Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for July 17, 2005 CAIRO FEATURED IN COBDEN

Sorry, didn't find this article until after the fact...the showing/performance was last night!

From the Daily Egyptian...

Cairo featured in Cobden

Jared DuBach
Pulse reporter

This past spring, the City of Cairo received a lot of media attention from the releases of a CD and of a half-hour long documentary, both on the town's diverse and controversial history.

A live performance of musician Stace England's "Greetings from Cairo, Ill." and a screening of John Njagi's documentary, "Cairo: A City Caught Between The Tides," will take place at 8:30 p.m., Saturday at Yellow Moon Café in Cobden. The event is free, but donations will be accepted.

England released "Greetings from Cairo, Ill.," and it has received critical acclaim in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy, as well as in the United States. The CD chronicles historical events from Ulysses S. Grant's visit to the city, Jesse Jackson's involvement with the Civil Rights movement and the account of how both a white man and a black man were hanged on the same night by a lynch mob. England's fascination with this history and the prospect that there is hope for the future prompted him to do the project.

A German magazine, Das Rockmagazin, had this to say of the CD:

"Stace England has made a strong work here. It is pleasing to the ear, creative in its variety and also offers some history, as well as food for thought. One is inclined to believe the songwriter when he says: 'Cairo, Illinois is the most fascinating town in America.'"

Njagi's production, a 30-minute documentary titled "Cairo: A City Caught Between The Tides," inspects the history of Cairo from the Civil War era up to modern day with interviews of past and present residents.

Njagi, who's originally from Kenya, told the Daily Egyptian in May that he was cautioned not to produce the documentary for fear of what it might actually reveal.

"A lot of people told me I shouldn't venture into that story," Njagi said.

He also said, "They told me there's nothing there, it's very dangerous."

Racism played a large factor on Cairo's history, contributing to Cairo's position as one of the last major hotbeds of activity for the Civil Rights movement. Njagi said racism has not been an issue in Kenya as it has in the United States.

"It's diverse, but it's a lot different," Njagi said. "It's reversed in Kenya. We're all Kenyans. Even though we were colonized by the British, there's no animosity there. It's in the past."

England said he decided to work with Njagi because of how well his work on Cairo complemented Njagi's documentary.

"It was a hand-in-glove kind of fit," England said. "He hit all the highlights I hit."

England is working on organizing other Cairo presentations in theaters and community centers and has an interested party in Evansville, Ind. This is all part of England's desire to spread the word on Cairo to as many people as possible and educate people on the town's history and perhaps generate some public interest that could cause a renaissance that would allow the town to prosper.

One good start in getting the work out to the masses has come out of a review in the national newspaper in the Netherlands, De Volksrant. The newspaper's music reviewer gave "Greetings from Cairo, Ill.," eight out of 10 stars. With an estimated 850,000 people reading that newspaper, the album's buzz has generated interest by other media outlets in Europe to do documentaries and research of their own into that once booming river port at the southernmost tip of Illinois.

For more information on 'Greetings from Cairo, Ill.,' go to www.staceengland.com