with us today. be sure to stay in touch by following the show on social media. for our entire team, i'm charles davis, and we'll see you next week on "sports stars of tomorrow." (rousing music) (rousing music continues) (rousing music continues) (bright music)

>> good morning and welcome to mosaic, it is always a privilege to host mosaic on behalf of our producer and co-host, this is my 16th year and one of the privileges of doing this is that i have such great guests all the time. today we have two segments in our program, this being black history month along with just celebrating dr. martin luther king jr.'s birthday, we will say something about both, and the second segment is about the book fair, which is 50 years of celebration of the world book fair that we have here in the bay area, it comes here every other year. black history was first proposed by dr. g carter wilson, woodson, excuse me, back in the 1900s and back then it

was negro history week, they chose the second week of fairbury because of the birthday of abraham lincoln, and it became a month 1976. dr. king would have been 88 years old and we would have celebrated his birthday since the holiday, so two very important times in january and february. my guess is a longtime friend and colleague, we went to seminary together, he has always been in the struggle in justice and truth, and glad he is still around, that is reverend dr. dorsey blake. great to have you. >> it is great to be on this program and congratulations to you, 16 years at mosaic.

>> and you have been with us at least two or three times, we appreciate that, you reminded me you have been at the church for the fellowship of all peoples for 24 years, that is excellent. that is fantastic. well, what is it about him that is still relevant and real? >> one of the most important things about martin luther king jr. and one of the reasons i miss him so much, and i do, is the fact that he was a person of vision and we have not had a leader of vision as martin luther king had since his assassination, but to a great extent we have been reacting to different policies of the government or even in terms of the international world but to have a person who is projecting where we go from here. >> chaos or community. >> chaos or community, a person that projects a beloved community and how that would look, he projected that people

should have a national guaranteed income, those who aren't able to work or whatever, he projected housing for people. so, these kinds of ideas that he put forth and we really have not moved on, and he was also as a minister, still quite astute in dealing with the political realities, he talked with kenneth culbreath, and we can work with poverty, if the rich can agree to become even richer but at a slower pace. that is pro-revolutionary, and king also did a critique of our society, saying that this beloved community of which he spoke could not be attained under the president at that time and a capitalist society. he talked very seriously about a redistribution of wealth, he raised the question, why should people have these wire bills

when the earth is two thirds water. and actually said, you would love this, he used the scripture in the bible, saying what must i do , and he says you must be born again, and the way king interprets that, you must restructure your life. and he said, the united states must restructure this life. the way he goes about things. >> how did you know i was going to use that this sunday? you just read my mind. >> and we should always be dissatisfied, and his last speech to the southern christian leadership conference which he cofounded, said we must be dissatisfied until the united states lives up to its possibilities so that all people are included, so that all people can live and be unafraid.

>> those are pretty radical statements and i think most people, to be honest, remember i have a dream, but they don't remember a lot of that, and they don't know a lot of that. >> that is why years ago we established the martin luther king celebration, taylor church, trying to bring a different understanding of martin luther king in terms of his radical understanding. and the other thing about king that i miss is that he was committed to this vision, this beloved community. >> we are going to come back to that, we have been with reverend dr. dorsey blake, this is black history month but also the celebration of dr. martin luther king jr.'s life and his tribute to all that we give to him. please join us.

>> welcome back to mosaic, we are talking with reverend dr. dorsey blake, we are so great to have him come as we heard a great deal about dr. king that i'm sure we don't know. anything else you would like to add to that, because this is history. >> dr. king was mentored by dr. howard thurn, cofounded by the first interracial congregation, and they were the first african american to ever meet with condi in 1936, so you have that influence, actually gandhi and dr. thurman and dr. king, in terms of understanding nonviolence. >> dr. thurman influenced so many people, he was a mentor for so many people but so many people probably had not known of his influence of many of our activists, they see him as

contemplative and some mystic. how would you interpret that? >> i would say that it is true, that is the way a lot of people see him, dr. thurman i think would define himself as a seeker, he was always seeking to understand life more deeply. he was always seeking to try to find more about the common ground of all peoples. so yes, he was a mystic, and he was a mystic who was concerned about the social realities because his understanding of the system was if an encounter with god brings a unity of life not only with yourself but all of creation, therefore when you leave those mystic experiences, you want to see that in the overall society, so if there are institutions that stand against that unity, then you have the responsibility to change those institutions so unity will obtain in the

