Interlude: Congo
Square
It has always been difficult for us to
explain the “culture” of the W.E.B.
DuBois Learning
Center. Many people who have visited us often say
that, try as we may, talking and writing
about it does not capture its essence, let alone the value of what is really
taking place. You really have to come
and see it to gain an appreciation for what is going on. In order to try to explain the culture of the
Learning Center I will liberally make use of
allegory and analogy in the remainder of this memoir.
In this
Interlude I will briefly try and relay an intuitive feel for the essence of the
Learning Center and its’ Telehub Network. And in the remaining sections I will discuss in
a little more detail about of their basic impact, their intrinsic value and
their looming possibilities.
Let us begin by considering the
sociological images portrayed in the following discourse.
• • •
The Neville Brothers have a CD, “Live On Planet Earth”,
which contains the song “Congo
Square” written by Sonny Landreth. It is about that area of New Orleans where African Americans back in
the day were free to gather and play music of their own liking, their own
style, in whichever manner they chose to play.
It is from there that the art form of jazz was created. Their rendition is laced with percussive
rhythms in the background and punctuated with searing saxophone rifts. Its lyrics are as follows:
Well it might be superstitious
But some kind of something is
going on down there.
(Repeated)
Well it’s an
old time tradition
When they play
them drums at night in Congo
Square.
You can hear them in the
distance—
Old folks in the bayou say your
prayers.
(Repeated)
That’s when
them voodoo people gather
And play them drums
at night in Congo Square.
Well my eyes would not believe
it
But what I seen that night I
could not turn away.
(Repeated)
They had that
mojo in motion
I seen them
dancing and prancing with that sway.
The more I listened to this song, the more I thought of
it as a metaphor of people experiencing the culture of the Learning Center.
• • •
The musicians of the “Classic” Congo Square drew from the spirit of
their “old time tradition” to express what was in their beleaguered souls and
brought forth a new music that was a wonder to behold. A century later, there were those of us who
were concerned about the acculturation and education of our youth. So like those Congo Square musicians, we too were
inspired to come together and generate musings that led to the birth of a new
concept. For me, the W.E.B. DuBois
Learning Center,
together with its Telehub Network, is likened unto a “Contemporary” Congo Square.
Back then, the life that Africa’s
descendants here in America
had to live was stressful to say the least. It was lived with a kind of resignation. And sometimes just to get some relief they
would gather unto themselves so that they could relax in their own way and
enjoy doing things in ways that felt good to them. Music was a healing balm. But it had to be applied in their own way in
order to soothe their weary souls. The
musical instruments and styles Africa’s descendants found here in America
were unlike those from whence they came.
But once here, they learned to adjust and use what they had available to
them, and apply their own styles and techniques drawing from their own cultural
patterns and traditions. And in so doing
they improvised and created a new art form.
This dynamic unfolded in many aspects of their lives in their struggles
to both survive and thrive here. And
that is just as true today as it was then.
With the
emergence of the Information Age, Africa’s
descendants of today are doing much of the same. New technologies give rise to new
infrastructures that can be developed and taken advantage of in the acculturation
of today’s youth. And like the
participants of Congo Square
of old used what they had to address their needs, we have a similar challenge
confronting us today. The Learning Center’s Telehub Network is an example
of using today’s technology, drawing upon cultural patterns and traditions
inherent in our urban cores, to develop such an infrastructure. How this unfolded was described in the
previous chapters.
When I reflect on the
first verse, it appears to me to deal more with the senses: “it might be
superstitious.” They just felt that “some
kind of something is going on down there.”
Similarly, in the early years of the Learning Center,
people would tell us that they felt that some kind of something is going on
over here.
But like
back in the day when Africa’s descendants gathered to address the needs of
their weary souls by playing drums in
Congo Square
at night, we in this day gather to address the needs of our children’s weary
academic souls by displaying academic
insight in the Learning
Center on Saturday
mornings and evenings. And over time,
people in our community have begun to feel that something was going on “over there.” However, as the song says, it was in
keeping with “an old time tradition” to come together to acquire and receive
that healing balm that may be difficult, if not impossible, to attain
otherwise.
The second verse
indicates that it is more obvious what is going on in Congo Square because you can “hear them in a distance.” And “old folks in the Bayou” were even
advised to “say your prayers.” Likewise,
as the Learning Center had been operating for awhile,
people became more aware of what we were doing, primarily by word of
mouth. And some folks have even told us
that what we were doing was an answer to their prayers.
