Frankie Manning would be very pleased at the growth of African-American participants in the lindy hop community. Look at this post from Kenneth Shipp about Lindy Focus and Jeff Liu-Leyco‘s photo.
One of my favorite moments from Focus… Before you ask, this actually wasn’t all the black folk at Focus. We couldn’t get everyone together for the number we pulled. Hopefully next time, we’ll get everyone squeezed in or have to take a panorama because we’ll be that deep. I haven’t felt this included or seen at a Lindy event in a long time. The very real reason I jumped into blues hardcore was because Damon Stone was a super visible lead who looked like me (funny how that works, I’m looking at you Hollywood) and we got along super well. I can easily imagine a scenario where I’m not dancing either of these dances just because of how awkward I felt being the only or few too many times. It was refreshing to have that many people together talking about the same issues. We were laughing, cutting up, and calling out the things we love or had issues with. It’s a lot of work to be visible, but during our BBQ hangout or chatting in the halls, I didn’t have to be. Breai Mason-Campbell is doing the Lord’s work and it’s encouraging to see other scenes with black leadership and/or strong representation making their presence known. I know the scene has a lot of work to do going forward, but having her speak clearly shook up a lot of people. I’ll be watching and working with a keen interest to see how this continues in the future.
Photo Credit: Jeff Liu-Leyco
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