, uh, McDonald's Corporation in the building, the McDonald's house, from a proposal that she had written.

We didn't get paid.

We didn't pay ourselves.

We made sure everybody else got covered, especially as the programs went on.

Because it didn't mean anything to me to grab a, you know, grab a bag and not leave anything or have anything developed.

I'd rather give a bag and plant a good seed and let it grow and do what it do.

>>I graduated from American University and my degree was in journalism and I went to do an interview with Curtis Mayfield.

And when I went to do the interview, I was introduced to Darryll Brooks and Carol Kirkendall, and they told me what they were doing and it excited me, because I love working with young writers.

Um, and that's how it got started.

And that summer, which was the second year of the Summer Hut.

Um, I became the director of the Summer Hut.

And, um...

I also was a part of the Human Kindness Day.

That was Dick Gregory.

And then, the next year was Ali and Nina Simone.

And then, the year after that, of course, was Stevie.

>>Go back a little bit to 1968.

>>Okay.

>>Doctor King is assassinated.

Uh, Carol, you had talked about how Coretta Scott King had helped with the program you did at the Smithsonian.

Uh, John Conyers introduces legislation, right, to make, uh, Martin Luther King, uh, birthday a national holiday.

Uh, that takes a while.

But a few years later, in the mid '70s, you all work with Stevie Wonder, uh, on helping to propel that to become a law.

Talk a little bit about your relationship with Stevie Wonder and the connection to the MLK day and him working with you all.

>>They went on his birthday, and I think the thing that transpired also is because of our relationship, our understanding, and our implementation of human kindness in '72, '73, '74, '75, we knew how to polish each other's work.

I got a call from Dick Griffey and Black Bull, which is Stevie's company, and said, "Hey, man, we need to do a fundraiser.

Uh, can you do it?

Can you promote a show for us at the Capital Center?"

And we'll raise funds to help Black -- And we said yes immediately.

We'll set the whole show up, do everything you ask for, have everything there happen, and the money.

You know, y'all got the money and the show sold out.

But that's when he sang, "Happy Birthday," and it was incredible.

>>Martin Luther King Jr. [ Cheers and applause ] National holiday.

>>You all stayed in the nonprofit circle for a while.

-A long time.

-A long time.

-And then, you would pivot to the for profit.

>>We couldn't continue our programs, because they stopped funding us and other arts organizations.

In 1976, the government had done their due.

Supposedly, which you've heard a million times, but, uh, with other things.

And so, they had nothing more to do.

And then, we had families.

We had began to raise them, so, we had to make some money.

The artists that were involved in our Summer Hut, that would come and meet with the kids or work with the students with us, to let our students go on the road with them, so, they could become sound technicians and stagehands.

They would then say, "You guys want to do a concert?

We'll do it with you."

And so, we got whole tours to begin with, and we really didn't know what that meant.

>>One of them was Parliament-Funkadelic.

Right.

And many folks don't know where that term Chocolate City came from and how it applied, uh, to the district and still does, but you all do.

And there's some connection to that.

And Parliament-Funkadelic.

>>If you listen to the track itself, he talks about all the major cities where blacks had a greater population than 50%.

And at one time, D.C., before gentrification, had, you know, it was very well populated.

And, you know, that's what it was.

And this is the seat of the government, uh, the federal government.

You know, if you know anything about D.C., we got the federal enclave and we got the district.

And those two waters don't mix.

He told that story in his own way, with Stevie Wonder being this person and Muhammad Ali and Aretha Franklin having different roles.

And I think -- and that fantasy, it was a beautiful thing, because it gave an identity to a city and to a culture that's still in here, because a lot of the folks living here at that time still live here, at that time, are descendants of slaves that came up from the Virginias and the Carolinas, and they nestled here in the district, because D.C. government was giving jobs.

There wasn't a lot of jobs in some of those other areas.

So, when they migrated here, it made another kind of sense.

>>Talk a little bit about the music today that D.C. is really specifically known for as the creator.

>>Go-go.

