REVIEW | It’s Been Beautiful: Soul! and Black Power Television

Abstract

In It's Been Beautiful, Gayle Wald examines Soul!, the first African American black variety television show on public television, which between 1968 and 1973 was instrumental in expressing the diversity of black popular culture, thought and politics, as well as helping to create the notion of black community. A vision of Soul! / by Chester Higgins -- "It's been beautiful" -- Soul! and the 1960s -- The black community and the affective compact -- More meaningful than a three-hour lecture?: music on Soul! -- Freaks like us: black misfit performance on Soul! -- The racial state and the "disappearance" of Soul! -- Soul! at the center.