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Fantasia as Celie. Fantastic cast, many from the original Broadway production. Five years of my life into the making of this baby. I’m very proud of it. If you’re in LA come to the Pantages.

Libby

Popular causes have always been prime breeding ground for Kitsch but none so powerful as the first wave of products that spin out of these Pop Culture phenomenon. Both Libby The Lovely Liberated Lady and the Do-It-Yourself Coloring Kit Black Power Statuette are two such statements from burgeoning Civil Rights movements in the 1960s and ’70s when these folks were expressing themselves freely among the masses for the first time.

Unintentionally Kitsch, the best kind, these qualify as Kitsch treasures for two different reasons. Libby because she took on THE characteristic of the oppressor she was attempting to free herself from and the Black Power Statuette because whoever his product manager was was too cheap to spend the extra pennies to add a little tan color to the resin. Power to the Kitsch people!

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MLK-matches-V

I have tons of MLK memorabilia – busts, rugs, pens, cufflinks, ashtrays – but this book of matches is one of my favorites. Comes in a matching set with Jackie Robinson, Mahalia Jackson, Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, Lorraine Hansberry, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Bill Pickett.

I, thankfully, have found three sets of these over the years so have slowly struck the first MLK, © 1976 Universal Match Series 1, which is down to three matches and counting.

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