From Protest to Resistance

Take This Hammer features KQED's mobile film unit following author and activist James Baldwin in the spring of 1963, as he's driven around San Francisco to meet with members of the local African American community.

This episode focuses on Frank O'Hara and Ed Sanders. Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Frank O'Hara belongs, with Kenneth Koch and John Ashbery, to the "New York Poets" group. His work is characterized by acid wit. Ed Sanders is publisher of an underground literary magazine, a pacifist and leader of a rock and roll group known as "The Fugs". Both poets challenge the prevailing prejudices of our society. For Ed Sanders this has already led to some legal difficulties.

A feature length film from acclaimed dance choreographer Merce Cunningham.

An interview with a young Toni Morrison. The video also shows Toni Morrison going shopping, at a party, and at work. Her commentary provides an incisive look behind her written words, and at the vision, technique, and lifestyle of this award-winning author. She reads from The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Song of Solomon.

This documentary reflects on the lives and aspirations of an African American family - the Johns - who moved to West Oakland from Louisiana, focusing on Robert Lee Johns and his mother Agnes.

A fourteen-minute documentary splitted in two parts where we can see Anne Sexton at her home reading, talking about poetry and about her family.