Reflecting on Songs and Places
I am never late but somehow I was late to my first day of Songs and Places. I shuffled through the students in Wurster and made my way into class. The first thing I saw were my classmates huddled around a lamp above the center of the table. "What's your name?" said Tony. "Kimberly" I uttered. "Becerril!" exclaimed Tony. "You're Kevin Becerril's little sister! I recognized you after you smiled!" continued Tony. The conversation preceded into the place I grew up and how his grandmother is practically my neighbor. In those first minutes of class, I went from being totally frantic to feeling like I was talking to an old friend. In that moment I knew I was in the right place at the right time.
Having the opportunity to set time aside for my creatiåvity this semester helped me develop my art and kept me moving forward during difficult weeks. I learned to make art when I was not in the mood of it. Honestly my best pieces were created when I was not feeling very great. I let my emotions take over and documenting those moments helped me move on. It felt as though I had given that specific concern, thought, or emotion justice and the attention it deserved.
Tony's approach in teaching went beyond showing us the folk music by showing us the history that shaped and transformed it. Norton Juster, an American author, wrote this, "[t]he most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that." By "they" I am sure he was referring to Tony and his class. Tony approached this class by giving us a history of the people that made these folk songs. A sad history that exemplifies the complications of being a migrator, an African American, having a broken heart, etc. But also about the beautiful history of humans and our ability to fall in love and sing about the silliest things because they makes us happy.
The fact that we have the resources to know about these songs is attributed to the importance of documenting and having someone like Alan Lomax travel across the country recording music of the people experiencing the best, the worst, and the in between of living in the U.S. It also reveals the power the white man has on the black folk. Without Lomax artists like Leadbelly, a second time prisoner, might not be recognized today thus leaving a dent in our t knowledge of the people who represented a large scale of America.
Artist like Taj Mahal, Mississippi John Hurt (MJH), and Leadbelly, only to name a few were story tellers and historians. Taj Mahal's pride in his West Indian and African ancestry influenced his eclectic sounds. His incorporation of sounds from the Caribbean, South African, and the South Pacific changed the way Blues is played today. Although MJH was a musician since his childhood he became famous until his 70s. A large part results from recording in the beginning of the Great Depression. Another artist strongly affected by the time of his release was Woody Guthrie. The Dust Bowl pushed him and his family out of Oklahoma making him resonate with the common man. Because of his displacement, he was able to empathize with all of those who migrated away from their homes. Similar to Guthrie, who was portrayed as the common man, I see Leadbelly as the exemplary American black folk. The stigma Leadbelly never moved past because of his history as an ex-convict does not surprise me. Long after his claim to fame and his obvious change in lifestyle, he was constantly portrayed as the black convict.
Each of the songs we listened to taught me something different. Leadbelly's "In the Pines" for example pushed me to see beyond the lyrics and to form a story for myself. The song is about infidelity but it fails to reveal the other side of the story. For my piece I drew a female going from facing forward to crying. It is meant to be up for interpretation but my goal was to make my audience question where those tears are emerging from. Is it sadness from loving someone that is not healthy for her? Is it from feeling trapped? The possibilities are endless. I attribute this piece to Lida who always pushed the boundaries by unapologetically questioning, analyzing, and critiquing these songs throughout the semester.
After signing up for this class, the thought of sitting through a 4 hour long class seemed daunting. However, the songs that I learned, the singing that we did, and the various artistic interpretations that I saw made it all worthwhile. I feel lucky for the opportunity to be in a class where I was surrounded by classmates who shared their song interpretations each week. I looked forward to the differences and similarities amongst our artworks. Differences in a general sense were expected but the images some of my classmates produced for various weeks kept me pushing myself to think past what felt safe. Also the weeks where we all created similar artworks gave me a sense of universality in emotions.
After every class I walked out feeling like the class was all in my head and it could not possibly be real. Something that unless you went to class would be difficult to fully grasp and understand. With a professor who took interest in our life and the history of our origin, and who shared the stories of those he loved and those that shaped him makes this class incomparable. Thank you for a great semester Tony! I look forward to our dinner at Kingman.