>>And that's go-go.

>>They were local groups in the metropolitan area like Sir Joe & Free Soul Black Heat, Experience Unlimited, Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers.

They were doing the cabarets.

They were the entertainment of the masses, for lack of a better term, at your Masonic temples -- at Northwest Gardens, at the Panorama Room.

When we went to Anacostia Park, we had a younger set there, younger kids there, and they were playing their music, and they were coming from different sections of D.C., Maryland, Virginia, North, East, southeast, and what have you.

And we would book them 5 days a week.

And they had opportunities to present their presentation to maybe 20,000, 10,000, 5,000.

Whoever was in the park that day.

They were probably as ill-equipped as a neighborhood could be.

They might not have had a drum.

They might have played on buckets and cans and cowbells.

They might not have had no transportation.

So, we were able to provide them with a sound system, transportation, get to the park, get back home.

But there was a genius in our -- in our neighborhood named Charles Brown, Chuck Brown.

And if you ever listen to the records he did, "Get your whistles and blow."

That basically talked about Anacostia, because kids were using those whistles to get across town.

That's why you heard those whistles all the time.

He talked about education.

He did a call and response to kids, about girls taking care of themselves, guys respecting the girls, girls respecting the guys.

So, he was communicating all those kinds of positive imaging into our community.

>>Let's not limit CD to the urban acts, because, um, they were the only promoters, um, who did the Rolling Stones, the only urban promoters, I should say, who did the Rolling Stones, they did Willie Nelson, Leon Russell.

So, the music spread out across, you know, all the genres and Milli Vanilli, everything about those brothers.

We found out not to be real.

Even the dreads were wigs.

[ Chuckles ] >>We had Willie Nelson, Rolling Stones, go-go.

We'll get to Prince.

We'll get to the Jacksons.

When you think back on that, what does it say to you?

And again, I'm only just naming a handful of them, but those are some -- >>It's relationships and doing good business, having respect for what you do and people respecting you for what you've done.

>>God blessed us with some very fine people to work with.

>>And one of those people, you had a magical time, I guess, with Prince and snow.

>>We get ready to do the show.

The show's sold out.

There's, I don't know, half a foot of snow all over the place in front of the armory.

We made some calls, the army got involved, and they cleaned everything spotless.

So, when Prince and them come to town, because they had heard everybody was bugged about all this snow.

And, you know, they come in by bus, they see all this snow.

And Prince looks at Billy and said... "How did they do that?"

And Billy says, "I told you them street -- Their name is G Street, them [bleep] man."

And I couldn't, I burst out laughing, because they were impressed with our hustle.

When Purple Rain came, we ended up getting in the first month of shows he did.

We ended up doing seven shows at the Capital Center, and then, three shows in Greensboro Coliseum.

And through that, Prince says -- tells Billy, "I want to give something back to the community.

I want to do a free show."

>>Oh, that was one.

>>So, we ended up hooking him up with Gallaudet College and did a free short Gallaudet.

>>One of the most impressive things in my life was attending the concert at Gallaudet.

Because you'd stand, you'd have to, all of you stand and just cry and feel.

Because all these kids, they knew every word and they felt the sound.

So, they were responding like they could hear.

I mean, you could not -- >>They had signers on -- all around.

And you had kids with all kinds of contraptions with the nose and the head and beds.

They couldn't move, you know what I mean?

But their reaction was incredible.

>>They were unbelievable.

>>So, then, they stopped the show.

They wanted to give Prince a poster or something like that.

I'm talking about hardcore cats in this business crying.

Prince is breaking a tear.

The vibration in that room was unbelievable and he wrote a check for everything.

So, those are the things that will keep us or has kept us doing this, because we've seen the essence of kindness.

We've seen the essence of goodwill, and we see what art education.

>>Love.

>>That's a nice word.

And what love has been able to accomplish.

>>The Summer Spirit Festival, year after year, how did it begin?

>>It was just a carryover of what, really, Human Kindness Day.

