Theodore Joans (July 4, 1928 – April 25, 2003) was an American jazz poet, surrealist, trumpeter, and

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, who from the 1960s spent periods of time travelling in Europe and Africa. His work stands at the intersection of several avant-garde streams and some have seen in it a precursor to the orality of the spoken-word movement. However, he criticized the competitive aspect of "slam" poetry. Joans is known for his motto: "

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

is my religion, and Surrealism is my point of view". He was the author of more than 30 books of poetry, prose, and collage, among them ''Black Pow-Wow'', ''Beat Funky Jazz Poems'', ''Afrodisia'', ''Jazz is Our Religion'', ''Double Trouble'', ''WOW'' and ''Teducation''.

Biography

Joans was born in

Cairo, Illinois Cairo ( ) is the southernmost city in Illinois and the county seat of Alexander County. The city is located at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Fort Defiance, a Civil War camp, was built here in 1862 by Union General Ulysses ...

, as Theodore Jones. His parents worked on the riverboats that plied the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. He played the trumpet and was an avid jazz aficionado, following Bop as it developed, and continued to espouse jazz of all styles and eras throughout his life. Growing up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, he earned a degree in

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

s from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, before moving in 1951 to New York City."A Spoken Word Original"
African American Registry. In New York, he painted in a style he dubbed Jazz Action and read his poetry, developing a personal style of oral delivery called Jazz Poetry. He was a participant in the

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. He was a contemporary and friend of

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

and

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

Leroi Jones Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...

(later known as Amiri Baraka),

Gregory Corso Gregory Nunzio Corso (March 26, 1930 – January 17, 2001) was an American poet and a key member of the Beat movement. He was the youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burrough ...

, Diane Di Prima,

Bob Kaufman Robert Garnell Kaufman (April 18, 1925 – January 12, 1986) was an American Beat poet and surrealist as well as a jazz performance artist and satirist. In France, where his poetry had a large following, he was known as the "black American ...

, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and others. Joans shared a room for a time with the great jazz musician

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

. Joans' bohemian costume balls and rent parties were photographed by

Fred McDarrah Frederick William McDarrah (November 5, 1926 – November 6, 2007) was an American staff photographer for ''The Village Voice'' and an author. He is best known for documenting the cultural phenomenon known as the Beat Generation from its ince ...

and Weegee. Joans was also deeply involved in Surrealism, meeting Joseph Cornell, and at first becoming close to his childhood hero

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

, then soon breaking with him. In Paris, Joans was welcomed into the circle of

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

. Joans was an erudite africanist and traveled extensively throughout the continent, frequently on foot, over many decades between periods in Europe and North America, choosing to lead an increasingly expatriate life. As publisher

John Calder John Mackenzie Calder (25 January 1927 – 13 August 2018) was a Scottish-Canadian writer and publisher who founded the company Calder Publishing in 1949. Biography Calder was born in Montreal, Canada, into the Calder family associated with the ...

noted, "Joans adapted himself to the lifestyles of artists in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

and Greenwich Village, the London of the 1950s and 60s, the Paris of the 60s to the 90s, as well as to those of other European cities and

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

, in

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

, where he spent many winters." Calder, John
"Ted Joans" (obituary)
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', May 27, 2003. From the 1960s onward, Joans had a house in

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, and then in Timbuktu. While he ceased playing the trumpet, he maintained a jazz sensibility in the reading of his poems and frequently collaborated with musicians. He continued to travel and maintained an active correspondence with a host of creative individuals, among them

Langston Hughes James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hug ...

Michel Leiris Julien Michel Leiris (; 20 April 1901 in Paris – 30 September 1990 in Saint-Hilaire, Essonne) was a French surrealist writer and ethnographer. Part of the Surrealist group in Paris, Leiris became a key member of the College of Sociology with G ...

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He founded the Par ...

Robert Creeley Robert White Creeley (May 21, 1926 – March 30, 2005) was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school. He was close with Char ...

, Jayne Cortez, Stokely Carmichael,

Ishmael Reed Ishmael Scott Reed (born February 22, 1938) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, composer, playwright, editor and publisher known for his satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known work is '' M ...

and

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

and

Penelope Rosemont Penelope Rosemont (born 1942 in Chicago, Illinois) is a visual artist, writer, publisher, and social activist who attended Lake Forest College. She has been a participant in the Surrealist Movement since 1965. With Franklin Rosemont, Bernard Mar ...

