Corey @ I'll Keep You Posted

Yesterday, Today and Thanksgiving!

Half of the people in this family photo are now deceased.  The other half are now divorced, seperated by many miles or just plain tired and crazy.  There are a few key family members here, but this isn't half of (nor is it necessarily the core of) what and who we were.  I wasn't even born yet! 

I'm not totally comfortable posting vintage family photos (nor hardly any of myself) on this blog, so I'm not going to identify them.  Just consider it a rare glimpse into our past - a reflection of the way life used to be!  Reflections of the love life took from us!  And that's precisely why I'm so adamant about holding onto what remains, and keeping it very near and dear.

This Thanksgiving, hubby and I were invited to his brother's house for a so-called, low-key gathering of family members and a few of their friends.  We were grateful for the invitation and all we had to do was show up.  But nooooo!  I didn't feel too comfortable with that because I am the one who didn't want to be anywhere else other than with my own mother and sister.

As mom's primary caregiver, my sister had already decided they weren't going to have a big dinner for themselves this year.  My mother is very fragile and my sister is very tired and more to the point, time and money is very tight!  My sister deserves every blessing and every break that she can get, and I want to spend as much time and as many holidays as I can with Mom.  Sure, I realize that big dinners aren't even necessary anymore, but due to my own personal angst, that situation has changed.  Hubby and I have decided to take responsibility for the dinner this year even if we aren't actually preparing all of it.

Back in the 50's, when this photo was taken, our mother's and grandmother's usually slaved over a hot stove all day to prepare dinner for everybody.  Thank God we've gotten away from all that but I do think it's something everyone ought to experience at least once.  However, it's sooo not on my agenda this year! 

We'd actually like to have both families over for dinner at our house but until the kitchen (and the bathrooms) is removed from the "permanently under construction" list, we can't handle dinner guests of that magnitude.  When we are in that position, I will be able to control the atmosphere and the music and the guest list and the wine and the menu and everything.  I like being in control!  And they'll eat it all before it eats them!

Until then, we have to keep it traditional because some people just aren't going to have it any other way.  For me, it's all about keeping it simple but still having the basics.  Hubby said the food didn't matter as long as we have love and family and are thankful for what we've got.  Of course, he's right.  But I want to be comfortable and part of that comfort is making sure the menu is tight.  Call me bourgie if you like, but Kroger's will not be preparing my Thanksgiving dinner if I can help it, I'm sorry.

I'm tired of turkey but at least, we ordered one FRIED!  My sister decided to make the greens and the desserts, which are her specialties.  I'm making the candied yams, which is one of my specialties.  Hubby MIGHT make the macaroni & cheese, which is his ONLY specialty.  I also ordered some of the best buttermilk biscuits that you'll ever taste from a local bakery.  Since none of us are the best stuffing makers, I enlisted hubby's mother to make us a pan.  Her stuffing is to DIE FOR!  And it was the ONE THING my mouth was set for! 

She reneged!  I suppose her reasons were good enough.  We had to quickly make other arrangements, which I assure you, are ....... good enough!  But the mad rush back and forth spending money for this and that has already begun.  It's all a part of the capitalist game!  

No matter, Thursday morning will find me in my mother's kitchen, opening a good bottle of white bordeaux, whipping up a fabulous gravy and making those candied yams.  I'll be right where I want to be with those I love the most.  We'll reminisce about old times and send out love in Spirit to those who have left us.  It'll be the best we can afford to make it and it will be good enough.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

 

I LOVED YOU, SO LONG!

I am thoroughly fascinated by this painting!  Like so many others, I first saw it in the film I Loved You So Long (2008) and it has haunted me ever since.  Since I am often consumed with thoughts of loss and sorrow, I guess it rather makes sense.  They are feelings that I consistently feel and fight. 

Originally titled La Douleur (translated as pain in the film) it was painted by Emile Friant in 1889.  The painting is not about the movie and the movie is not about the painting.  Of Course, that sounds just like a French film, right?  However, it was used briefly in the movie to great effect as perfect metaphor for the sadness reflected by a few of the film's characters. 

Here, in the city of the dead, the men remove themselves to commiserate in stoic and private grief while the raw and barely restrained emotion of the widows in black is as dark and deep as the grave.

 

P90x, 1898

Nobody quite remembers exactly where they came from, but the panels shown here of a fit black male are thought to have been taken in Belgium between 1898 - 1900.  Another source sets the date even earlier to 1865.   Is he just posing?  Or is he exercising?  This is hardly Px90, but Lord Have Mercy - sometimes the more things change the more they stay the same!  And as you can see, that's obviously a good thing!

There's STILL Something About HARRY BELAFONTE!

Reading about Harry Belafonte is so much better than trying to write about Harry Belafonte!  I also occasionally like listening to his old records. But there are times when looking at him is even better than that! 

The first time that I tried to write about Harry Belafonte was in August, 2009 with a now-deleted post called There's Something About Harry!  All I basically wanted to do was post the photographs that I'm using here now.  Instead, I found myself in the trap of trying to write about a life that's just too huge for a simple blog post! At the time, I had a number of young readers that may not have known too much about Mr. Belafonte and for their sake, I found myself out there with a very discombobulated post.  At least that's what I tried to tell myself.