We hadn't been able to get back to that, and we knew we were not going to be able to have the Monument grounds anymore.

And Merriweather Post is a delightful place, and the schools we would involve and the city, and we did it, and it's been great.

We've had Erykah Badu several times.

She's been a marvelous supporter.

Jill Scott several times.

>>Queen Latifah.

>>Queen Latifah, and, uh -- >>We can name hundreds.

>>Lauryn Hill.

I mean, just some absolutely phenomenal acts.

>>Is there any sort of one obstacle that throughout your half a century involvement in arts and entertainment in the city that you have found to be the most onerous, the toughest?

>>The thing that bothers me personally is that here's a city that at one time was 70% African American, and it's much less.

We still don't own any major venues.

We're still sharecroppers.

We don't have the facility.

We have the expertise, but we don't have the facility.

We can't go to banks or get big loans to get some of these other facilities and build our own place.

So, imagine with all the entertainment we have, we have the daughters of the American Revolution.

You know their history.

We have another guy who has a venue who said, "I'm going to move my wagon to Virginia."

You have 930 club who's been incredible, but they have some nice facilities, but I don't -- there's not a black-owned facility.

We can't -- We can't call our own shots.

That means we don't -- we can't participate in all the ancillary incomes that comes in from the people that we put into a room.

And that, to me, is a sin.

>>It isn't what you see now.

It's what we've seen all the way along and what this community has given to our world.

They told us Anacostia was the armpit of the nation and maybe the world.

I'll tell you, I would raise my children or have my children there and all of their children any day.

The families were strong.

The children were taught right.

And if they... didn't do something right, let me tell you, they got what they should have.

And somehow all of that is gone.

The communities have been torn apart totally.

And they weren't allowed.

The people that lived there, they weren't allowed to own, as Darryll was talking about, ownership is what is needed to keep a people, a family, anywhere to pass on, to grow, to believe in.

And that I find very difficult to accept at this old age.

And after 52 years in the business...

I... And it's not just about our business, it's a way of life.

But music has a lot to do with... people getting together and more of the kind of positiveness of people getting, getting together.

We need to be able to feel and see and hear.

>>We have media here in D.C. >>Yes.

>>WHUR, WPFW.

Um, Radio One station and that sort of thing.

The music that comes out of some of these networks are dumbed down music.

They talk about nothing.

They don't talk about family, wholesomeness, and nothing.

They just bark out garbage.

Garbage.

WHUR to me was a beacon back in the day.

They talked about positive things.

They gave you information, they gave you news and kept you current.

To me, WPFW has programming that does that as well.

WHUT is doing that now.

But we need that at such a great level to wake these folks up, because they've been dumbed down so long.

And the other thing that's always kind of bothered me is that the people who end up running this city come from out of the city, so, they don't have any kind of connection to the roots of this city.

And I think the tribal ness of go-go for an example, that Chuck and a lot of local groups have cultivated, is what keeps a certain attitude and moxie and power on the streets of D.C., being woke during this time is very important.

And through the arts, through music, through graphics, through film, through those things that present educational and awareness is what we need more of >>But have you thought about what you would want the legacy of CD Enterprises to be?

>>Help and service.

>>Help and service?

>>Mm-hm.

>>Is that enough?

>>I think, that's all I need.

And don't forget to put two L's in my name.

>>Well, I'm blessed with great kids and great-great-grandchildren that are doing phenomenally well.

That's my legacy.

>>This concludes the story of CD Enterprises, dancing in the parks, blowing whistles, riding bikes at Anacostia Park.

Tickets to the hottest concerts.

Memories created with over a half century of service.

Entertainment from the dynamic duo, Carol and Darryll.

That's two R's and two L's.

They set out to take the arts and entertainment industry by storm, not just concert promoters, but activists promoting a movement for the people, by the people.

Not just another concert, but an event.

Thank you for watching.

♪♪ ♪♪ >>This program was brought to you by WHUT and made possible by contributions from viewers like you.

For more information on this program or any other program, please visit our website at whut.org, thank you.