Traditions: Ohio Heritage Fellows; 301; Linda Thomas Jones interview, part 3 of 4

Q:

LINDA: That means that I'm not just in it for the money, I'm in it for the community, uh, and my community is huge. It's not just this area here, it's for whatever community I build within the city of Cleveland and even beyond there. Um, lots of folks have forgotten about community because we've gotten so spread out from each other. For me, what you'll see on Wednesday, my community comes from all over, ages, colors, ethnicity, all of that. So, that's community for me.

Q:

LINDA: We should know about each other's cultures, period, not just African culture, uh, uh, I'm interested in Asian cultures, I'm interested in Slovenians, I'm interested in Jewish people because the more we understand about each other the more we can get along. If you understand what I've been through as a person and as a people you can go, hum, I didn't know that, that's why you act like that, that's why you respond that way, now I understand. However, if you don't then you take it personal, like, you know, you're doing that on purpose, you're just a nasty negative person and it's not necessarily true, it's what I've been through that you're seeing and hearing.

Q:

LINDA: Well, I'll speak for African-Americans, I don't know about anybody else and I, I kinda hit on it earlier the fact that once being brought to here African people were stripped of their culture, period. The drumming, the dancing, the singing, the way we worship and we were told that all of that was negative and primitive and that we shouldn't do it, we should not play the drums (CAR HORN) okay, so given that fact and I'm 68 years old and going back to when I was a child the only person I saw or people that I saw that looked like me on T.V. were this so called Africans in the Tarzan movies, in the Tarzan show. And, those were what we called the Ooga Booga People cause they talked like that, ooga, booga, ooga and I looked at those people and my father looked at those people and my grandmother looked at those people and they said, were not related to those people, I'm definitely not an African person. My father told me over and over again, you are not an African because this society made it look so horrible to look like that, to be that person. And, so when I started teaching the classes I had more Caucasians that would come to the class than I did African-Americans because somehow more Caucasian people understood the value of the drumming and the dance as healing arts, they understood almost immediately whereas we were saying, I'm good, I don't need to do that. I'm gonna play violin, I'm gonna take my kid to the violin class, I'm gonna take my daughter to the ballet class, I'm not gonna do any of that African stuff. Now, all of a sudden we have the Black Panther movie and all of a sudden we have more parents bring their children to me because of the Black Panther movie, more of them are putting on dashiki's and clothes. I've been doing this 48 years, I've been trying to get people to dress right but it was a move and I'm grateful to it, that finally did it. So, now they want to know about their culture and the other piece is if you are a person of color and you think that your or your whole history (INAUDIBLE STUMBLE) started as a slave you don't want to have anything to do with it.

Q:

LINDA: Wonderful. Like I said, I'm leaving a footprint and that's the main thing is the way we achieve immortality is when people keep calling your name. As soon as they stop and they forget about you... Joppo Dance Company, Dance Africa Dance Company, um, African Soul who is international in California, they were all my companies, they all came out of me. Dance Africa Dance, the wife of the owner of that company was in my company. So, and it continues, now, uh, African Soul International her children have their own companies so that means I've gone from a momma to a grandma to a great-grandma in terms of the tradition.

Q:

LINDA: ... and they're there... they come into that, that facility five days a week. Um, some of 'em are high-end functioning, others have schizophrenia and, um, they're here and then they're not here, um, they provide food for them every single day, a meal, art classes, the drum classes twice a week, this is my second year of doing it with them. Um, what else? They take 'em to get their hair done, um, clothes, they take care of all their needs and I just come in and play drums.

Q:

LINDA: They love it, they absolutely love it. Um, you'll hear them when you come tomorrow, talk to them, ask them how they feel about it, they'll tell you, um, how it's changed them. I had one young lady that's in her 30's (TRUCK SOUND).

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This young lady is in her 30th... 30's and she, um, had a stroke and so she started taking the drum class cause her cousin is taking the drum class too but her left hand she wasn't using it and I had... I fussed at her, I said, what, what's up with that? Oh, I can't... I said, lift your arm up, show me how far you can lift it up and she went like this, I said, you can play that drum, stop fooling around with me and play that drum. Now, she's playing with both hands, playing with both hands and loving it and getting stronger and stronger. So, that's, that's what it does for them in terms of emotions, in terms of their learning the culture, in terms of being pushed beyond their limits because they, they don't mess with Mama, don't tell me what you can't do, you know, you will do this. I... one lady that takes off from her job to come and make sure she's in that class because it's important to her and she's going to Africa, she just got her passport and she's going to Africa.

Q:

LINDA: My class is, uh, girls and grandma's, I don't know how many the little girls will come, there might not be too many of 'em but there will be lots of old women and middle-aged women that'll be in the class.

Q:

LINDA: A lot of the African-American females have always wanted to play drums. And, like me they were told, no. And, so now they found out that I'm here, that's it's... you can play those drums, you can express yourself, there's a lot of crying that goes on in there sometimes because of the release, there's a lot of, uh, reconnecting with ancestors in that class, there's a lot of them connecting with each other as grandma's and talking about things and trading, um, healing secrets and recipes and the whole nine yards but around the drum itself and me pushing them also beyond their limits when they say, I’m, I'm having a hard time... just do it? Just focus and do it? People have memory issues, we work on... because they have to remember the patterns, there's nothing written down, they have to actually remember the patterns for various rhythms and be able to play them right away, so... (PAUSE) And, I'm a mean teacher by the way. They'll tell you.

Q:

LINDA: Oh, I am very mean, uh-huh, you'll see.

Q:

LINDA: Once again, you'll probably have to ask them individually how it's affecting their lives. I do know that they come back every week no matter what, they keep coming. So, so it's effecting their lives in some way. There's a, a, an elder named, uh, Diana that comes every Saturday and she, um, she's older, she has a hard time walking but she comes every Saturday and supports me, gave me a drum, one of those big drums in there, she gave it to me. She buys something here because she knows that I have to pay the rent here. So, whether she needs it or not, she'll come and buy something and she'll take the class. Um, another young man named Bob who, um, is Caucasian first time he took class, he's been here a year, he was freaking out. He'll tell you, he had... developed and eye tick from trying to play the rhythms and he was messing up and he wasn't sure he was going to come back after the first class and he's been here a year now. He comes every single Saturday and he plays and he says it's because it's changed him inside, it’s changed how he sees himself, he has changed how he sees the community, uh, he's changed how he thinks about African-American people, all of that through that instrument.

Q:

LINDA: The fact that it's like a ripple. Every one that I teach and they grab onto it they're gonna ripple out and they're gonna tell this person and their gonna tell the next person, they're gonna tell the next person and then they might end up having their own company and then that'll ripple out and ripple out again. So, for me it's and tell you an interesting thing to happen, I was at a function on Friday at Case Western Reserve, the Schubert Institute, uh, and my group performed from Heritage Middle School and this young lady came up to me and she goes, when I heard your name, Linda Thomas Jones, tears are running down her face, you taught me when I was in the third grade and I've never forgotten this and I've been looking for you because I want you to teach my children. That made it all worth it and I get it over and over again. You were my teacher, I never forgot you. Go into a barbeque chicken place and the guy behind the counter goes, Linda? I said, yeah, it's me William, you taught me when I was in their grade down at Garden Valley, I remember the moves, I remember the drumming and he comes out and he picks me up and spins me around, that's what makes it worth it.

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