Fundamental Juju: Teaching American Slavery toward the Inculcation of Soul in Middle School Jazz Studies, Pt. 1

Inspired by an interview on KQED with Carl Anthony, author of The Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race, yesterday I spoke about the origin of Wall Street with my middle school music students. They were glued to every word. In the part of the interview that I happened to hear, I was struck by Karl's discussion on the grave of 20,000 enslaved Africans found buried on Wall Street. I decided to share this information with my students and related it to the importance and value of understanding the ancestry of those whose experiences as enslaved persons are the fundamental juju of the music we are studying, so-called Jazz and by extension all Black music. We teach our students to play the notes, memorize scales for improvisation, learn the standards, play the Blues, but seldom do we access the resource of the legacies and experiences of enslaved African Ancestors, seldom do we embark on the excavation of memory, knowledge, understanding toward the cultivation of Soul: that thing that makes the music swing. Ellington already told us that It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got that SWING!

The experience I am writing about is a common occurrence in my teaching. I'll have a profound experience, then something shows up that shores up and validates the transmission I received in my teaching space. So, after yesterday's deep dive into the deep well of Soul left to us by our enslaved ancestors, that morning I opened today's issue of Inside UW and found an article about the development of a framework for teaching American slavery in middle & high school classrooms. I find this framework, Teaching Hard History: American Slavery to be a robust, much-needed resource for teachers, parents, and youth workers. It was inspired by the book, Understanding and Teaching American Slavery. Though this book is intended for advanced high school and college classrooms, it presents 10 essential key concepts that can guide the development of curriculum at all levels. These concepts became the basis for the Teaching Hard History framework.

I have clicked through the links and found a plethora of resources, complete with podcasts, teaching resources and tools, an assessment quiz, primary source texts, and a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center on "the failure of textbooks, state standards, and pedagogy to adequately address the role slavery played in the development of the United States — or how its legacies still influence us today." I'm sure a critique of the book and the curriculum framework is ensuing, but so far, I am of the opinion that it's a good start toward addressing the deafening silence in school curricula on the truth of the enslavement of Africans and the Atlantic Trade's role in the development of the United States and European economies and capitalism. But at the end of the day, it's all about cultivating that Fundamental Juju! Fundamental Juju?! More on that later. Stay tuned.

Until then, Stay Woke, y'all! Make today a life worth living.

Peace to all.

Angela