society. so it was not a mysticism that you are just contemplating yourself and your direct relationship with god, but this unity that made you dedicate your life to see the unity of all things, not only in human beings but in life in general. >> that seemed to be dr. king's philosophy and of course dr. thurman, that is definitely huge in black history, so what else would you say about black history month? >> it was definitely critical, in 1976, that established our history week at the time, he was getting with people who internalized racism on a very profound level and he was very disturbed because our history books did not include african american history, and he felt as though this was needed in order for people to have a better understanding of themselves. the other reality is that this was

done, it was proclaimed in 1926 and that was during the height of the harlem renaissance, where you had these black poets, black authors, all these different people get re-evaluated in the black experience. for example, later, the racist was so internalized that if there was not a back door, they would create one to go through. this was the impact, and also this comes after these race riots, so from his point of view, absolutely necessary for people to get a very different understanding of who they were, their history, their accomplishments, in order to move forward as a people. as far as i'm concerned, it was a real

precursor to the black is beautiful movement, the experience of the 60s, we are reclaiming our roots in a very positive way and that is what we did. >> this is profound, why do you think so many of us miss it, as the larger population and majority culture? >> i think it is because we have become acclimated to our society and our culture and the way to go is to become mainstream and when you become mainstream, you are missing much of your own heritage, it's this middle-class idea, this make it on your own, and therefore you disconnect with your larger community. >> the next two segments will be dealing with books, there is a book out of which you mentioned, stamp from the beginning. i'm reading, kindle i believe is his name is, and he deals with a lot

of what you talked about, he says the response has been segregation, assimilation and antiracist. which is the black power movement who fought against racism from the very beginning, douglas and all of that, but the stamp from the beginning with inequity and injustice, this comes from jefferson davis, and assimilation is always trying to accommodate. >> and again, that was also, that was supported by our religious institutions, our educational institutions, by the society, by the mores of the societies, of inferiority. so, it is not the way to understand people would incorporate that and internalize that, that is why it was so important to have a radical reinterpretation of history because again, it was enforced at every level in our

society. >> and you have done that, with the history you have given us. when is your services? >> 11:00 on sunday mornings and on the second sunday, we have a social justice film. >> okay, and location? >> 2041 larkin street in san francisco. >> dr., appreciate your work. continue the struggle. we have been with reverend dr. dorsey blake, thank you for joining us, please join us in the next two segments, books, books, books, i love books. please join us.

>> welcome back to mosaic, i thought i was a lover of books until a few weeks ago, i heard about this young woman, in fact a young girl, four years old, she has read 1000 books and she started reading at 18, and as much as she has read, she probably has not read some of the rare books we have today, we have michael hackenburg and laura swan, they are going to be

at the book fair. good to see you both, thank you for the books you brought, let's see some of the books i just mentioned. >> yes, these are books that are unusual that you don't see in every context, so i brought a few examples along of what one might bump into at these particular book fairs. this is a first printing from 1834, it was designed of course to missionary activities but of course you have to not only produce the text in hawaiian but you also have to have somebody that can read the musical stage at the same time when they produced them, and these are all hand pressed, so this is very unusual and quite rare, 1834, the first one. another example, of course beginning in europe , in

germany, and it spreads to italy, i brought along this 1515 italian imprint, totally in greek, this is the first printing in rome using greek fonts. and it's basically the first to be seen in roman imprints, and it also has a lot of commentary of medieval scholars who continue the text. you will see manuscript books at the fair, you will see maps, early imprints, and you sometimes see hypermodern things to. >> i'm always amazed how they preserve. >> yes, these books are done on very nice paper, they tend to

last as long as they are treated well, of course the binding, this particular binding, lasted later as this one on the hawaiian book. but i did bring more modern things, 1963, bob hope's warhorse russia, $1200, the first edition, but the reason it is interesting is it also has a dedication to a priest in southern california and signed by bob hope on the flyleaf itself, but in addition to that, there's also 24 pages of typescript, carbon copies of his jokes that he did whenever he did routines in southern california, most of them were to the benevolent society of police. they were always bad jokes from the 60s. he could

