Letter from the Guest Editors

Abstract

Letter from the Guest Editors Terri Lyne Carrington, Aja Burrell Wood, and Tracy McMullen In the summer of 2021, the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice held its first symposium, Return to the Center: Black Women, Jazz, and Jazz Education, two inspiring days of talks, discussion, and music by and with distinguished scholars, students, journalists, musicians, and artists, all gathered to reflect on the power of Black women in jazz—past, present, and future. The symposium title, Return to the Center, and programmed proceedings intentionally reclaimed the accurate historical centrality of the many—and far too often, undervalued—contributions and labor of Black women to the rich artform and cultural heritage of jazz. As Angela Y. Davis states in this issue, “Women have always been inside jazz and have always helped to produce the field that we call jazz, but precisely because of patriarchy, are continually imagined as on the margins, outside of jazz, as having to fight to even be included within the category.” When jazz education became formalized in predominantly white colleges and universities, the values and processes of Black women were part of what was left out of that institutionalization and new definition of the form. The Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice returns these values and processes to the center in its mission and work, seeking to create systemic change inside the institutionalized process and practices that have governed jazz education for decades. Terri Lyne Carrington founded The Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice (JGJ) in 2018 on the premise of one question: What would jazz sound like in a culture without patriarchy? This encouraged other approaches for how we consider, examine, and even challenge the dominant narrative of jazz. Asking such a question creates “a terrain of practicing freedom,” as Gina Dent suggests, where we continually challenge what has been accepted as “normal” on the jazz stage, in the jazz classroom, and in all other branches of the jazz ecosystem. [End Page vii] In this special issue we hear directly from artists, scholars, journalists, and thought leaders—Rashida Braggs, Paula Grissom Broughton, Terri Lyne Carrington, Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Jordannah Elizabeth, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Robin D. G. Kelley, Tracy McMullen, Shana Redmond, Nichole Rustin, Sherrie Tucker, Carrie Mae Weems, and Aja Burrell Wood—together with the affirmation and evocation of the continued guiding influence and inspiration of the intergenerational contributions of Geri Allen, Mary Lou Williams, Nina Simone, Sarah Vaughn, Melba Liston, and Billie Holiday, all engaging with “jazz without patriarchy . . . as something that’s transformative from the root” (Griffin). In June 2021 we were still in the era of intense COVID protocols, and like much else at the time, what would have been previously organized as an in-person event was held remotely online. Within this unprecedented context, as Nichole Rustin pointed out in her address, fifteen months of semi-isolation was also fifteen months of extraordinary conversations with scholars and musicians on jazz and gender justice panels and at conferences that were now available for anyone to attend from anywhere. Our symposium occurred amid these many conversations and furthered a dialogue that was already rich, deep, inquiring, and inspired. Several overlapping and interconnected themes run throughout this special issue. One is the revolutionary potential of Black feminist thought. From Paula Grissom Broughton’s article that “(re)imagines jazz education through Black feminist pedagogy” to Gina Dent, who reminds us to remain critical and not “think of Black feminism as something always fully formed,” the scholars and artists in this issue link Black feminism, jazz, and revolution. As Robin D. G. Kelley articulates, Black feminism is “an interrogation into all forms of oppression and possibility” and therefore “is a revolutionary project that helps us all,” leading us toward “the emancipation of all humankind.” Sherrie Tucker acknowledges that “the tenet that freedom for Black women [means] freedom for everyone” has involved a growing understanding of “everyone,” giving rise to “expanding notions of inclusion.” We understand Black feminism as a practice and process of justice—as a verb, not a noun. And Nichole Rustin reminds us, “Justice isn’t something that happens in a set moment, it’s always something that...