Browsing by Subject "Jazz"

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    The Female Impersonators of Indiana Avenue: Race, Sexuality, Gender Expression and the Black Entertainment Industry
    (2018-12) Lane, Stephen M.
    On Indiana Avenue, the female impersonators performed in the theaters, clubs and saloons dominated by jazz legends who were born in Indianapolis and others from around the country. Despite the appearance of female impersonator shows, the historical printed record created by Black newspapers in Indianapolis was largely silent from 1911 until 1933. This silence may be due to missing issues of the Indianapolis Recorder from 1917 to 1925. Historians state that the “Pansy Craze” swept the nation in the 1920s. After 1933, openly gay Black men controlled the Avenue’s drag scene. By the 1960s, performers wore women’s clothing in public even when they were not on stage. How we record these performers and their gender identity is an imperfect historical effort since queer themes are largely underrepresented in local archives and historical writings. Given the option, performers may have identified as transgender in today’s terminology.
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    "Quiet as it's Kept": Secrecy and Silence in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Jazz, and Paradise
    (2011-11-18) Smith, Whitney Renee; Johnson, Karen Ramsay; Kubitschek, Missy Dehn; Eller, Jonathan R., 1952-
    Secrets and silence appear frequently in the work of Toni Morrison. In three novels, The Bluest Eye, Jazz, and Paradise, she repeats a specific phrase that acts as a signal to the reader. Morrison three times writes, “Quiet as it’s kept” in her novels to alert readers to the particular significance secrets and silence play in these novels. Morrison portrays this secrecy and silence as a barrier to building strong communities and even a strong self-identity. While the phrase appears in the same form, with each subsequent appearance, Morrison takes the idea a step further. In each novel she demonstrates how breaking the silence and refusing to keep quiet is an act of healing or salvation and she expands this healing to be increasingly inclusive. What begins as a single voice breaking the silence in The Bluest Eye becomes a group of people sharing their secrets in Jazz, and finally an entire town coming to terms with the power of speaking up. This thesis looks at the secrets and their impact on characters in each novel and explores the progression of the power in refusing to keep quiet.