; many of these letters are collected at the

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

of the

University of California Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. The

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

houses his correspondence with Charles Henri Ford. Joans was also a close correspondent/participant of the

Chicago Surrealist Group The Chicago Surrealist Group was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in July 1966 by Franklin Rosemont, Penelope Rosemont, Bernard Marszalek, Tor Faegre and Robert Green after a trip to Paris in 1965, during which they were in contact with André Breton ...

. Joans' painting ''Bird Lives'' hangs in the De Young Museum in San Francisco. He was also the originator of the "Bird Lives" legend and

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

after the death of

in March 1955. Joans visual art work spans collages, assemblage objects, paintings and drawings including many resulting from the collaborative surrealist game

Cadavre Exquis Exquisite corpse (from the original French term ', literally exquisite cadaver), is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. ...

. The rhinoceros is a frequent subject in his work in all media. He also created short Super 8 film works. During the early 1980s Joans was a writer in residence in

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...

, under the auspices of the DAAD (Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst) program. He was a contributor of jazz essays and reviews to magazines such as ''

Coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

'' and ''

Jazz Magazine ''Jazz Magazine'' is a French magazine dedicated to jazz. The magazine was created in 1950 by Nicole and Eddie Barclay and Jacques Souplet. Frank Ténot - who had left ''Jazz Hot'' to join ''Jazz Magazine'' - and Daniel Filipacchi Daniel Filip ...

''. His autobiographical text "Je Me Vois" appeared in the Contemporary Authors Autobiographical Series, Volume 25, published by Gale Research. His work has been included in numerous anthologies, including ''The Poetry of the Negro, 1746–1970'' (1970), edited by

and

Arna Bontemps Arna Wendell Bontemps ( ) (October 13, 1902 – June 4, 1973) was an American poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. Early life Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, into a Louisiana Creole family. His a ...

(1970), ''A Broadside Treasury'', edited by

Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetr ...

(1971), and ''For Malcolm'', edited by Dudley Randall and Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs (1973). In the late 1990s Joans relocated to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and resided there and in Vancouver, between travels, until his death. He was the recipient of the American Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, from the Before Columbus Foundation. Ted Joans died in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, due to complications from

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

. He had 10 children and named one of his daughters Daline, after Salvador Dalí.

Published works

*''Funky Jazz Poems'' (1959), New York: Rhino Review. *''Beat Poems'' (1959), New York: Deretchink. *''All of Ted Joans and No More''(1961), with collages by the author, New York: Excelsior Press. *''The Truth'' (1960) *''The Hipsters'' with collages by the author (1961), New York: Corinth. *''A Black Pow-Wow Of Jazz Poems'' (1969), London: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd. *''Black Pow-Wow Jazz Poems'' (1969), New York: Hill and Wang. *''Afrodisia'' (1970), with collages by the author, London: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd. *''Afrodisia; New Poems'' (1970), New York: Hill and Wang. *''A Black Manifesto in Jazz Poetry and Prose'' (1971), London:

Calder and Boyars Calder Publications is a publisher of books. Since 1949, the company has published many books on all the arts, particularly subjects such as opera and painting, the theatre and critical and philosophical theory. Calder's authors have achieved ...

. *''Cogollo Caniculaire'' (1977), with artist Heriberto Cogollo and poet

Joyce Mansour Joyce Mansour nee Joyce Patricia Adès, (25 July 1928 – 27 August 1986), was an Egyptian-French author, notable as a surrealist poet. She became the best known surrealist female poet, author of 16 books of poetry, as well as a number of importa ...

, Rome (Italy): Carlo Bestetti. *''Flying Piranha'' (1978), with poet Joyce Mansour, New York: Bola Press. *''Der Erdferkelforscher / The Aardvark Watcher'' (1980), translated by Richard Anders, Berlin: LCB-Editionen. *''Vergriffen: oder Blitzlieb Poems'' (1979), Kassel (Germany): Loose Blätter Press. *''Mehr Blitzliebe Poems'' (1982), Hamburg (Germany): Michael Kellner Verlag. *''Merveilleux Coup de Foudre'' (1982) with poet Jayne Cortez, in French, translated by Ms. Ila Errus and M. Sila Errus, Paris: Handshake Editions. *''Sure, Really I Is'' (1982), with collages by the author, Sidmouth (UK): Transformaction. *''Dies und Das: Ein Magazin von actuellem surrealistischen interesse'' (1984), Berlin. *''Double Trouble'' (1991), with poet Hart Leroy Bibbs, Paris:

Revue Noire Revue Noire is a specialist publisher of books and web material relating to African contemporary art and culture, based in France. From 1991 to 2001, Editions Revue Noire published the printed quarterly magazine ''Revue Noire''. Since 2001 it has ...

