Integrated Rhythm

Chocolate & Peanut Butter --- how do you feel about the combination? The discussion at Integrated Rhythm gets serious. In this BLOCK PARTY episode (Part 1 of 2), we discuss Duke Ellington, peanut butter & chocolate, tea & coffee, and high fantasy. Guests include MICHELLE STOKES, LAUREL RYAN, LEWIS ORCHARD, and CRYSTAL JOHNSON.  

2:00 -- Crystal meets Duke Ellington 

7:30 -- Michelle wears a shirt with tassels 

10:30 -- How Michelle & Laurel live in Oklahoma 

11:00 -- Crystal discusses the term "poor" 

20:00 -- Michelle asks "How do you get a voice?" 

29:30 -- Question: "What's an unpopular opinion that you might hold?" / Peanut Butter & Chocolate 

37:30 -- High Fantasy 

45:30 -- Tea opinions, followed by coffee opinions, followed by sweet tea opinions

Our music is by Laurel Ryan & Michelle Stokes!  Please donate to help keep us in business:  Patreon: patreoncom/integratedrhythm  PayPal: [email protected]  Venmo: @bobbyswungover   (Where applicable, lease put the note "IR" in it, so that we know it's for the podcast.)

My Exodus for Me to Begin.

In Part II of a two-part conversation with Harvest Moon Ball champion and Mama Lou Parks dancer CRYSTAL JOHNSON, we cover her father, Whitey's Lindy Hopper Thomas "Tops" Lee, her coming back into the swing dance world, and her thoughts on how racism has changed since she was younger.

1:30 Thomas Lee, Mr. Showbiz

6:00 Maya Angelou and swing dancing

10:0 you have to feel the music

13:30 Mama Lou Parks before a show

14:30 Crystal's sign

20:30 Don't let anyone stop you from dancing

24:00 The importance of family in training

25:30 Less hating

33:00 More on Mama Lou

36:00 Show business is a rude business

39:00 Question: How are the Civil Rights battles coming along?

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Our music is by Laurel Ryan & Michelle Stokes.

Find us at your local podcast ap, or at: https://anchor.fm/integratedrhythm 

Please donate to help keep us in business:

Patreon: patreon.com/integratedrhythm

PayPal: [email protected]

Venmo: @bobbyswungover

(Where applicable, lease put the note "IR" in it, so that we know it's for the podcast.)

Don't be stingy with it. 

We're talking about gifts, and the gift of dance that was given to our guest this week, the legendary CRYSTAL JOHNSON --- Harvest Moon Ball champion, Mama Lou Parks dancer, and the daughter of Whitey's Lindy Hopper Thomas "Tops" Lee, Jr. 

In part 1 of this 2-part conversation, we discuss her early dancing life, her Harvest Moon Ball experience, and working with Mama Lou Parks and her peers. In part 2, we cover her father, Whitey's Lindy Hopper Thomas "Tops" Lee, her coming back into the swing dance world, and her thoughts on how racism has changed since she was younger.  

3:00 Meeting Mama Lou Parks 

8:30 "I'm supposed to be there" 

10:30 "I want to say this so bad…" 

15:00 Go to you elders 

19:30 On doing stuff or posting stuff from others 

21:30 Training with Gorge Sullivan and Lee Moates 

24:30 The 1972 Harvest Moon Ball 

33:30 The time I fell 

41:30 Crystal's legends both on and off the dance floor 

46:30 On names of dance steps

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Welcome to Integrated Rhythm! Two Swing Dancing besties (Chisomo Selemani & Bobby White) navigate race and the Black Experience in the world of Jazz Dance and other Afro-centric social dancing. Our goal is comfortable conversations about uncomfortable things. In this episode...

Our music is by Laurel Ryan & Michelle Stokes, our "We're back! song" was an improvisation by Steffanie AK Schilling, and the background drumming is by Bobby White

Find us at your local podcast ap, or at: https://anchor.fm/integratedrhythm 

Please donate to help keep us in business:

Patreon: patreoncom/integratedrhythm

PayPal: [email protected]

Venmo: @bobbyswungover

(Where applicable, lease put the note "IR" in it, so that we know it's for the podcast.)

In part 2 of our interview with emcee, jazz dance instructor, and Lindy Focus Meeting co-host, MICHELLE STOKES, we discuss nicknames, Michelle's philosophy of emceeing and teaching, the problems of Black-based imposture syndrome, and Michelle's ideal scene.  

1:00 "Stoked to be here," White people and puns, nicknames in general 

7:50 Michelle accidentally fell into Emceeing 

10:30 Have fun with your audience 

11:45 The importance of making people feel welcome in emceeing and teaching 

20:00 Imposture syndrome: Did they hire me because I'm Black or because I'm good? 

