[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
thank you
[Applause]
so these are the rhythm bones they are
individual curved pieces of bone or in
my case wood and these bones are made of
Rosewood and they are considered to be
one of the oldest instruments in the
world and they’ve been found all over
the world from ancient Egypt they were
called clappers greece they were popular
in the Roman Empire India and Ireland
which is how they made it to America and
my journey as a bluegrass rhythm bones
player I’ve been told many times in many
different ways that I don’t belong I’ve
been told that old-time music and
bluegrass music have nothing to do with
the black people when in reality
blackness is in the essence of this
music the bones became well known in
America in the mid 1800s through the
blackface minstrel show which was a
massively popular form of entertainment
it was comparable to what going to the
movies is like for us the blackface
minstrel show it appropriated in
caricatured black music dance culture
and speech and the bones were one of the
featured instruments of blackface
minstrel see along with the banjo the
fiddle and the tambourine white
entertainers would cover their faces in
black paint and perform incredibly
dehumanizing stereotypes of southern
black slaves and northern ex-slaves
and mistress Lee really confirmed and
reinforced white people’s ideas about
the inferior nature of black folks so
and it began a long tradition of black
music being appropriated for popular
audiences so when I think on these
things I can’t help but ask what it
means to be a bones player in this day
and age given this violent history
attached to it and I can’t help but ask
what it means to be a black bones
they’re a process of healing
decolonizing and reclaiming is necessary
in order for us to move forward so I
first want to celebrate the many black
folks who are performing in bluegrass
today who are killing it and who and
there are many there more than you may
think
who are doing this work of reclaiming
the space for black people
and I want to give thanks to the
countless black entertainers who
sacrificed and paved the way to a point
in history where I can be on this stage
and not have to perform a stereotype and
not have to cater to anyone else’s idea
of what blackness means so yes
so y’all are probably wondering who the
see the sport on when I went to invite
my dear friend and collaborator jake
hoffman out and we’re gonna tell y’all a
few tunes with bones and banjo together
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
thank you very much that was our
interpretation of a piece called the
patroller song and that was a tune that
was present in gatherings and dances of
black people in the South in the time
before the Civil War and it still played
in the old-time music community today
this instrument the banjo was created by
artists and craftspeople who were
enslaved in the southern United States
and the Caribbean islands it came from
direct memories and cultural memory of
African lutes and harps with strings
resonating over a stretched hide but I
came to know this instrument through
white culture through predominantly
white musics like hillbilly and country
music as Kafar I mentioned the banjo was
a played a critical role in the
blackface minstrel show and it became a
symbol and also a direct communicator of
white supremacist culture minstrel see
get this minstrel see was the most
popular form of entertainment in the
nineteenth century
so this ripped the banjo out of black
history and appropriated it so deeply
into white culture that by the time that
I came across it I thought of it as the
preeminent symbol of rural whiteness and
the tool for the white underdog to
express his feelings in song and that’s
why I felt comfortable first embracing
it learning a greater history of the
banjo has been depressing and
infuriating and thinking about how I fit
into this modern world as a banjo S is
confusing and uncomfortable because it
makes me think of all the ways that I’ve
been I’ve condoned the erasure of black
history and black art
and you know before we get into this
last song it’s it’s crazy that we are
able black people are able to listen to
all-time music and bluegrass music and
not hear the music of our ancestors and
that’s because of cultural appropriation
which is something that is still
happening it’s real and alive and we
need to inquire into our traditions to
ask if they’re inclusive and if they’re
people being sacrificed this next song
is called last child and it’s it’s more
of a fiddle tune and it was first
recording the 1920s by the stripling
Brothers a white string band from
Alabama
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
thank you
you
[Music]
[Music]
thank you
[Applause]
so these are the rhythm bones they are
individual curved pieces of bone or in
my case wood and these bones are made of
Rosewood and they are considered to be
one of the oldest instruments in the
world and they’ve been found all over
the world from ancient Egypt they were
called clappers greece they were popular
in the Roman Empire India and Ireland
which is how they made it to America and
my journey as a bluegrass rhythm bones
player I’ve been told many times in many
different ways that I don’t belong I’ve
been told that old-time music and
bluegrass music have nothing to do with
the black people when in reality
blackness is in the essence of this
music the bones became well known in
America in the mid 1800s through the
blackface minstrel show which was a
massively popular form of entertainment
it was comparable to what going to the
movies is like for us the blackface
minstrel show it appropriated in
caricatured black music dance culture
and speech and the bones were one of the
featured instruments of blackface
minstrel see along with the banjo the
fiddle and the tambourine white
entertainers would cover their faces in
black paint and perform incredibly
dehumanizing stereotypes of southern
black slaves and northern ex-slaves
and mistress Lee really confirmed and
reinforced white people’s ideas about
the inferior nature of black folks so
and it began a long tradition of black
music being appropriated for popular
audiences so when I think on these
things I can’t help but ask what it
means to be a bones player in this day
and age given this violent history
attached to it and I can’t help but ask
what it means to be a black bones
they’re a process of healing
decolonizing and reclaiming is necessary
in order for us to move forward so I
first want to celebrate the many black
folks who are performing in bluegrass
today who are killing it and who and
there are many there more than you may
think
who are doing this work of reclaiming
the space for black people
and I want to give thanks to the
countless black entertainers who
sacrificed and paved the way to a point
in history where I can be on this stage
and not have to perform a stereotype and
not have to cater to anyone else’s idea
of what blackness means so yes
so y’all are probably wondering who the
see the sport on when I went to invite
my dear friend and collaborator jake
hoffman out and we’re gonna tell y’all a
few tunes with bones and banjo together
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
thank you very much that was our
interpretation of a piece called the
patroller song and that was a tune that
was present in gatherings and dances of
black people in the South in the time
before the Civil War and it still played
in the old-time music community today
this instrument the banjo was created by
artists and craftspeople who were
enslaved in the southern United States
and the Caribbean islands it came from
direct memories and cultural memory of
African lutes and harps with strings
resonating over a stretched hide but I
came to know this instrument through
white culture through predominantly
white musics like hillbilly and country
music as Kafar I mentioned the banjo was
a played a critical role in the
blackface minstrel show and it became a
symbol and also a direct communicator of
white supremacist culture minstrel see
get this minstrel see was the most
popular form of entertainment in the
nineteenth century
so this ripped the banjo out of black
history and appropriated it so deeply
into white culture that by the time that
I came across it I thought of it as the
preeminent symbol of rural whiteness and
the tool for the white underdog to
express his feelings in song and that’s
why I felt comfortable first embracing
it learning a greater history of the
banjo has been depressing and
infuriating and thinking about how I fit
into this modern world as a banjo S is
confusing and uncomfortable because it
makes me think of all the ways that I’ve
been I’ve condoned the erasure of black
history and black art
and you know before we get into this
last song it’s it’s crazy that we are
able black people are able to listen to
all-time music and bluegrass music and
not hear the music of our ancestors and
that’s because of cultural appropriation
which is something that is still
happening it’s real and alive and we
need to inquire into our traditions to
ask if they’re inclusive and if they’re
people being sacrificed this next song
is called last child and it’s it’s more
of a fiddle tune and it was first
recording the 1920s by the stripling
Brothers a white string band from
Alabama
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
thank you
you
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