{"id":933,"date":"2020-10-19T06:50:12","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T13:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asuen.com\/nonfictionmonday\/?p=933"},"modified":"2020-10-18T15:02:26","modified_gmt":"2020-10-18T22:02:26","slug":"dark-was-the-night-blind-willie-johnsons-journey-to-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asuen.com\/nonfictionmonday\/dark-was-the-night-blind-willie-johnsons-journey-to-the-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson&#8217;s Journey to the Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asuen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/darkwasthenight-595x770.jpg?resize=525%2C679&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"525\" height=\"679\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12832\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2TcgcA5\">Amazon<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/6037\/9781524738884\">Bookshop<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9781524738884?aff=anasuen09\">IndieBound<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson&#8217;s Journey to the Stars<\/em><br \/>\nby Gary Golio (Author) and E.B. Lewis (Illustrator)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Booktalk:<\/strong> Willie Johnson was born in 1897, and from the beginning he loved to sing&#8211;and play his cigar box guitar. But his childhood was interrupted when he lost his mother and his sight. Fortunately for Willie, the music saved him and brought him back into the light. His powerful voice, combined with the wailing of his slide guitar, moved people. Willie made a name for himself performing on street corners all over Texas. And one day he hit it big when he got a record deal and his songs were played on the radio. Then in 1977, his song&#8211;&#8220;Dark Was the Night&#8221;&#8211;was chosen to light up the darkness when it was launched into space on the <em>Voyager I<\/em> space probe&#8217;s famous Golden Record. His immortal song was selected for the way it expresses the loneliness humans all feel, while reminding us we&#8217;re not alone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Snippet:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asuen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/darkwasthenight2-595x384.png?resize=525%2C339&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"525\" height=\"339\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12834\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"525\" height=\"296\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V8AuYmID4wc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Listen to <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/V8AuYmID4wc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;Dark Was the Night&#8221; by Blind Willie Johnson<\/a> on Voyager&#8217;s Golden Record<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6536\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/asuen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/nonfiction.monday.jpg?resize=158%2C111\" alt=\"Nonfiction Monday\" width=\"158\" height=\"111\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">It&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/asuen.com\/nonfictionmonday\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nonfiction Monday!<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Copyright \u00a9 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/asuen.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anastasia Suen<\/a> All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson&#8217;s Journey to the Stars by Gary Golio (Author) and E.B. Lewis (Illustrator) Booktalk: Willie Johnson was born in 1897, and from the beginning he loved to sing&#8211;and play his cigar box guitar. But his childhood was interrupted when he lost his mother and &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/asuen.com\/nonfictionmonday\/dark-was-the-night-blind-willie-johnsons-journey-to-the-stars\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson&#8217;s Journey to the Stars&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonfiction-monday-round-up"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pam6qm-f3","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":373,"url":"https:\/\/asuen.com\/nonfictionmonday\/finding-the-speed-of-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":933,"position":0},"title":"Finding the Speed of Light","author":"Anastasia Suen","date":"April 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Finding the Speed of Light: The 1676 Discovery that Dazzled the World by Mark Weston (Author) and Rebecca Evans (Illustrator) Booktalk: More than two centuries before Einstein, using a crude telescope and a mechanical timepiece, Danish astronomer Ole Romer measured the speed of light with astounding accuracy. 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