Lead Belly In New York Town

Lead Belly. Photographer: Joe Albert. Daily Worker and Daily World Photo Collection. Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives.

Lead Belly drove into New York City with John and Alan Lomax, on the afternoon of December 31, 1934. The three men had been traveling together for the past two months, through Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama, and then up the coast, collecting and recording songs at prison farms. The Lomaxes worked for the Library of Congress, and were folklorists—song catchers—hunting for authentic American, and particularly African American, folk songs, and performers. They looked in prisons because they believed there they could find men cut off from commercial music, and mainstream, white society.

It was in notorious Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana that the Lomaxes met Huddie Ledbetter, or Lead Belly, who stunned them with his mastery of a vast repertoire of traditional songs. Lead Belly had been playing music since he was a child, first on the accordion, then on the six, then twelve string guitar. Coming of age, he played house parties and country dances, left his loving parents for the saloons and whorehouses of Fannin Street, Shreveport, Louisiana’s red light district, and rambled and played with Blind Lemon Jefferson, the famous Texas blues singer and recording star of the 1920s.

When the Lomaxes met Lead Belly he was serving his second sentence, after having previously served six years for the murder of Will Stafford, for which he was pardoned by Texas Governor Pat Neff, who was moved by Lead Belly’s appeal for freedom through music. After he was released Lead Belly was soon in trouble again, for getting into a knife fight, and cutting a white man, whereupon he was sentenced to a minimum of six years of hard labor at Angola.

On New Year’s Day of 1935, Lead Belly gave his first performance in New York City—where he would live for most of the rest of his life—at an informal party organized by New York University Professor Mary Elizabeth Barnicle for Columbia and NYU faculty, and for the press. Barnicle was a popular English professor and folklorist, who brought speakers and artists like Aunt Molly Jackson and Jim Garland—protest and folk singers from Kentucky who lived on the Lower East Side—to her classes to perform.

NYU English Department, 1929. New York University Archives.

Barnicle had met the Lomaxes in 1933, when they came to New York to publish their book, American Ballads And Folksongs, which included some of Lead Belly’s songs. They hit it off, and she invited them to stay at her book-lined apartment on Avenue B. Barnicle saw folk songs as a living force for social change, and was fascinated by the Lomaxes and their field work.

She invited them to sing and play records for her NYU class. Alan Lomax recalled that Barnicle’s classes were, “stimulating and highly unconventional sessions, with a demanding intellectual content, yet unrestrained in their discussion of literary, economic, political, and sexual issues. Deans and heads of departments did at times protest, but in the end they had to let Professor Barnicle go her own way.”

After the New Year’s Day party in 1935, Lead Belly took the money he earned passing the hat, and went up to Harlem to sample the nightlife, and took in Cab Calloway. He didn’t get back to the apartment at 181 Sullivan Street where the Lomaxes were staying until the next morning, and was met by a reporter who was interviewing John Lomax. The resulting story sensationalized Lead Belly’s violent past, and would figure prominently in the myth that would envelop him.

Lead Belly liked Barnicle, and in the years ahead, they would become a major force in each other’s lives. Barnicle loaned her Connecticut summer house to the Lomaxes and Lead Belly to live and work in, and it was there that Lead Belly married his Shreveport girlfriend Martha Promise.

Lead Belly. Photographer: Joe Albert. Daily Worker and Daily World Photo Collection. Tamiment Library / Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives.

By the Spring of 1936, as Lead Belly and Martha settled in the city, struggling financially and on relief, Barnicle became Lead Belly’s unofficial manager and mentor, introducing him to a world of Left activism increasingly enmeshed with folk music. She found work for him, and got him to sing for her NYU classes, for pay. She also introduced him to a growing circle of Downtown folk artists, including Aunt Molly Jackson, who went often to Lead Belly’s and Martha’s apartment at 414 East 10th Street.

The apartment would become a meeting ground for an emerging folk community. Folk singers Burl Ives, Sonny Terry, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger all went to Lead Belly’s, and met one another there.

Taking a page out of the Lomaxes book, Barnicle bought a recording machine and made hundreds of recordings of folk music in her apartment on Avenue B, including many of Lead Belly, who would often stop by to record a new song.

Like the folk process itself, the stages of the folk music revival(s) are linked and iterative. It is only natural that in Greenwich Village, in a climate of openness and experimentation, that a revival would blossom, and that that revival would blossom again.

