All That Jazz

The word for today is ataraxia. It’s a noun meaning a state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety; tranquillity.

Ya know what would bring me some luscious ataraxia right now? Some sweet ragtime—that’s what!

Scott Joplin: The Red Back Book is an album by the New England Ragtime Ensemble and was one of the first LPs I bought. Joplin was the gateway to Jelly Roll Morton, Eubie Blake, Bix Beiderbecke and more.

How did the famed (infamous?) Jelly Roll Morton get his name? At 14 he was playing piano in New Orleans brothels—“jelly roll” was 19th century slang for *ahem* lady garden. Apropos, no?

In 1938, Morton was stabbed while working at The Music Box (in Washington D.C.). He was rushed to a hospital where he was refused treatment as the hospital was for whites-only, and then when he was finally brought to a hospital that would treat him, a lot of damage was already done. (source) 

Henry Ossawa Tanner

Ring Shout, the tradition

Ring Shout is the earliest form of resistance that African Americans embraced in the United States. It is an African diaspora dance form, meaning that it is a dance and cultural form that was developed away from the continent of Africa, but created by the descendants of African people, with significant African influences. …The Ring Shout was practiced in the back woods, barns or cabins on the plantations, or in the slave quarters in urban areas, by the enslaved people. The tradition was practiced in the late evening/night hours to maintain its secrecy. In an era when the enslaved people received no time to properly mourn and/or bury the deceased, the Ring Shouts were performed as a ritual to honor the ancestors. The Ring Shout provided the suffering enslaved people unification and cultural fortification.
~~~
Practitioners of the Ring Shout sing and move around in a counterclockwise circle…The circle represents life energy and its infinite cycle, which may change in quality but is never broken. The counterclockwise direction in Ring Shout tradition honors the ancestors, since this direction specifically connects beings to the ancestral realm. This may be viewed by some as a way of reversing or traversing time in order to unite with spirits. (source)

I just finished the book Ring Shout, or, Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times by P. Djèlí Clark.

In this dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan's reign of terror, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. (source)

It imagines the monstrously evil Ku Klux Klan as more than a collection of viciously vile, repulsive examples of humanity. Actual demons make up half or more of the KKK's ranks. (A bit on the nose, eh?) The nonhuman, infernal Klansmen feed on the hate burning through their white robed human’s veins.

You see, the hate they give is senseless. They already got power. Yet they hate those over who they got control, who don’t really pose a threat to them. Their fears aren’t real—just insecurities and inadequacies. (source)

Insecurities and inadequacies which have been weaponized by micro-dicked, money and power mad Republicans.

If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.
~ LBJ