But who better to tell the story than the man himself? Within the pages of Belafonte's new autobiography, My Song: A Memoir is every reason why we continue to love the man.  It's a riveting book and of course, the most fascinating revelations are reserved for his work in the Civil Rights Movement and the relationship with Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.  And a few of those pages will make some readers a little uneasy.  Belafonte almost trashes Sammy Davis, Jr., but ultimately allows his admiration and respect for the man to remain intact.  I was personally happy that he broke his long-standing silence on Dorothy Dandridge even though it was little more than what some other writers have already told us. And for those who care, the subject of homosexuality has its own listing in the index!

Belafonte's observations on race, particularly as it pertains to his own choices and family dynamics are honest and appreciated.  His life-long, brotherman relationship with Sidney Poitier is treated with searing honesty and the disclosures on Mariam Makeba are quite surprising ... at least to me!  From the Bush administration to the King children no one is spared.  It is especially disheartening to learn how Bernice King's right-wing politics manipulated her mother's funeral and found "Uncle Harry" on the outside looking in.

I personally know of a few readers who will bemoan the fact that Belafonte did not address the rumors of his supposed decades-long "fued" with Lena Horne. Or respond to actress Ellen Holly's page-by-page rip of a new Belafonte asshole in her own book, One Life:  The Autobiography of an African American Actress.  Trivial matters to the great man, I'm sure!  Perhaps that's why there is no mention of the session that produced the accompanying photos used here for this post?

Harry Belafonte would probably think these pictures are silly!  But there ain't nothing silly about being the first seriously sexy black male matinee idol with his own active production company in Hollywood.  Dorothy Wilding didn't think so when she photographed the young singer/actor in all of his sultry splendor in New York, 1954.

DWTS: Alvin Ailey and Arthur Mitchell

Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) and Arthur Mitchell are the original gangstas of black dance as we know it today!  Only a few years apart in age, they were young brothers in spirit who came to prominence on the New York dance scene of the mid-1950's, and together they revolutionized dance.  As founding fathers of two of the most renowned modern dance companies, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater & The Dance Theater of Harlem, they literally flipped the script on what it meant to be a professional black dancer.  A black male dancer, in particular!  Their individual stories are quite well known and at this point, if I didn't say anything more about them it would be more than enough.  In fact, Nuff Said!

By chance, you should need to know more - google them, go to Youtube or read Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance by Jennifer Dunning. However, if you want to glimpse these two brilliant young men at the beginning of their careers, then be my guest!

The following photographs of the artists were taken in 1955 (Ailey) and 1956 (Mitchell) respectively.  As we have seen in previous posts, Carl Van Vechten was always there to document the occasion!

 

The Dance Theater of Harlem has produced an outstanding number of students who've graduated to successful careers as dancers, musicians, technicians in production, stage and wardrobe, as well as arts administration.  In this video clip, Arthur Mitchell takes us back to the beginning.  The man is fabulous & the full interview is riveting!  Watch it in its entirety on Youtube.

 

Drawing on the blues, jazz and the spirituals, the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater produced many moving and intense theatrical spectacles such as Revelations!  Here is an emotional interpretation of one of the movements from Ailey's signature piece, performed at the master's funeral at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 1989.

 

 

 

 

DWTS: Lenwood Morris & Claude Marchant

The male dance diva who would eventually become the ballet master for the Katherine Dunham Company was a self-described Queen!  Grand & graceful, they say he was also warm and kind with a sense of humor.  Although delicate and small-boned, Lenwood Morris maintained a fierce dignity in a time when openly gay men consistently faced open ridicule.  A former dental student, he was thoroughly professional with a flawless memory for detail.  With so many characteristics that duly impressed the keen sensibilities of the demanding Miss D, Morris quickly established himself within the company.

A member of the troupe since the early 1940's, Morris became one of the principal leads and character actors in many of Dunham's signature productions.  He was featured prominently in the stage production of Cabin in the Sky and in the film production of Stormy Weather. With great intensity, Morris danced the role of Baron Samedi, one of the loa of Haitian Voodoo with a particular sexual relish. 

Katherine Dunham and her dancers turned the heads of many from the least to the greatest, and Miss D wasn't the only one rumored to have received expensive gifts from millionaire playboys.  On at least one occasion, Lenwood Morris captured the fancy (and in turn the family jewels) of the son of a certain German emperor.  At least that's the rumor! 

Talented and intelligent, Lenwood Morris found his calling in dance with a career that lasted well into his senior years until the loss of a leg.

 

Miss Dunham's company often created its own stars that extended way beyond the group with the likes of Morris, Vanoye Aikens, Archie Savage and especially Eartha Kitt. Claude Marchant (below) should be added to that list! 

Some sources say he was born in the Caribbean but others say he was American born.  Marchant was also a star dancer and choreographer with Dunham in the 1940's.  In the 1950's, Jet magazine tried to imply that he was one of heiress Doris Duke's many boy toys. 

