Motown!!

An evening with Berry Gordy:
This past weekend I was able to attend an event called The Historymakers which is a televised program that interviews some of the history makers in various categories including science, legal, musical, etc. this years guest if honor was the infamous berry Gordy of Motown records. He discovered some of our favorite musicians an bands including the Jackson 5, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye and many, many more. He was interviewed in front of a full audience and he answered questions that everyone wanted to know. Was Motown only for black artists, could white artists be signed to Motown, when did he first learn to play piano, was he active in civil rights across American, and  so on. He talked about how he didn't want Motown to only be for black artists but he wanted Motown to be a place were black artist could go. No other record labels were giving fair treatment to black artisrt and he decided to change that. He also said he welcomed artists from other cultures but none really came to him. He was active in the civil rights movement and he actually gave money to MLKjr when his funds were running low. He also recorded some of his speeches and released them on his record label.
There were multiple performances that night from Kem, Janelle monea, and Valarie Simpson. A scene from Motown: the musical was performed as well. Jesse Jackson spoke, the head of Comcast spoke and videos from former president bill Clinton, smoky Robinson and the owners if philidalphia records were also played. The night concluded with amazing food and more music at the art institute kf chicago. It was an amazing night that made me think that debates and twitter and face book are all public discourse but music can also be a public forum that crosses ethnic barriers to reach millions if people.