, Editions Bleu Outremer. *''Honeyspoon'' (1993), Paris: Handshake Editions. *''Okapi Passion'' (1994), Oakland: Ishmael Reed Publishing Company. *''WOW'' (1998), with artist Laura Corsiglia, Mukilteo (Washington): Quartermoon Press. *''Teducation: Selected Poems 1949-1999'' (1999), illustrations by Heriberto Cogollo, Minneapolis:

Coffee House Press Coffee House Press is a nonprofit independent press based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The press’s goal is to "produce books that celebrate imagination, innovation in the craft of writing, and the many authentic voices of the American experience ...

. *''Select one or more: Poems'' (2000), Berkeley: The Bancroft Library Press. *''Our Thang: Several Poems, Several Drawings'' (2001), with artist Laura Corsiglia, Victoria (Canada): Ekstasis Editions. *''In Thursday Sane'' (2001), with illustrations by the author, Davis (California): Swan Scythe Press.

Essays about Ted Joans

*Michel Fabre, "Ted Joans: the Surrealist Griot" in ''From Harlem to Paris: Black American Writers in France 1840–1980'', University of Illinois, 1991. *Robert Elliot Fox
"Ted Joans and the (b)reach of the African American literary canon"
in ''MELUS'', Vol. 29, nos 3/4 (Fall/Winter 2004), Gale Literature Resource Center. *Joanna Pawlik
"Ted Joans' surrealist history lesson"
in ''International Journal of Francophone Studies'', Vol. 14, issue 1 & 2 (2011). doi: 10.1386/ijfs.14.1&2.221_1

Ted Joans in film

* (1964) by

Louis van Gasteren Louis Alphonse van Gasteren (20 November 1922 – 10 May 2016) was a Dutch film director, film producer, and artist. He was born in Amsterdam. He is the son of actor Louis van Gasteren Sr. and singer Elise Menagé Challa, and the brother of actre ...

, Amsterdam. Ted Joans reads with Piet Kuiters Modern Jazz Group, excerpt on YouTube. *''Pan-African Cultural Festival'' / ''

Festival panafricain d'Alger ''Festival panafricain d’Alger 1969'' is a 1969 Algerian documentary film about the Pan-African Festival of Algiers of 1969, also known as PANAF. The film was directed by William Klein, who was commissioned by the Algerian government to direc ...

'' (1969) by William Klein, France/Algeria. Features Ted Joans reading with Archie Shepp and Touareg musicians. * (1971), directed by John Jeremy with the photographs of

Val Wilmer Valerie Sybil Wilmer (born 7 December 1941) is a British photographer and writer specialising in jazz, gospel, blues, and British African-Caribbean music and culture. Her notable books include ''Jazz People'' (1970) and ''As Serious As Your Lif ...

. Features Ted Joans' voice reading one of his signature poems, "Jazz is My Religion". * (1994) at Jack Kerouac conference,

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. *''From St. Louis to Dogon Country'' (1999) part of the BBC series ''Great Railway Journeys''. directed by David Hickman, written by

Danny Glover Danny Lebern Glover (; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film series. He also had leading roles in his films include ...

. Features Joans and Danny Glover,

Clyde Taylor Clyde R. Taylor (born 1931) is an American writer and film scholar, who is an emeritus professor at New York University. His scholarship and commentary often focuses on black film. Career Taylor is a contributor to journals such as '' Black Film R ...

and others in

. *''WOW! Ted Joans Lives!'' by Kurt Hemmer and Tom Knoff (2010). An homage to Ted Joans, featuring his reading at Harper College,

Palatine, Illinois Palatine () is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a northwestern residential suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 67,908. As of the 2010 Census, it was the seventh-largest community in Cook Coun ...

, in 2002.

References

External links