But like so many other blacks at that time, Claude Marchant found himself in Europe just in order to continue his career.  Marchant eventually opened a popular studio in Sweden where he died in 2004.  He is buried in a double plot with one Dennis J. Wiley who died in 1994 (?).

All photographs shown here were taken by Carl Van Vechten in the 1940's.

 

DWTS: Geoffrey Holder Stikes A Balance!

One thing that I pride myself on with this blog is the ability to often present what I think are unique perspectives on African American culture and same-gender stories.  Hence, I admire and respect the subject of this post and I think I've done that in the past with him (see A HOLDER BROTHER BY ANY OTHER NAME!).  Yet, for some reason he continues to baffle me.  Maybe because he's just too magnificent to be categorized. Right off the bat, I can say that he is a dancer, model, author, recording artist, choreographer, photographer, designer, renaissance man, legend and icon. Woe and whoa to the man who thinks those vintage 7-up cola nut commercials is all there is!  For all of the reasons listed, I am loath to do a biographical sketch.

I've devised no unique way to share the following photos other than to just present them!  You may have seen them before so thus, you will recognize the photography of Carl Van Vechten.

Van Vechten wasn't necessarily a professional photographer and never sold his work for money.  Most of his photographs have a very charming amateurish appeal that lack the originality and gloss of contemporaries like George Platt Lynes. 

Feverishly drawn to young black male dancers, Van Vechten captured a young Alvin Ailey, Arthur Mitchell, countless unknowns and scores of Katherine Dunham dancers like Linwood Morris and Archie Savage.  The images here of Holder were shot in 1954.

Hazel Carby, the black feminist scholar, has argued that men like Van Vechten projected their fetish with black men with "a fascination with the dangerous potential for violence and anger within the black male body at the expense of concern with the violence and anger acted upon it." By presenting black men as more seductive, there is the suggestion that it softens or lessens that presumed threat of menace.  Say what you will about the man's intent & his work, we are still indebted to his forwardness in preserving and archiving African Americans on film during a time when many others could have cared less (or did not possess the resources to do so).

Holder also has a keen eye for beauty.  He has been married to the amazing and lovely Carmen de Lavallade since 1955.  We must also consider this glorious shot taken in Port Au Spain. A member of his brother Boscoe's dance troupe, Holder captured this island brotha with his camera in 1948.  His name may have been lost to time but his beauty is timeless.  In stark contrast to Van Vechten, we see how naturalness and lack of exoticism is also proof that beauty is in the eye of the ... beHOLDER!

 

 

DWTS: Did Juante (Allen) Meadows Dance with Devils?

His youth has always disturbed me.  Especially when one stops to consider the very explicitly adult, very sexual and practically all-white circles that he found himself in.  But one might also consider that if Juante Allen Meadows hadn't of wanted to be there for as long as he was, he wouldn't have been.  Even during the post-Harlem Renaissance period, there were still active networks of prominent men (of both races) in the arts working to forge racial and sexual ties.  And since almost nothing is known about Meadows, perhaps he was a complicit, willing participant?  Still, he just looks so YOUNG until it HURTS!

Yet, he looks so UNLIKELY!  He was skinny and underdeveloped with long arms and a lanky body. He was black-skinned during a time when light skin was more prized. He was kinky-haired and had big lips. REAL BIG LIPS!  He lacked polish. Okay, the brotha was ROUGH!  But that's the way men like author, social critic, photographer and honorary Negro, Carl Van Vechten liked it.  PRIMITIVE: the blacker and closer to Africa the better! 

Although the youngster harbored a desire to become a dancer, it is said that the talented sculpter, Richmond Barthe, a black homosexual man, originally hired Meadows as a model in the mid-1930's.  Indeed, Allen Meadows posed for at least one of the sculpter's signature pieces. Perhaps Meadows thought he could use modeling as a stepping stone toward his ultimate goal of becoming a dancer?  Supposedly, with Barthe's recommendation, Meadows went on to pose for Carl Van Vechten (who could have easily met him on one of many late nights trolling Harlem in search of black flesh).   After a few years, Van Vechten told Langston Hughes that he helped Allen Meadows get a job dancing with the Katherine Dunham Dance Company.  But there is no record of his ever being associated with Dunham.

Nobody seems to know what happened next!  All we know is what we see through the lens of Van Vechten's camera; a wide-eyed but sullen young man, seemingly disassociated and indifferent to what's happening around him. Constantly wrapped in loincloth and paired with a pimple-faced ballet dancer from England, he looked tired and bored.  By kissing African masks and allowing himself to be tied up naked outside to a tree in some kind of sexual lynch-fantasy, Meadows became the living embodiment of Van Vechten's dual admiration & demeaning sexual interests.  Thus, Meadows inhabited spaces between race and homosexuality that are still, unfortunately, prevalent today.

After a nebulous relationship with the photographer, his lighting assistant Mark Lutz, the owner of the estate where many of the photos (now regarded as homoerotic) were taken, pairings with Laing, and the select cadre of men (black and white) who collected the photos - who wouldn't be tired? 

And if the proof is in the photos, we certainly know why it didn't work out with Miss Dunham!  I've never seen Juante Allen Meadows bust a move, but he sure did try to strike a pose.