Joanne Jimason, Blowing the Blues Away

Energy Earth Communications

Copyright Joanne Jimason 1981

The lights at the radio station had been turned down, the mood mellow as we , my engineer Ted and I, entered  the  late night section of poetry on the radio. Our shift was soon to be over when there came a loud banging on the front door and my name being called. We were pretty much on our own, no security except 911 which was in its early stages and pertained to ambulances only.  It was about 10:45 pm. I could not imagine who on earth was at the door and was more than a little concerned.

‘Patie, Patie Open the door, it’s me, Zu!  Open the door I have to go on the radio’.  Ahmos Zu Bolton was a long time friend (may he rest in peace) and the tireless promoter of Black Arts in the South and owner of Energy Earth Communications a promotion and distribution company for Black Arts.

As  I opened the door, Ahmos burst thru the door clearly upset, tears in his eyes and throat and said, “Ade is dead…I need to go on your show to announce it, everyone listens to your show”.

“Zu, is this for real?  That’s heavy stuff to put out there if it isn’t. If it is then get a couple of poems together and let’s do this, then we’ll finish the show and go out and talk about this.” Ted had already found some suitable background music and had begun playing it softly as background.  We miked Zu and he began reading.

Other than Zu-Bolton who became a dear friend as well as a fellow poet and LT  I never hung out with the men of this group of African American poets, but I knew the women quite well and had  grown close to some of them.  Not, however, Joanne Jimason, wife of Adesanya.  I knew she was around and I knew she was not granting interviews for the year after Adesanya’s death.  As Zu-Bolton prepared to launch her first book, Blowing the Blues Away he asked me if I’d like to interview her at the Poetry Fest at Xavier University in Louisiana.

“You kidding, Zu?  Of course, I’ve love to interview her!”  I squealed.   Zu hung his head down and dug at the floor with the toe of his shoe like a  little kid, “ Uhhhh just one thing, Patie, you cannot talk about or ask any questions about Alakoye.”

At this point my red fro was sticking straight up on my head! ‘Zu! You nuts or something?????’

‘Nope that’s the deal…just the book’.

I plopped down in the chair a bit stunned and said, “ Now how the heck am I supposed to interview someone without talking about a major life turning event like this one?”

I met Joanne early that next morning at a bar and began the interview during which she wound up beginning talking and talking about Ade and a host of things I felt if she realized she were talking about she would never say. I didn’t have the nerve to stop her  although I tried to redirect her a time or two.

Next morning early she called, “Uh Patie, about that interview yesterday.” 

“That’s okay, Joanne, I’ve got plenty of stuff I can use and I’m transcribing it for you to LOOK AT, NOT CHANGE, okay?”  It was more than okay and after I made the performance piece from it I destroyed the raw footage.  Ted, my engineer, was having a stroke, “You’ll never become wealthy with Pollyanna attitudes like that, Patie!”  Yeah yeah…know any rich poets anyhow?

So below is the title poem from Joanne’s book, Blowing the Blues Away .  They hold up amazingly well after some 20 odd years.   And If I can get the reading I did using the poetry and jazz music converted to Mp3’s or something I’ll post it on YouTube or somewhere.  Meanwhile enjoy the words of what I still consider one of the best poets of the 20^th century and if anyone who reads this knows Joanne, share this with her.

Text Copyright 2009 P McRae

Interview Photo taken by Ted Viens