Where the
song says “voodoo people gather,” for me that can be thought of as saying people
of like minds and spirits, or people who are culturally and traditionally
attuned to each other, come together.
But in this case the “voodoo people” are Africa’s
descendants. The implication here is the
continuing influence of their African culture.
Voodoo is regarded by most people
as simply something like a cult or witchcraft, something magical and/or something
highly superstitious. But those who have
seriously studied it, like anthropologists, realize that it is much more
complicated than that. They have a
better understanding of it, and as a consequence, have a different appreciation
of it. They understand that it is actually
a secret society that you have to be initiated into. It has practices that pertain to the healing
arts, herbal medicines and psychological nuances that stem from ancient African
traditions. (By-the-way, both author Zora Neal Hurston and dancer Katherine
Dunham studied anthropology and were initiated into it. And the documentations they made of some of
their findings and insights verify these observations.)
Similarly, when jazz first came
about, it was not looked upon in high regard by those who were not in tune with
the culture that produced it. For those
who were, its’ rhythms continued to resonate, and to address their heartfelt
needs. (And lest we forget: Back in the
seventies a lot of us were listening “In a Silent Way,” and some still do, as
“Miles Runs the Voodoo Down.”) As for others, the more it was gotten into and
understood, the more their appreciation of it grew. By comparison, when one simply hears or reads
about the Learning Center, one’s usual impression is that it is an admirable
but simplistic approach to address an age old heartfelt concern—the desire to
work with our youth. But inevitably,
those who come and see it in operation, to witness it first hand, realize that
there is much more depth to what is happening there than whatever one’s
original impression may have been. There
is a cultural interaction impacting the acculturation, as well as the
education, of our youth that one does not appreciate or grasp otherwise.
In both cases, Congo Square and the W.E.B. DuBois
Learning Center,
an aspect of cultural needs were met.
People would tell tales of the uplifting of spirits they had received
from their participation in Congo
Square.
Similar comments have been made by parents who brought their children to
the DuBois Learning Center. Shortly after the turn of the millennium, the
Kansas City, Missouri
School District commissioned a California
organization to conduct a survey of their parents whose children attended the
DLC in order to ascertain their opinion as to how beneficial the Learning Center was to their children. And over 90% of the responses were in the top
two categories—excellent or good.
That brings us to the
third and final verse. This is where
it becomes clearer just what is going on, or just what is taking place, in Congo Square. And even when witnessing it, one is still amazed:
“my eyes could not believe it.” But the
fascination is apparently spellbinding: “what I seen that night I could not
turn away.”
This verse
is reminiscent of comments we hear regularly regarding people’s impression, as
alluded to above, when they visit the Learning Center
for the first time. I became aware of
this in the mid seventies when Morris Brown, a co-worker at Allied Signal,
brought it to my attention. The late Ron
Jones was an electrical engineer who tutored advanced mathematics with me and
was also a co-worker of ours. Ron and I
had been telling Brown about the DLC for months, and we regularly invited him
to visit us. Finally one Saturday he
took us up on it. The next Monday I asked
him what he thought. He put his pen down
on his desk, spun his chair around, and looked me dead in the eye and told me
something like: “Dick, y’all been telling me about the Center for months. But you can’t tell anybody about it. You have to go and see it.”
We have had
similar experiences ever since. I can
recall Bill Grace trying to explain the concept of the Learning Center
during a long distance conversation. And
I remember Leah Russell, our CFO,
saying to him: “Bill, you can’t explain it to anyone. No matter what you say, they just won’t
understand it.”
Long story short: You have to see
“that mojo in motion,” you have to actually see the “dancing and prancing with
that sway” to comprehend what is really “going on down there.”
For me, in analyzing this song, the
analogy between Congo Square
and the W.E.B. DuBois Learning
Center is both nuanced
and striking. But at the heart of it all
is the reality of how creative a people can be in addressing their needs when
they are free to be, and choose to be,
true to themselves.
With that in mind, I shall conclude
this Interlude with the words in the title of one of Nina Simone’s most significant
albums: “Nuff Said.”
World Of Our Dreams | Prelude | [1] | [2] | [3] | [4] | [Interlude]
| [5] | [6] | [7] | [Postlude]
W.E.B DuBois Learning Center | Telehub Network