Black Pow-Wow: Jazz Poems

by Ted Joans

"Jazz is my religion, and surrealism is my point of view."

Ted Joans was one of the first Beat poets in the Greenwich Village arts scene, pioneering a movement that often overlooked his profound contributions. His poetry mixes the rhythms of jazz music with “hand grenades” of truth, and his live reading performance style anticipated the spoken word movement.

Black Pow-Wow is a collection of the best of Joans’ early poetry, including such well-known poems as “Jazz Is My Religion,” “Passed On Homage to a Poet,” and “The Nice Colored Man.” Many of his poems speak to his friends and contemporaries--including Charlie Parker, Jack Kerouac, Allan Ginsberg, Bob Kaufman, Salvador Dali, Andre Breton, and particularly Langston Hughes--as well as his extensive travels across the African continent and around the world. His avante-garde poems also reflect his style as a painter and collage artist, call for social protest, and denounce racism, sexual repression, and injustice.

This groundbreaking collection, one of only two mainstream publications Joans produced, perfectly captures the pulse of the Beat Generation and the rhythms of blues.

Genres: Poetry

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Theodore "Ted" Joans was an American trumpeter, jazz poet and painter.

Joans was born in Cairo, Illinois, but not on a riverboat as had been claimed. He earned a degree in fine arts from Indiana University. He later associated with writers of the Beat Generation in Greenwich Village and San Francisco. He was a contemporary and friend of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. In the 1960s, Joans had a house in Timbuktu. He claimed to be a brother of Leroi Jones, despite the spelling difference, but this appears to be apocryphal.

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 in New York City after the death of Charlie Parker in March 1955. Joans invented the technique of outagraphy, in which the subject of a photograph is cut out of the image.

Joans died in Vancouver, British Columbia due to complications of diabetes.

Reviews

[Sean Okeeffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of jazz-inspired poems by an experimental poet who should by rights be better known. A lot of poetry is stale and uninteresting; this jumps off the page. A housemate borrowed my original Marion & Boyars edition and didn't give it back. The new one doesn't have the same heft – but the poems are still good. Knocks much of what was being reviewed at the time on the literary pages into a cocked hat.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was startled by his experimentation with the page layout and white space, and the use of capitalization or lack thereof. Many of these poems made me realize a truth, some made me laugh, most all were very radical, but that's expected for a black man poet in this era. I liked his language play and his courage and his experimentation. I enjoyed it a lot.

[Jesse Rhines · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this collection!!

[Jordon Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me this is what I call feel good poetry. I’d read this again and again.

[Seth Shimelfarb-Wells]

A unique voice from the Black arts movement. “Uh huh” is a great poem

[Jeff Crompton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A product of its time. Joans was frankly not a very good poet, but was more entertaining and good-natured than many of the Black Nationalist poets of the 1960s. I found myself laughing at times, although I doubt that I will read many of these poems again.