certainly get away with it, and of course they loved this, they brought him in for every conceivable fundraiser in southern california and of course this was a period where his movies were making big splashes, his television appearances were of course important, and he was going off to shows in vietnam and elsewhere. >> in the book fair, we will have some of these books. february 10th through the 12th. and it'll be in the oakland city center. it has dealers coming in from a lot of the american states but especially from european and other countries, hungary and australia will be represented, there will be a lot of very interesting dealers, all accredited in manuscript materials, there will be posters from the free speech movement and all sorts of great

items. >> i found it difficult to get to san francisco but oakland seems to be more feasible. >> oakland is very accessible, we like the venue because of the 12th street b.a.r.t. stop, and the city has bent over backwards, basically welcoming us, we originally did it in san francisco in the old concourse. >> before we go to the next segment with laura, tell us where you are located. >> just north of berkeley, two suburbs, and i have been involved for about 30 years and i also charity the book club. >> that is great, thank you for being with us, michael, please join us with laura in the next segment as we look at these rare books.

>> we continue this wonderful book fair with laura swan, and your bookstore is located? >> i am at walnut creek, swanson books, come visit our bookshop. >> tell us about the books that you brought. >> i will. michael brought the old books and i brought the pretty books, not necessarily on

the outside, the outside is fairly plain but the inside is what i'm talking about. about the middle of the 19th century, book production really took a blow, it kind of plummeted, they were using cheap paper, cheap bindings, the end of the 19th century, william morris, you may have heard of, he started the arts and crafts movement. he said we need to make books beautiful and what he did was start his own press, in fact it is considered one of the most beautiful book ever created. let me get this so folks can see it. and as you can see, what he really went for was almost a gothic look, very heavily decorated , all that foliation, that intertwining vines and the leaves of the flowers, just absolutely beautiful. the book i'm holding is actually the nature of gothic by john ruskin who was a huge influence on

william morris. so this was a very important book for morris to publish. ruskin was a very, very well-known writer, still read today, very influential. the stones of venice, absolutely, absolutely. the movement continued to make beautiful books, morris really started it. and by about 1920, i would say it was in full swing and another plane book on the outside but when we look on the inside, the golden press was printing books illustrated by very famous illustrators. this one is by eric l and eric is known of being a man of two minds, he was of deep religious persuasion. this is the passion of christ, this is an excerpt

from the gospels and this entire book is actually written in latin. and let me turn to this wonderful illustration of the crucifixion, very, very moving. but, eric gill was also known for his drawings, he appreciated the human form in their many aspects. so, the golden press started in the 20th and continued i think through the 40s and 50s, the movement to make beautiful books never stopped, so my last example is from the old style press, who started in the 1980s. and this book i just adore because you will see the illustrations are in color. these are woodcut illustrations, so in order for the art to make this book, and by the way, this is one of only 26 books printed with the illustrations in color, out of a

total of 200, they have to make a separate woodblock to print each of these colors. >> that is amazing. >> so this same piece of paper goes through the press and is imprinted by the wood blocks one time for every color you see. and i went through this book and i counted somewhere around 10 different colors. so to make this book, every piece of paper went through the press. >> do i dare ask how much these books are? >> priceless is the short answer, i believe this book retails for about $750. >> that is not bad, i think i heard $12,000 on one of these books. >> my books are reasonable. they are all priced in their own way, they are all special in their own way and they are all different in their own way. >> these are excellent books.

tell us again about the book fair and where it is and the name. >> the 50th california international book fair will be on the 10th through the 12th of february at the oakland marriott city center, it is at the 12th street b.a.r.t. stop, people will be writing for free that weekend, and there's books from all over the world. mine is hackenberg booksellers, el cerrito , i have been at that location for about 17 years and they have been doing book fairs for about 30 years. >> that is excellent, thank you michael and laura and i hope to get to both of your stores if i don't make it to the fair but i might just be browsing. >> we love browsers. >> well, this has been mosaic,

hope you were inspired and enlightened today, thank you for being with us.

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