This won't be the last post on my blog, as I'm going to keep it updated throughout my dissertation. I've barely even started reading through the material I gathered in the US so there will be so much more to write about.
Our short time in Birmingham Alabama was made wonderful by meeting up with musician, fig-grower, newspaper-producer, dancer, radio presenter, and all-round lovely guy Bob Friedman (a contact passed onto me by Professor Brian Ward, American studies professor at Northumbria University.) Bob set aside his entire day to drive us round the city, showing us the Birmingham Jazz Hall of Fame where he works, his Birmingham black radio museum project which will one day be a museum too, the Vulcan museum which had gorgeous views of the city, and taking us out for dinner to a BBQ place with his lovely friend Margo. Birmingham had even more Jazz than we realised, the Hall of Fame was a wonderful place to learn about its musical history. I even saw a photo of Julian Dash, once a member of the Jenkins orphanage band who I'd been reading about a few days before in Charleston, with Erskine Hawkins (co-writer of the song 'Tuxedo Junction'). Infact, Dash is also credited as writing part of the song too. Before we left to catch a train further south the next day we managed to catch some of the Jazz band rehearsals happening in the Carver Theater, also part of the Jazz hall of fame.
Me, Bob and Joseph infront of a model of Fess Whatley, a famous Birmingham Jazz musician.
New Orleans was amazing, of course. Labelled aptly as the 'big easy' and the birthplace of Jazz, it is impossible not to enjoy any length of time there. It's the only place I have previously visited in the USA, and I loved it so much I wanted to go back with Joseph. We shopped, partied, dined, experienced its famous nightlife on Frenchmen street (you might have heard of Bourbon Street, but we took the hostels advice and went to Frenchmen where the locals go, and heard some fantastic live music - Joseph signed up to play Bass at a jam session and got to play with the locals!), we made friends from all-over the world in our hostel, and went on a swamp tour down the Louisiana bayou - one of the highlights of the whole holiday.
Joe is on Bass guitar on the right
Holding Elvis, a baby alligator, on the swamp tour.
Hostel buddies!
It's been the best five weeks of my life without a doubt. I miss America. I've always said I was born in the wrong continent. For all the hardships and the inequality that still goes on today, there is something about the country that gives you hope for a better life, and a taste for freedom. We all know Jefferson declared every man to be created free and equal, whilst owning slaves himself. And yet we also know that if many could have seen a way around the fear and uncertainty of what would happen if they freed their slaves, many would have done so very quickly. America is moving forwards, there is sadly no country on earth where every person is seen as equal on all aspects, though some are closer than others. We came across the gay Pride parade in Charleston by accident, and I knew it was the first year where same sex couples are allowed to marry in the state of South Carolina, having followed LGBT rights. It's slow, but it's progress, and America is moving in the right direction. In the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, I bought a badge that says 'Rosa sat so that Martin could walk. Martin walked so that Barrack could run. Barrack ran so that our children could fly' - and it's true, the history of America is a history of pain, and loss, and of terrible wars, but it is also one of hope. You can't walk five minutes in Washington D.C or Philadelphia without reading the words of the Declaration or the Constitution and remembering the principles that this great country was founded upon. The recent shootings in Charleston are a tragic reminder of how far race relations still have to go, but standing at the foot of the giant statue of Lincoln filled me with such a feeling of optimism that was hard to ignore.
I still have a lot of work to do on my project. My travel is over, but in the coming year I'll have to turn everything I've found into a dissertation, and I'm excited to do that. I'm still not entirely sure how I'll even turn this into a poster for the scholarship. I'll be up in Newcastle later this week for a poster-help day led by the scholarship team which should help!
I do have some answers but I also have even more questions. I applied for my scholarship stating that I was looking into audience reactions to Jazz music, and the hundreds of newspaper articles I've read have given me just that. Without looking through all my research, off the top of my head, I think it was the music and the Jazz that saved these people and brought them away from the negative connotations of slavery. I've found the musical heritage of America absolutely fascinating, how black people were able to be seen as more than just their skin colour; in a way, music allowed them to be seen as people. They were not just 'negros' to be looked down upon and pushed out of their homes. They had skills that impressed, and made white people want to emulate them. Perhaps this is why music is featured so heavily in the civil rights era of the 1960s; because music gives people a voice that otherwise might not be heard. I've often heard similar phrases to that, but to really understand you have to experience it yourself, and now I really understand what music can do. In a way I started my musical journey through American history by volunteering with Journey to Justice and being involved in events and the exhibition that showcased the power of music in 1960s America. And my personal journey of course has only just begun, I have the rest of my life to keep on learning, and to keep on singing and playing and delivering the joy of music to others.
If you've kept up with my blog, thanks for reading, and for your support, and thankyou to everyone who has made it possible for me and Joseph to travel to the USA this summer and have the best time of our lives!
And watch this space, I've only just started!
The Lincoln memorial
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