Traditions: Ohio Heritage Fellows; 301; Linda Thomas Jones interview, part 4 of 4

Q:

LINDA: Finish my college education. I'm about 29 credits away from a degree. I haven't been able to finish it because of money, uh, Case Western Reserve wants their final payments that I don't have and then I don't have money to... at this point in time to finish that, that what kept my whole life off to finish my degree.

Q:

LINDA: Liberal Arts, yeah. And, then I'd like to go on and get a degree in, um, music therapy, that's the ultimate goal because I'm already doing it but I'm not getting paid for it in monetary, I'm getting paid otherwise but not moneywise. So, those two things I'd like to complete, um, I'm also writing a, um, what do you call it? A manual for teachers, how to teach African drums without numbers. I'd like to complete that but of course, that takes money also.

Q:

LINDA: My legacy is for my people to understand how wonderful we are in particular for my children and the children to come, how wonderful we are. And, what our, um, our people have given to the world not just here but to the world, the accomplishments that we've made. Um, I would like for everyone to understand the importance of drumming (CAR SOUND)

RESTART

I'd like for everyone to understand the importance of each other's culture. I would like for everyone to understand that what affects one child affects all children and in particular, politicians who make certain decisions about our environment, I tell them, what affects my children will affect your children from now on. So, when you make your decisions don't base them just on how much profit you can make or your company can make but the legacy you want to leave for this planet and building things to go up into space to get away from here is not gonna help because if you trash this you're gonna trash that. So, my thing is everybody needs to understand we're all connected. There... and another thing is religion is just a religion, spirit is spirit. There is one downtown Cleveland but there's many ways to get to downtown Cleveland and so with that there's many ways to reach the spirit. Religion and war should not be in the same sentence. So, I just want everybody to understand each other, to progress in a good way.

Q:

LINDA: It's all over and a lot of my rhythm... excuse me... a lot of my rhythms, um, I make up. You know, because at first I wasn't being taught by anybody so I had to let the drum teach me and I'd sit and I'd play the drum for hours all by myself and each day they'd go, okay, play this and because I'm so in touch with my ancestors (CAR SOUND) often times the ancestors will tell me what to play and how to play it and then when I get in a group and they'll start playing that rhythm, I'm playing right along with 'em cause I already know it. I teach some, um, Brazilian stuff, I teach some from West Africa, um, yeah.

Q:

LINDA: My children don't play.

Q:

LINDA: No, they don't play. My granddaughter is a dancer, an exquisite dancer but the rest of the family, my daughter used to dance, she danced with the company, uh, my son used to dance, he's in the video but they don't do any... my son is an artist, he's a visual artist and so is my granddaughter. My, my daughter she works with children, she works for Starting Point which is dealing with, uh, children in preschool and daycare, so we're in the same business, children. That's pretty much it, you know, and being in this space as my first venture as a business, um, I'm learning a lot about how much I don't know about business, um, but I'm also understanding that I was placed here not to make money so much, I have to pay the rent but as a community resource, uh, in fact when they asked me about putting something in their newsletter about whether I'm service or retail, I said, this is service. You know, I got some stuff in here to draw people in to look around but what goes on in that room in that drum room, that's the most important thing. And, most of the people in my class will tell you she pulled me in off the street, I was just walking by and she made me come in, I couldn't resist her, I came in and I haven't stopped coming since then and I'm glad she made come in.

END