24:00 Lindy Focus meetings and how they approached that project 

34:30 Michelle's ideal scene

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Welcome to Integrated Rhythm! Two Swing Dancing besties (Chisomo Selemani & Bobby White) navigate race and the Black Experience in the world of Jazz Dance and other Afro-centric social dancing. Our goal is comfortable conversations about uncomfortable things. In this episode...

Our music is by Laurel Ryan & Michelle Stokes, our "We're back! song" was an improvisation by Steffanie AK Schilling, and the background drumming is by Bobby White

Find us at your local podcast ap, or at: https://anchor.fm/integratedrhythm 

Please donate to help keep us in business:

Patreon: patreoncom/integratedrhythm

PayPal: [email protected]

Venmo: @bobbyswungover

(Where applicable, lease put the note "IR" in it, so that we know it's for the podcast.)

To Be Black and Snatched.

Hair --- it's not only a cultural part of Black living, it's also a practical one. You might be surprised all the ways it plays a role in a Black person existing in a mostly Non-Black America, and specifically in a Non-Black swing dancing space. It's only one of the topics we discuss in today's action-packed episode. 

In part I of this 2-part conversation, we talk to the renown event emcee, jazz dance instructor, and Lindy Focus meeting co-host MICHELLE STOKES about hair, how she first came into the dance, the swing scene as Michelle saw it through the lenses of being a Black woman, body types, the problems with  most modern swing dance classes, and the nature of swing dancing in the modern scene.  Next week, part II of this interview will cover her philosophy as an Emcee, and what an ideal scene looks like to her.

2:00 The realities of hair, and what it has to do with Black Women, dating, and the swing scene. 

14:00 Going to dances searching for romantic partners

 21:30 Walking into a swing dance as a Black person 

25:00 Lindy Hop Body 

33:30 Michelle's heavily-curated dance education 

40:00 We naturally look to teachers, and ignore our prior knowledge, when introduced to something new 

44:00 On teaching problems in the scene 

52:00 Following a bunch of different leaders vs dancing for yourself  

58:00 Collaboration and pretending to dance rather than actually dancing 

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Welcome to Integrated Rhythm! Two Swing Dancing besties (Chisomo Selemani & Bobby White) navigate race and the Black Experience in the world of Jazz Dance and other Afro-centric social dancing. Our goal is comfortable conversations about uncomfortable things. In this episode...

Our music is by Laurel Ryan & Michelle Stokes, our "We're back! song" was an improvisation by Steffanie AK Schilling, and the background drumming is by Bobby White

Find us at your local podcast ap, or at: https://anchor.fm/integratedrhythm 

Please donate to help keep us in business:

Patreon: patreoncom/integratedrhythm

PayPal: [email protected]

Venmo: @bobbyswungover

(Where applicable, lease put the note "IR" in it, so that we know it's for the podcast.)

In the late 1930s, a truly Black American dance experience took over America. 

This episode is a reading of this week's Swungover article on the rise of the "The Big Apple" dance craze, the problematic news articles affiliated with it, and how Whitey's Lindy Hoppers adopted the dance in Harlem. You can read the article and see the Whitey's Big Apple footage over at www.swungover.com or on the YouTube version of this podcast.  

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Welcome to Integrated Rhythm! Two Swing Dancing besties (Chisomo Selemani & Bobby White) navigate race and the Black Experience in the world of Jazz Dance and other Afro-centric social dancing. Our goal is comfortable conversations about uncomfortable things. In this episode...

Our music is by Laurel Ryan & Michelle Stokes, our "We're back! song" was an improvisation by Steffanie AK Schilling, and the background drumming is by Bobby White

Find us at your local podcast ap, or at: https://anchor.fm/integratedrhythm 

Please donate to help keep us in business:

Patreon: patreoncom/integratedrhythm

PayPal: [email protected]

Venmo: @bobbyswungover

(Where applicable, lease put the note "IR" in it, so that we know it's for the podcast.)

Indeegnance. A word that beautifully captures all that we talk about in today's episode, including genetic-based racism vs assimilationist racism, language and perception, code switching, Beyonce's "Black is King," the burden of representation, and action verses emotion.

1:00 Bobby's sloppy set up: Genetic-based Racism vs Assimilationist Racism

4:30 Both kinds are present in the Swing dance scene

6:30 The wrong end of many conversations

11:00 Language and perception -- the code switch flip

14:00 A Zambian-American in Zambia

20:30 How it relates to Beyonce's Black is King: Artistic privileges vs artistic responsibility

28:00 Burden of representation on minoritized perspectives

32:00 Black women and aggression

33:00 Anger and indignance, action vs emotion

38:00 A white guy claps back?