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Blending Homosexual Speech with Heterosexual Society

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is referred to as a "Camp" movie. When the movie first came out, gay men would refer to movies or shows as being "campy" as an alternate way of saying it had homosexual undertones. Rocky Horror Picture Show was one of the first movies to have a transvestite as the lead character. The public originally hated the movie and called it immoral, but it had and still is a popular movie in popular culture.

Recently, there has been an increase in research about gay and lesbian language (Kulick 243). There has been a cultural shift that has granted homosexuals more civil rights, the acceptance of homosexual lifestyles are at an all time high, and it is this recognition that has caused linguist to research the distinct features of gay and lesbian language. This research stems from the linguistic reality that language and words change over time (Childs “Development of the English Language”). The use of some words from the homosexual register are gaining acceptance in mainstream heterosexual culture. The distinctions between the words queer, camp, fierce, and girl are all lexical items that were once inclusive within homosexual groups and thus homosexual language, but have now made strides in heterosexual culture as well.

What is Gay Language?

It is important to define what linguists mean when they refer to gay language. This is difficult because there is not expansive research on gay and lesbian language like there is for other social groups (Kulick 4). Most linguist interchange homosexual speech or culture as a synonym of gay language, which is the definition I have accepted as well.

Many linguists believe that a specific language exist within homosexual culture. This is not an accurate assumption. According to Don Kulick in Gay and Lesbian Language, “the assumption confuses symbolic and empirical categories, it reduces sexuality to a sexual identity, and it steers research away from examining the way in which the characteristics seen as queer are linguistic resources available to everybody to use regardless of their sexual orientation” (246). What Kulick means is, gay language does not rely on only people who identify as homosexual. If this is an exclusive language, people who identify as gay should automatically understand the word and language patterns of this language. There is no secret gay code language—this is what Kulick is trying to explain in this quote.

To strengthen Kulick’s statement, at a recent Christmas party I attended that consisted of all homosexual males, with the youngest being twenty-one and the oldest being in his mid-thirties a confusion over a gay phrase came up. The incident revolved around the discussion of another gay male that was not at the party. Speaker E said “My god, he pisses glitter.” This took several people by surprise since they had never heard the expression before. The youngest guest Speaker T stopped Speaker E and asked what “pisses glitter” means. Speaker E had to explain it means to be overly flamboyant. This is just a simple example of differences in words and language that exist between gay men. Speaker T later informed Speaker E that for him the expression “shitting rainbows” means the same thing.

Kulick also states that gay language rests solely on individuals who identify themselves as gay. This does not include males that are questioning or are closeted. The fact that males can lie about their true gender or sexual orientation prohibits the finality of gay language research. This research practice has led to many stereotypes that have fueled the debates over what qualifies as gay language.

I do agree that there are some words used more frequently by gay males than straight men. One example is the word boy, or in gay language “boi.” The use of this spelling is identifiable as gay language. My only assumption why boi would be spelt this way is it outwardly marks or identifies oneself as being a homosexual.

The identification of sharing one’s sexual identity has been actively studied by sociologists and linguists. In 1994 a study

The Journal of Homosexuality was founded to help support the gays by doing research and studies within the community. The Journal encountered problems because the studies were organized by heterosexual doctors who tried to prove homosexuality was a choice and not determined at birth. After a few years, with lots of protests and lawsuits, the Journal of Homosexuality stopped printing.

was done by Stephen Brady and Wilma J. Busse that was published in the Journal of Homosexuality titled, The Gay Identity Questionnaire: A Brief Measure of Homosexual Identity Formation. The article focused on trying to classify how “gay” males were based on a questionnaire. It rated individuals on six different levels of “gayness.” The two hundred and twenty five participants all identified as having homosexual thoughts, but the study failed to see how heterosexual males would place within the same questionnaire. This was a major flaw in the research because it automatically distinguished that straight males would not register to have any gay tendencies, desires, or be labeled “gay”.

More recently (October 2010) an article that was posted on OKtrends.com showed that many straight males have either been curious or have already engaged in a sexual encounter with another male. The website compiled this information from anonymous surveys taken by its readers. OKtrends.com might not be the most reliable source since the data collection is not done by an academic institution, but neither is an article published over sixteen years ago—since content could be out of date. This lack of research and the availability of academic sources makes defining gay language difficult and frustrating.

