Early 20th Century. The world is in flames. WWI. WWII. China ruled by the British. India and Africa ruled by the British. Europe in flames.
America remains.
America is asked to rebuild the world.
And America tries. America tries to rebuild the world.
But the world is more than just stuff.
Who will revive our hopes and dreams?
'Black' people will.
In America, 'Black' people have a secret strength.
The 'Black' church.
In the early 19th Century, when God saw it was time for the Crisis, God sent His light out into the world.
And because He knew that people would have to suffer, He sent that light out to the people that would suffer more than any other, along with a few other groups like the Germans.
'Black' slaves in America.
'Black' slaves that now heard the word of The Bible.
And realized that God, Jesus, cared about them.
Them. Who no one loved.
Thus 'Black' slaves discovered the Love of God.
Thus was born the 'Black' church.
And thus the Light went out into the world.
Now, in the late 1940's, that Love had become infused in the Jazz music scene. And it was about to receive a new form.
From Charlie Parker.
And Dizzy Gillespie.
From Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie, and Kenny Clarke, and the sophistocated African polyrhythms that they discovered through Kenny Clarke.
Bebop.
The birth of modern jazz.
Minds were blown. Minds were expanded.
Here were musicians who captured a spontaneous moment in time and fixed it in the air in music.
Their fans, in New York City and elsewhere, had their minds blown.
And they discovered all the things that were going on in the Harlem Renaissance, where 'Black' people were exploring the possibilities of Life.
Modern poetry. Civil rights. Utopian dreams.
All caught up with a moment captured in time and frozen in dancing, swinging music.
And all infused with the Love of the 'Black' church.
If the world wanted to rediscover how to dream, here it was.
Soon the world would be ready to rediscover how to dream.
Soon a beautiful new dream was coming.
Sputnik. And Explorer 1.
Soon it was 1958, and America's answer to Sputnik was soaring overhead.
The world was discovering a new dream- the Space Age.
The world was ready to discover the dreams of the Beatniks.
And they did.
The world came to understand the beatniks.
The poetry. The dreams of a freer society. The Love.
And leading the beatniks were the great jazz musicians.
Miles Davis. John Coltrane. Ornette Coleman.
As the world discovered the dreams of the beatniks, the beatniks were being led to new heights by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.
In this beautiful new world of space travel, no one explored more than Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and their beatniks.
This was a new world. A new dream.
These were the people who taught the World how to dream again.
There's some real 'Black' history.
How Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman taught the World- not just America, the whole World- to dream again.
We've all suffered in this Crisis. 'White' Europe suffered greatly in the World Wars.
But we can learn how to dream again. With Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson