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“Culture, Clearly Seen.” Black Cultural Intelligence

14 flagships · 25 briefs staged (weekly from Oct 13) · 9 dossiers · 25 guides · 2,957 entities — record updated October 12, 2026
The DuSable Black History Museum’s Harold Washington Wing, Chicago — CultureTechLens
Research Brief

Photo: TonyTheTiger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Research Briefs

Gil Scott-Heron — Pieces of a Man (1971)

CTL Thin Brief · CTL-TB-000120 · Published 2026-10-09

Thin Brief — a short evidence sketch, not a full research brief.

What makes Pieces of a Man a landmark?

Released in 1971 on Flying Dutchman Records with Brian Jackson, the album includes the full-band version of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” blending spoken word, jazz, and funk. SUPPORTED

Key facts

  • Gil Scott-Heron was a poet, novelist, and musician often called the Godfather of Rap. SUPPORTED
  • Pieces of a Man was released in 1971 on Flying Dutchman Records. SUPPORTED
  • The album was recorded with pianist Brian Jackson, his key collaborator. SUPPORTED
  • It features the band version of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” first issued as a single in 1970. SUPPORTED
  • Its mix of poetry and groove became a touchstone for later socially conscious hip-hop. PROVISIONAL

Sources

  • AllMusic: Pieces of a Man album page
  • Flying Dutchman Records catalog
  • CTL Knowledge Graph: Gil Scott-Heron, Brian Jackson

Evidence grades: VERIFIED — strong primary or multiple corroborating sources. SUPPORTED — credible, partly corroborated. PROVISIONAL — single source or general knowledge, uncorroborated.

Cite as: CultureTechLens, "Gil Scott-Heron — Pieces of a Man (1971) (CTL-TB-000120)," 2026-10-09.

Source: CultureTechLens

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Children playing in vacant lot in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLens
Children playing in vacant lot in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
Hallway of a kitchenette apartment building, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLens
Hallway of a kitchenette apartment building, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress
Negro swinging his girl on roller skates. Savoy Ballroom, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLens
Negro swinging his girl on roller skates. Savoy Ballroom, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Trust & evidence

Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.

Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — see the corrections log.