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Welcome to Integrated Rhythm! Two Swing Dancing besties (Chisomo Selemani & Bobby White) navigate race and the Black Experience in the world of Jazz Dance and other Afro-centric social dancing. Our goal is comfortable conversations about uncomfortable things. In this episode...

Our music is by Laurel Ryan & Michelle Stokes, our "We're back! song" was an improvisation by Steffanie AK Schilling, and the background drumming is by Bobby White

Find us at your local podcast ap, or at: https://anchor.fm/integratedrhythm 

Please donate to help keep us in business:

Patreon: patreoncom/integratedrhythm

PayPal: [email protected]

Venmo: @bobbyswungover

(Where applicable, lease put the note "IR" in it, so that we know it's for the podcast.)

In this episode, Blues Dances instructor, DJ, and proud nerd KENNETH SHIPP discusses getting thrown into the middle of learning Line Dances, the dance lessons gotten from church, working first hand with Blues dancing pioneers, and how each has shaped the way he teaches dance and helps people chill the f&$% out.

(1:00) Kenneth on learning growing up,  (7:00) My first experience at a white church… (12:30) Church and improvisation, (13:30) Broadening horizons via movie theaters, (16:00) The Ujima Blues foundation, (20:00) Clarksdale, Mississippi, (24:30) Moves and names, (33:00) The dancing presence of old timers, (36:00) the art of chilling the F out, (40:00) Juke Joint dancing in an actual juke joint, (45:00) The spiritual affect of a home space on a dance, (47:00) How do you get students comfortable inventing, (50:00) On jam circles, (52:00) Comfort with solo dance.

Consider supporting Kenneth, a Black Business owner! You can find him at facebook.com/commandershipp 

And consider supporting the Ujima Blues Foundation at ujimablues.org

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Welcome to Integrated Rhythm! Two Swing Dancing besties (Chisomo Selemani & Bobby White) navigate race and the Black Experience in the world of Jazz Dance and other Afro-centric social dancing. Our goal is comfortable conversations about uncomfortable things. In this episode...

Our music is by Laurel Ryan & Michelle Stokes, our "We're back! song" was an improvisation by Steffanie AK Schilling, and the background drumming is by Bobby White

Find us at your local podcast ap, or at: https://anchor.fm/integratedrhythm 

Please donate to help keep us in business:

Patreon: patreoncom/integratedrhythm

PayPal: [email protected]

Venmo: @bobbyswungover

(Where applicable, lease put the note "IR" in it, so that we know it's for the podcast.)

In this episode, Bobby & Chisomo talk with swing historians and history lovers LEWIS ORCHARD (a White British man) and SHANI BROWN (a Black American woman) about not being Black and researching Black people in history. Specifically, they will tell the story of researching the great Whitey's Lindy Hopper John Wesley "Tiny" Bunch, and discuss the process. 

(1:30) It all began when…, (3:00) A really interesting sentence to read, (4:30) Lewis takes on the investigation, (8:00) Using draft cards, yearbooks, family records, and the American census, to find out John Bunch's story…, (18:30) How the way you say "Wilkes barre" might have something to do with the great migration. (22:00) John Bunch and Northern Racism, (26:00) What makes researching a Black dancer different than researching a White dancer. (30:00) Draft card skin color listings, (37:00) White newspapers and Black newspapers and Swing dancers, (42:00) How are we to know?, (46:00) Non-Black dancers researching Black dancers, (50:00) On Black bodies in jazz dance and Black culture, (55:00) lifting something up but then getting out of the way, (58:00) Stories change

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Welcome to Integrated Rhythm! Two Swing Dancing besties (Chisomo Selemani & Bobby White) navigate race and the Black Experience in the world of Jazz Dance and other Afro-centric social dancing. Our goal is comfortable conversations about uncomfortable things. In this episode...

Our music is by Laurel Ryan & Michelle Stokes, our "We're back! song" was an improvisation by Steffanie AK Schilling, and the background drumming is by Bobby White

Find us at your local podcast ap, or at: https://anchor.fm/integratedrhythm 

Please donate to help keep us in business:

Patreon: patreoncom/integratedrhythm

PayPal: [email protected]

Venmo: @bobbyswungover

(Where applicable, lease put the note "IR" in it, so that we know it's for the podcast.)

SHORTY: Short bonus episodes. 

This "Shorty" is a reading of the Swungover Article "The Life of "Tiny" Bunch," about famous Whitey's Lindy Hopper John "Tiny" Bunch. This is a companion piece to podcast Episode 09: "A little Stalker-y"  where we discuss the act of researching People of Color.