Frankie Manning

[oyceter]

Frankie Manning died today, at 94. He was one of the original Lindy hoppers in Harlem, and he was a major figure in its revival in the 1980s.

Racialicious has a post on Frankie Manning, Lindy hop, and cultural appropriation that I found interesting and on the mark, and I very much wish the Lindy communities I've been in were more aware of these issues, even as they preserve the dance. More than that, I wish the wider world were more aware of Lindy's origins in Black culture and music, since most of the images of Lindy these days are of middle-class white kids in the 1940s (Swing Kids, the Gap ads, etc.), not the Black dancers in the 1930s.

Still, I'm glad I got the chance to see Frankie a few months back, and I'm very glad to hear the big bash planned for his 95th birthday will continue.

Comments

[daedala]

Thank you for linking to the Racialicious post.

I have been wondering about that, in swing class, but it's not something I've felt able to ask about.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

I wish the wider world were more aware of Lindy's origins in Black culture and music,

CRAZY TALK!

[oyceter]

Yeah, me neither. I mean, I am glad that at least Lindy hoppers are fairly aware of the dance's history, but the community here is very white and Asian. Manning also mentions racism and Jim Crow in his biography, but he kind of glosses over it and focuses on the dancing instead, or just shrugs and says something like, "Those days were different."

[oyceter]

I know! If they did know, they might have to think about cultural appropriation and then heads would explode!

[dhobikikutti]

I saw this on the Seeing is Believing blog feed yesterday, and I sent it to our dance list serve.

(His was one of the pictures we had put up for the Black History month thing.)

You're so lucky to have seen him!

[kate_nepveu]

Great post--thanks for the link. *adds blog to feed reader*

[daedala]

I've tried to think of it, but I am not sure what to think! Um, at least it is American? I don't know. I have never actually watched the lindy hop clips before, mostly because a) aerials scare me and b) I'm not that great, and might find them discouraging. They're awesome, and yeah, kind of disturbing.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Huh, I knew some of that but not all of it. Interesting--thanks.

[lady_ganesh]

It's a really great blog, you won't regret it. :D

Race and class issues in the lindy community

[(Anonymous)]

We actually do think about these issues a lot actually in the lindy community. You can see on our discussion boards at http://yehoodi.com that we often talk about issues of race and class in our scene.

And have done various things to address them, from connecting with African-american cultural institutions, to organizing free lindy hop programs in African american neighborhoods, to celebrating the lives of prominent african-americans like Frankie Manning, Norma Miller and Dawn Hampton who helped create this dance.

Thanks for raising the concern though, which we all share.

Best,

Rik Panganiban
administrator, http://yehoodi.com

Re: Race and class issues in the lindy community

[oyceter]

Oh, yay, that's good to hear! I haven't been in the online community very much, and just from dancing locally and being on a few lists or so, I haven't seen much activity in the area I'm in (Bay Area, CA). Hopefully it is just because I am missing things, and not because they are not there.

[kore]

Aww, this is sad, but a great memory post -- and thank you for the link.

[oyceter]

Well, someone in the community commented and said they actually do talk about it on some online message boards, which is good. I haven't seen much of it in my local community or any outreach efforts on the mailing lists I'm on, but hopefully that is just my area.

Still, yeah. I don't really know what to do except to keep talking about it, especially since I haven't danced for a long time now, thanks to grad school.

[oyceter]

(His was one of the pictures we had put up for the Black History month thing.)

I saw! That made me so happy ^_^.

I'm really glad I went... it was one of those days I had trouble dragging myself out of the house, but I eventually did, thank goodness.