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Black El Paso Voice

All Things Black in El Paso

Abeni Janae

Calling All Artistic Specialists! Join us in Shaping the Future of Young Black Artistic Visionaries!

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Attention artists specializing in painting, writing, music, dance, and other art forms! We invite you to join our mission of shaping the next generation of Black youth who are artistic visionaries from the ages of five to 18 years old.

No matter your creative expertise, whether it’s in painting, writing, music, dance, acting, or any other art form, your unique skills are highly valued. We are seeking individuals like you to become mentors and make a significant impact on the aspiring young artists of today.

By sharing your knowledge, experience, and passion, you can guide these talented individuals on their artistic journeys, helping them unlock their full potential. Together, we can create a community that celebrates creativity and nurtures the growth of future creative trailblazers.

If you’re ready to make a difference and contribute to the artistic legacy of tomorrow, we encourage you to join us as a mentor. Please contact Brandy Wyche at brandy@blackelpasovoice.com to learn more or express your interest.

Let’s come together to shape the future of art and inspire the next generation of Black artistic visionaries!

Black Music Month 2023

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Henry Ossawa Tanner's image for Harper's Young People, Dec 5, 1893 page 84.jpg

It has become a common practice for event organizers to employ jazz musicians and focus exclusively on jazz music for occasions that commemorate Black History or celebrate Black culture. Those occasions include events like Black History Month, Juneteenth, and Black Music Appreciation Month.

While jazz music is a significant part of Black history and culture as it pertains to music, to relegate the acknowledgment and appreciation of said history and culture through only jazz music only places it in a box. 

To understand the foundation of Black music, you must first understand the foundation of Black culture, which was during slavery. Back then, enslavers would repress and restrict enslaved Africans from their culture as a form of control.

The resistance of enslaved people from this control led to the retention of African culture and the birthplace of practices and customs of a new African American culture. One of the main points of this newly developing culture was music, specifically spirituals.

Spirituals are songs that at the time, were often sang during religious and communal gatherings. People passed down spirituals orally, and although some spirituals were songs of worship, pleading, and storytelling, others served as coded messages of resistance and escape.

Many defining aspects of spirituals, such as polyrhythms, “the shout,” and “call-and-response,” evolved into Black gospel music.            

During the 1930s, Black gospel music started to reach larger audiences across the U.S., At the same time, jazz music was beginning to take off to new levels, quickly evolving and expanding in different subgenres and styles every decade.

We also start to see the emergence of genres such as blues, which evolved into rhythm and blues, and then eventually rock and roll music. As history progresses, so does music, with genres such as soul and funk.

When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed, Black musicians began crossing over into other genres, making names for themselves in pop, psychedelic rock, and even classical music; this brings us to the modern day and the point of this article.

Black music and musicians have evolved and expanded much farther than the roots of jazz in the 1930s. Not acknowledging that when talking about Black music is to place us in a stereotypical box of jazz music being all we’re known and good for.

Of course, we cannot ignore the place jazz, and Black jazz musicians have in our history, as its foundation was rooted in the resistance against Western European norms. Many Black jazz musicians had to fight for their rightful place on the stage and airwaves, from segregated bars to major stages like Carnegie Hall. However, we must look at history and see the other genres of music that became the resounding anthems of not just Black culture but Black resistance from the Civil Rights era up to the modern day.

I remember one specific occasion when organizers approached me to perform at a Black History Month event. However, because the event’s theme was centered around jazz, I was restricted to performing only jazz music.

There was such irony in having a Black History Month event where jazz music was the only thing allowed on the program because the theme for Black History Month was Black Resistance. Jazz music is not the only defining music genre of Black history, culture, or resistance.

And to be completely transparent, jazz music in the modern day has taken a backseat in terms of the music highlighting civil rights and injustice towards Black people.

To have music events to “acknowledge and appreciate” Black music, history, and culture, but the only music highlighted is jazz, is a slap in the face in various ways. It shows a lack of care to think beyond the scope of jazz music when thinking about Black music and musicians.

It also gives off the message to Black musicians who are not involved in the jazz scene that we are forgotten and not thought about. We are more than just jazz musicians.

We’re even more than just R&B, gospel, and soul musicians.

We are classical performers.

We are musical theatre performers.

We are country singers.

We are indie artists.

 We are Rockstars.

There are Black musicians in every genre of music, and it is important to acknowledge that. So, for Black Music Appreciation Month, appreciate the Black artists in pop, punk, country, metal, musical theatre, etc.

And if you want to celebrate and acknowledge Black music and musicians by hosting an event, I encourage you to seek out Black performers from across ALL genres of music, not just jazz.   

Read the White House Proclamation for Black Music Month

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/05/31/a-proclamation-on-black-music-month-2023/

Spirituals vs Minstrelsy

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African American spirituals are one of, if not the most important genres of American music as they are the foundation of African American culture and music. Now, what exactly are spirituals? They are songs written by African Americans who were enslaved during the 18th and 19th centuries. They were often sung in religious and communal gatherings as a way to worship and to have coded messages of resistance and escape.       

Now another genre of music that emerged during the 19th and 20th century were minstrels. Minstrelsy is the act of portraying stereotypes of Black people in the most extreme racist fashion. Back then, there were minstrel shows where white actors would make themselves look like a caricature of Black people by doing Blackface, which involved painting their skin black and making a large red outline around their lips. They would also make fun of how Black people spoke by exaggerating the dialect, which we know as vocal Blackface. With minstrel shows came minstrel songs, which exaggerated spiritual lingo and musical aspects. While most minstrel songs are no longer performed due to their racist nature, some are still in circulation under the “American folk songs” genre.       

We live in a time now where minstrel songs are no longer performed due to their racist nature, with the main point being about the vocal Blackface. However, there still needs to be more clarity about how appropriate it is for non-Black people to perform spirituals with the traditional African American dialect. As a Black musician born and raised here in El Paso, saying there is a lack of education regarding spirituals, Black culture, and music, in general, is an understatement. Therefore, it makes sense to have clarity and clarification on whether it is appropriate to pronounce the words as written in spirituals. The answer is yes, and here is why:      

Spirituals should be approached and taught like any other genre of music. That includes doing the correct dialect written by the composer. To perform a dialect other than written would be an erasure of culture and history. Instead of shying away from it due to being unfamiliar with the dialect, understand that it is the way it is because that’s how African Americans spoke during those times. It’s the same concept when learning diction for a song in another language, such as Italian, German, French, Spanish, or Latin.       

For directors of choirs whose demographic is largely non-Black, I offer this advice regarding teaching spirituals: Teach them about the history of spirituals and the difference between minstrelsy and spirituals. Have them understand that performing the dialect written in a spiritual by a Black composer is not an act of minstrelsy, and to perform it without that dialect would be an insult. Understand their initial hesitancy due to the lack of exposure and understanding of Black history, culture, and music, and hear their questions; a discussion can be had, and everyone can understand better.         

As a Black composer who has arranged spirituals, I would personally be offended if my spiritual arrangements were not performed with the traditional dialect as written. As I see it, Black people have worked tirelessly for our proper place to be seen, heard, and accepted. It is the same plight regarding Black music and Black musicians. Not performing the music as it was written would be an erasure of that history and a rejection of where and how it all started.       

Moving forward, this helps both choral educators and singers understand the context behind the dialect in spirituals and be more receptive to conversations about it.

Fisk Jubilee Singers - Image: Public Domain
VA minstrel show. Image: Public Domain