Conclusion

After evaluating several different parts of gay language I believe it is undefinable. The amount of research on this topic is miniscule and it assumes language patterns for all homosexuals. It is also difficult to define because it relies only on people who identity as gay.

Using only identifiable homosexuals for data perpetuates stereotyping and gender profiling. In response to the 1994 study, the only way to see if gay language exist is to juxtapose it against heterosexual speech. In order to achieve this result, males in general need to be researched and see if language patterns arise from the study. Sexual orientation should only be revealed if patterns exist to see if gender identification has any relevance to the results.

It is also necessary to understand that geographic location plays an important part in language. Linguists established that Southern English differs from Northern, so it should follow the same pattern that homosexual language should vary by location. This could explain why Speaker T never heard the expression “pisses glitter,”  Speaker E is from New York, while he is from South Carolina. If research looked at small geographic locations of gay males the information would show that an official gay language does not exist.

If there are unique speech patterns or word usage it is important to understand that society is now changing. Several words that were one thought to have heavy associations with homosexual language are making strides in everyday speech. This pattern follows African American speech, where once a word becomes absorbed into everyday “white” speech it loses meaning within the original register.

People want to label and assign power to word and language. The attempt to try and determine if homosexual language exist shows this ideology. Through my research the amount of contradictions within the field make it impossible to define and indentify gay language. This only becomes more confusing when words change meaning over time. It appears that linguists are trying to catch up in a world that is constantly changing. This needs to change before any definition can be assigned to gay and lesbian language.

Work Cited and Additional Sources

Brady, Steven, and Wilma J. Busse. “The Gay Identity Questionnaire: A Brief Measure of Homosexual

Identity Formation.” Journal of Homosexuality 26.4 (1994): 1-22. Print.

Childs, Rebecca. Development of the English Language. Coastal Carolina University. Conway, SC. Spring

2010. Lecture

Childs, Rebecca. Language, Gender, and Power. Coastal Carolina University. Conway, SC.

Fall 2010. Lecture.

Kulick, Don. “Gay and Lesbian Language.” Annual Review 85th ser. 29.243 (2000): 243-85. Print

Parks, Janet B., and Mary Ann Roberton. “Explaining Age and Gender Effects on Attitudes toward Sexist

Language.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 24.401 (2005): 401-11. Academic Search

Premier. Web. 1 Nov. 2010.

Queen, Carol, and Lawrence Schimel. “Introduction.” 1997. PoMoSEXUALS: Challenging

Assumptions about Gender and Sexuality. San Francisco, CA: Cleis, 1997. 19-25. Print.

Rudder, Christian. “Gay Sex vs. Straight Sex « OkTrends.” Oktrends. OKCupid.com, 12 Oct.

2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2010..

Rudes, B. A., and B. Healy. “Is She for Real? The Concepts of Femaleness and Maleness in the

Gay World.” 1979. Enthnolinguistics: Boas, Sapir, and Whorf Revisted. 49-61. Print.

Travers, Peter. “Burlesque.” Rolling Stone Movies. Rolling Stone, 24 Nov. 2010. Web. 26 Nov.

2010..

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Tamamend to Tweed: The Ironic History of the NYC Political Machine, Tammany Hall

The words “Tammany Hall” can conjure up any number of images for an individual. The image or idea that probably comes to most minds is the 19th century Tammany Hall political machine.    Its office was on Union Square, the northern most part of The Village.  The individual most often associated with Tammany Hall is William “Boss” Tweed – the political scoundrel who single-handedly controlled most of New York City politics in the 1860s through the 1870s.  In 1860, Boss Tweed officially became the leader (also called The Grand Sachem) of Tammany Hall.  It is estimated that Tweed and his “band of thieves” embezzled between $75 and $100 million dollars worth of city funds between 1865 and 1871.

William "Boss" Tweed. Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

The building at Union Square was erected in July of 1868 and cost approximately $300,000 to construct, and it was absolutely gargantuan.  Its concert hall could seat 5,000 people and was lavishly decorated with extravagant chandeliers, 35-foot ceilings, and many amenities such as smoking salons and a library.  The building was so impressive that the Democratic Party rented it out for their National Convention in 1868.  This solidified Tammany Hall’s status.

