A few months back I was attempting to use my audible credits and I downloaded a bunch of random books. One was a book I bought for research on blues. And I’m in love. First the reader is simply one of the smoothest and easy voices to listen to. It’s dark, and gritty and yet
Stop What You are Doing and LISTEN Read More »
Music is the heartbeat of Black American culture. Right up there with church, and dancing. I LOVE all of the music that has come out of our culture. I always find it a bit distressing when people who dance to our music say “I love blues but I’m not really into hip hop/rap” or ”
So, you love blues but not Hip Hop (Soul, R&B, Funk, or other Black musics) Hm. Read More »
A common cultural miscommunication that alienates Black people within our dance communities is the love of the past and time travel. I don’t mean Doctor Who time travel. What I mean is the the common idea that people who do these dances desire to go back in time. They say things like “I feel like
Dance communities and time travel Read More »
For years there has been an ongoing debate about the importance of dressing up at social dances. Understand that dressing up is a part of the culture if you are doing an African American vernacular dance. I’m going to explore why dressing up matters, how it shows up often in Black Culture as a means
I LOVE Black Twitter. One of my favorite sets of Memes/tweets that come out every year is #thanksgivingwitBlackfamilies. It was the biggest back in 2015 but still relatable. For me, it’s a perfect showcase of how different the cultures are even around the same holiday and how universal much of the experiences can be. I
Black Thanksgiving Memes Give Me Life Read More »
A complicated topic few in America causally talk about is what to call the Americans that descended from Slaves. Over the years what is considered disrespectful has changed and currently the American Culture seems to be split between if using the term African American or Black is better. With this complicated topic I think it’s
Black vs African-American Read More »
5 current blues artists you should know Most fan of blues know of the classic artists of the genre, think BB king, Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson, and Koko Taylor. Many blues fans also know of their local favorites but don’t know the current, young and talented blues musicians around. When many of us think
5 Living Blues Artists You Should Know Read More »
Luckily I feel like this question is fading away but I’ve heard it’s floating around still, “why are there no Blues dance elders” The answer to me has always been obvious. White people never picked it up. Yeah, I said it. I bet many of you are confused. What does white people liking a thing
Why are There no Blues Elders in the Dance Community? Read More »
I’ll be frank. Organizing, sucks. If you haven’t done it and you think you are going to change everything, sit down. This is common knowledge. What’s not as often said is that Organizing sucks because of dancers. There. I said it. To quote a friend, “Organizing is cleaning your house and only to open your
If Lindy Hop is Pure Joy, What Are We? Part 3 Read More »