Learn about Jazz & Blues

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Jazz and Blues, both music and dance, are a product of the lives, experiences, pain, and joy of Black people in the United States. To understand the themes, emotions, and values in Jazz and Blues, we must see them in the context of Black American experiences. For those of us who aren't Black Americans, learning about Black American history and culture should be an ongoing part our journey as dancers and people. Below are some resources to help with this process.
Video preview
Blues and Jazz Dance Book Club (includes reading lists)
Music as Metaphor - Wynton Marsalis at Harvard
Ken Burns Jazz Documentary Part 1
Blues dance video playlist
StoryTime with Chester Whitmore: Untold Story of Jazz and Blues in America
Swingin’ in Time: Dancers’ and Musicians’ Perpetual Negotiation of Time and Space with LaTasha Barnes and Christi Jay Wells
A Landscape of Slow Drag by Julie Brown | Mandarin translation
 
📣 For instructors
Teaching Race & Dance History with Karida Griffith
“A Blueprint For Cultural Inclusion” A Guideline for Instructors Teaching Black American Cultural Music and Dance Forms
 

People & Organizations

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The global Blues and Jazz dance scenes are often disconnected from the Black American roots of these dances. There are a lot of people working to change this - to reconnect the branches to the roots. Check out some of these people and organizations below.
CVFC - Collective Voices for Change
BLHF - Black Lindy Hoppers Fund
Ujima Blues Foundation
Obsidian Tea - A Blackness and Blues Blog
Guardian Dance Company
Moving History ✅ 501(c)3 nonprofit
The Harlem Swing Dance Society ✅ 501(c)3 nonprofit
Urban artistry ✅ 501(c)3 nonprofit
California Jazz and Blues Museum ✅ 501(c)3 nonprofit
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem ✅ 501(c)3 nonprofit
Intangible Roots with Professor Moncell Durden
Move Together: Dancing Towards Inclusivity & Global Social Justice
Frankie Manning Foundation
Cleveland Junior Jitterbugs
HellaBlackLindyHop
Odysseus Bailer
 

Support Racial Justice

Count Basie in Tallahassee, Florida civil rights protests, December 1963 from Florida Memory
Count Basie in Tallahassee, Florida civil rights protests, December 1963 from Florida Memory
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Black dance and music come from Black people. If we care about the music, we should also care about the people. Black lives should matter to every decent human being. If Lindy Hop, Blues, or any other form in the Black dance diaspora matters to us, then it is even more specifically imperative that we join the ongoing fight for Black lives. Below are some of the organizations fighting for equality and justice for Black people in the United States and around the world.
About Us_ - NBJC
NBJC's mission is to end racism, homophobia, and LGBTQ/SGL bias and stigma. National Black Justice Coalition_ Since 2003, the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) has been America's leading national civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+, and same gender loving (LGBTQ+/SGL) people, including people living with HIV/AIDS through coalition building, federal policy change, research, and education.
About Us_ - NBJC
https://nbjc.org/nbjcabout-us/
About Us_ - NBJC
Higher Purpose Co. | Building Community Wealth through Ownership!
Higher Purpose Co mission is to build community wealth with Black residents in Mississippi by supporting the ownership of financial, cultural, and political power. Our theory of change is anchored by an integrated model: asset building , narrative change , and advocacy .
Higher Purpose Co. | Building Community Wealth through Ownership!
https://higherpurposeco.org/
Higher Purpose Co. | Building Community Wealth through Ownership!
Achieving Racial Justice Through Litigation, Advocacy and Education
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is America's premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans.
Achieving Racial Justice Through Litigation, Advocacy and Education
https://www.naacpldf.org/about-us/
Achieving Racial Justice Through Litigation, Advocacy and Education
The Okra Project
The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them. During the Middle Passage, our African ancestors snuck okra onto captive ships to sustain themselves and plant in the new world.
The Okra Project
https://www.theokraproject.com/
The Okra Project
Donate to Our Mutual Aid Ecosystem Rooted in Restorative Land Justice
Help Us Preserve Black Custodial Landownership, Ecological Stewardship, and Food and Fiber Cooperative Economies in the South. Over the decades, numerous Black-led nonprofit institutions have attempted to address the steady erosion of the African American agricultural land base and intergenerational wealth; however, their efforts have been unsustainable due to perpetual o...
Donate to Our Mutual Aid Ecosystem Rooted in Restorative Land Justice
https://acresofancestry.networkforgood.com/projects/100534-main-giving-page
Donate to Our Mutual Aid Ecosystem Rooted in Restorative Land Justice
Learn - Thousand Currents
While women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples contribute least to large-scale, global problems like climate change, inequality, poverty, and broken food systems, they often are the most impacted by them. However, with enough support and resources, everyday people are shaping proven and powerful local solutions to our shared and urgent global challenges.
Learn - Thousand Currents
https://thousandcurrents.org/about/
Learn - Thousand Currents
blacklivesmatter.com
https://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/
 

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