The reason that the Democratic Party rented out the space and not the Federalists, was because Tammany Hall – the political entity – was decidedly and vocally anti-Federalist.  It grew to be one of the most influential partisan entities that was not its own political party in New York.   Boss Tweed also re-configured the organization of Tammany Hall to work in his favor.  He increased the size of members from 21 to 150.  Often easy decisions would become tangled up in the complicated bureaucratic web that Tweed wove for the organization.  These complications and the confusion allowed him to situate himself and three close friends at the center of the organization. Therefore the foursome was endowed with the most power within the organization.   Outsiders called this group of men “the lunch club” because they met and ate lunch together everyday in a private room at City Hall or at The Wingate, a popular restaurant across the street.

City Hall Park also became a place that would carry Boss Tweed’s legacy for years to come.  His largest and most outrageously priced project was the construction of the New York County Courthouse at 52 Chambers Street New York, New York.  He embezzled incredible sums of money to finish the project – about 310 million dollars in contemporary terms.   To build this structure, Tweed ordered the New York City Almshouse to be removed from this location.   This site was also the center of New York’s notorious slum Five Points.  Tweed’s dramatic erasure of the slum and its almshouse is a bold statement about who had the power in New York City.  Obviously, the poor had no say in the demolition of their homes, and the elimination of their social environment.

Embezzlement, corruption, power-mongering: these three words seem to summarize Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall machine fairly.  However, Tammany Hall was not always a corrupt and vile organization.  It was actually founded on May 12, 1789 as an institution “dedicated to fill the country with institutions designed, and men determined, to preserve the just balance of power.”  This early and noble proclamation obviously would not hold together in the organization’s waning years.  Originally, the organization was called The Society of St. Tammany or The Columbian Order.   It was named after the Native American chief Tamanend who was mythologized to have met William Penn when he arrived in Scranton, Pennsylvania.  He was also mythologized to be included in William Penn’s first peace treaty with the Delaware Native American tribe in April of 1683.  His wigwam is rumored to have stood on the ground that is now occupied by Princeton University.   Tamanend was a glorified saint, and small brotherhoods and other groups named themselves after him.

Caricature of William "Boss" Tweed. Cartoon by Thomas Nast.

Again, the original aim of The Society of St. Tammany was to represent the underdogs in all situations pertaining to the government.  Often St. Tammany would represent minority groups like the Irish or the Catholics in order to work against the centralization and consolidation of government power.  It campaigned against the Know-Nothing party in the 1840s and 1850s, and it campaigned to eliminate property-ownership as a voter qualification.

The Society of St. Tammany also adopted Native American names for their own organizational purposes.  For example, the trustees were elected annually and called Sachems because Sachem is the Algonquin word for “highest chief.”   From these thirteen Sachems a “Grand Sachem” was elected.  This person would serve as president.   In the early years of the organization Tammany would bestow upon United States Presidents the honorary title of “Kitchi Okemaw” or “Great Grand Sachem.”  This title was figurative, and United States presidents did not preside over any aspects of Tammany Hall.  Presidents who have received this distinction include Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Jackson.  The Master of Ceremonies was called a “Wiskinskie” or “doorkeeper.”  The society also organized time based on lunar and solar cycles.   In its early years, the organization was divided into tribes named after various animals like the Panther, Beaver or Rattlesnake – these animal names were euphemisms that represented the original thirteen colonies.  They also regularly referred to their meeting place as “the wigwam.”

Given the democratic ideals and its modeling after Native American culture, it is incredibly ironic that Tammany devolved into a New York City institution rife with corruption and unfairness.   Also ironically, Tammany Hall’s descent would begin with Boss Tweed’s trial in his own courthouse in 1873.

Bibliography

Ackerman, Kenneth D. Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2005.

Myers, Gustavus. The History of Tammany Hall. New York: Boni & Liverirght, Inc., 1917.

Wiles, David. “Boss Tweed” and the Tammany Hall Machine. http://www.albany.edu/~dkw42/tweed.html. Accessed 14 December 2011.

“Tweed Courthouse.”  Department of Citywide Administrative Services. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/resources/man_tweed.shtml. Accessed 14 December 2011.

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History in 3D Perspective

In college I majored in history. And though I found the subject remarkably interesting, I knew that not everyone did. I worked diligently to find ways to make my class presentations more stimulating for my peers. But short of showing up to class in period dress, I was at a loss. Well, in 2008 I finally found my answer.

