(Featured photo: James Brown with Don Rhodes. Photo courtesy, Linda Rhodes Humphreys, Rhodes’ sister)
When telling James Brown’s story in the upcoming A&E docuseries, Deborah Riley Draper wanted to get a view of it from the legendary singer’s lens first, so she came to Augusta.
In the Godfather of Soul’s hometown, she sought to connect with the man and his music to better tell his story.
“I was transformed by this experience – tracing his trajectory from Augusta to being a global icon. It is really an important thing to study. It’s a lesson in resilience; it’s a lesson in work ethic. He faced unbelievable odds. His time as a young boy in Augusta was full of trauma. That coupled with racial injustice, Jim Crow, World War II, it was a hell of a lived experience,” said the Savannah-born filmmaker in a phone interview about the A&E docu-series called “James Brown: Say it Loud” which will air on the network at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 19 and Tuesday, Feb. 20. “He was Augusta. He loved it. It was home for him. It was the place that his genius was born. He could’ve lived anywhere, but Augusta formed him.”
In the film, she explores how the city and those elements forged him and his music.
She visited several significant locations with Brown’s daughter Deanna Brown-Thomas. One of them was the site where Aunt Honey’s home was, where Brown spent part of his childhood.
Draper recalled walking through the woods and wondering what paths Brown might have taken as he played outside, imagining how his experience would shape his music.
“It was incredible to see the space knowing this was where James Brown’s formative years were spent,” she said.
Read More: Deanna Brown-Thomas talks about upcoming docu-series on her father
She also visited his statue and filmed interviews in front of the James Brown exhibit at the Augusta Museum of History.
An impetus behind the narrative she followed in making the film was a 1969 Look Magazine cover which posed the question – “Is James Brown the most important Black man in America?”
“That’s a big question, and I wanted to answer that,” she said. “He was one of the most important Black men in America period.”
Brown’s mark on music can be seen through the countless musicians who’ve emulated his style. The beat in his “Funky Drummer” is the foundation for hip hop, Draper said.
“He’s the most sampled artist in recording history. There’s not much you listen to on the radio that doesn’t have a direct line back to James Brown,” she said.
From Mick Jagger to LL Cool J and Ed Sheeran to Bootsy Collins, artists from different musical styles have professed Brown’s influence on their sound, and many of those stories will be part of the docu-series.
But Brown’s legacy is more than that. He provided an undeniable, unstoppable voice for Black people for decades, she said. It still resounds more than 17 years after his death.
“He taught us how to ‘say it loud.’ It’s more than the words of a song… We can’t erase our history. We can’t pretend it didn’t happen. We have to say it and we have to say it loud, loud enough for our ancestors to know even though they had to be quiet. We can now use our voice and own our narrative and say it loud enough for generations in the future to hear,” she said.
Not only does Draper feature A-list performers in the docu-series, but she also includes interviews with Augustans including the late Don Rhodes, longtime columnist for The Augusta Chronicle as well as Augusta Good News who wrote his own James Brown book called “Say It Loud: The Life of James Brown Soul Brother No. 1.”
Draper is an award-winning filmmaker whose works have included “The Legacy of Black Wall Street” and “Versailles ’73: American Runway Revolution.” She was named Variety Magazine’s “2016 Top 10 Documakers to Watch.” Her documentary, “Olympic Pride, American Prejudice,” told the story of 18 African Americans who defied Hitler and Jim Crow at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, was one of only three nominees for the 2017 Peace and Sport Award in Monaco, presented by HRH Prince Albert, according to her bio at her website.
Deanna Brown Thomas said she was thrilled that a fellow sorority sister was tapped to tell her father’s story and believes it will have a positive impact on the city as well as her advancing her father’s legacy.
“The prize for me for this documentary is that one of my sorority sisters from Alpha Kappa Alpha…Deborah Riley Draper is the director,” she said. “She’s from Savannah and out of Atlanta now. I’m just so thankful, honestly, to see a young Black woman helm this. I say that because It’s important that if people want to know true Black culture, what it truly is – that means someone that’s born in that culture, from that culture, lives that culture – is the one who gives you the feel of what you need to feel.”
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for 35 years. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
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