In May 2008, Beedocs, a small independent software company, released an innovative software program, Timeline 3D. Adam Behringer, the Founder and CEO of Beedocs, had  released a 2D version of the Timeline software in 2004, but Behringer was really interested in providing users with a program that could produce cinematic timelines, particularly for use in presentations. A 2007 sketch from his notebook shows how Behringer  grappled to bring users a visually dynamic timeline.

Early concept from Behringer's sketch book

The subsequent product allowed users to drag and drop images into a timeline interface, add dates and descriptions, and toggle through timeline events in 3D. No longer was history relegated to a linear, 2D interpretation.

Beedocs Timeline 2D

Timeline 3D

Since its release in 2008, Timeline 3D has gone through many evolutions. Now, users can take advantages of a suite of features. The latest version of the software allows users to export to the web, Keynote, Quicktime, Youtube, and email. Additionally, users can upload a maximum of 15 timelines to the Beedocs server and embed them on any webpage. Also, users can include video and audio files, in addition to images, to create cinematic, media-rich, 3D timelines. Furthermore, an LTE version was recently released. It offers the same great features and formats events automatically, making the software even easier to use. Both versions are available for purchase for Mac here.

Using Timeline 3D

So that you get an idea of what this software can really do, I have outlined the process I went through to create a 3D timeline for the Church of St. Luke in the Fields in Greenwich Village. After opening the Timeline 3D software, I was prompted to choose a timeline style and event type. I chose “Earthy” and “Blank Timeline.” Choosing “Blank Timeline” allows me to format my timeline events from scratch, but if I wanted to choose a past family event that I had captured with my camera, I could choose iPhoto and Timeline 3D would import the images and dates from that event in my iPhoto into Timeline 3D.

Next, I can choose what type of measurement I want to interpret in Timeline 3D. I chose “Dates and Times,” but I could have also chosen either “Geological Scale” if I wanted to interpret thousands of years of events, or “Quantities,” which would have let me interpret any type of measurable quantity, such as distance.

Once I configure the type of Timeline I want to produce, I can start adding events. Adding events to the Timeline is easy. Simply click “Add” and add an event title and a start and end date (or simply start date). Then, if you choose, you can also drag and drop an image into the media dialogue box and add notes. I chose to incorporate historic images of St. Luke’s from the Greenwich Village Digital Archive. I also have the option to customize my typeface and fonts. So, if you’re interested in using a timeline on your website or in a presentation, you can adjust the colors and typeface to match your institution’s branding. After adding 15 events to Timeline 3D, I can experience the history of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields, in 3D.

Image Capture of My Timeline in 3D

Timeline 3D in Action

Now that you have an understanding of how to create a Timeline in Beedocs’ Timeline 3D, let’s take a look at some of the innovative ways you can share your timeline. When I use Timeline 3D in a presentation, I export to the Mac application, Keynote, and Timeline 3D renders each of my 3D transitions to individual slides, making presentation production as simple as 2 or 3 clicks. However, if I want to use PowerPoint, I first export to Quicktime, and then insert the video into a slide. I then “Duplicate” the slide with the movie (one for each event), and format each slide to only show the set range of each event (this feature is only available in PowerPoint 2010). Because the movie file is only saved in the presentation once, the file size doesn’t increase too much). This way, the PowerPoint presentation looks like a movie, and is controlled by the click of the mouse. Below you can see my rendered timeline on Youtube, so you get an idea of what the exported Quicktime file looks like.

The other way I like to share my Timelines is online. With the Basic account, which comes with your software purchase, you are able to upload up to 15 timelines to the Beedocs server. Once you choose a decorative shell for your timeline, it’s easy to grab the embed code to include on any website or blog. Click here to see my timeline of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields; notice the “embed” option at the bottom left.

Timeline 3D and Greenwich Village

I used Timeline 3D quite a bit in college, but I use it even more now. For example, when my grandfather turned 80, I created a timeline of his life with old family photos and videos. I exported the Timeline to Youtube and shared it with family and friends. While Timeline 3D is a great tool for personal use, as you can see from above, it could also be a handy tool for museums and other cultural institutions. Timeline 3D could be used to help organize an exhibition; a curator could use it to help structure interpretation within the overall context of the exhibit’s history. And of course, it’s also useful for online exhibitions and other web initiatives. Timelines could be exported to Youtube and shared on social networks or embedded into newsletters and memos to boards or members. In all, Timeline 3D is an inexpensive, innovative resource that is easy to use and customize for personal or institutional use.

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