💜💛💚 It's Your Thing: Blankers Gonna Blank

March Madness, Day 4

(Welcome to Day 4 of our March Madness series, with love from Genevieve & Ali & the Ally Show)

Happy Mardi Gras, my friends. We have a very special post today in honor of the holiday.

A few weeks ago I found myself in New Orleans going to the one and only United States National Park that is devoted to the history of jazz, established in 1994.

And as if that weren’t cool enough, I learned through my resourceful friend J that this national park actually has its own jazz band.

Ladies, Gentlemen, Everyone: Meet the Arrowhead Jazz Band

The Arrowhead Jazz Band plays free concerts for the public in the national park building complex in New Orleans.

In this city full of music, yes, there is a special room where a real live jazz band celebrates the history of jazz for free as part of our National Parks system.

Some of these folks are actual bonafide park rangers in uniform, together with friends & guests. They are playing 2pm every Tuesday for the rest of March, for example - you can check the schedule here (search event type Performance or keyword Arrowhead).

When we saw them, the personnel consisted of

• Jade Perdue, bandleader and singer (bonafide park ranger in uniform; she calls herself a “jazz ranger,” see photo below)

• Hunter Miles Davis, drums (bonafide park ranger in uniform)

• Kerry Lewis, Sr., bass (bonafide park ranger in uniform)

• Gladney, sax, vocals, percussion (special guest)

• Michael T., piano (special guest)

Jade Perdue, Gladney, and Hunter Miles Davis. Photo courtesy my resourceful friend J.

The performance was mesmerizing and I’ll share much more about the details of their set list in a future post, but today I want to highlight just one thing.

Here I was, visiting a national park in early February, within the first month of the new administration. The new administration had already starting cutting staff in the National Park system when we sat down for this show.

I couldn’t help but wonder, would the jazz band that is literally part of a national park talk about this? Would these bonafide park rangers in uniform confront it directly, testify about it from the stage, raise their voices about it when they had a captive audience for their paid-for-by-the-taxpayer free show?

The answer was no. At least that’s what I thought.

The closest they came was mentioning that it was Black History Month and that many of the artists whose songs they performed were African-American and part of the creation of blues and jazz music in America. And this at a time when the new administration was asking everyone to forget or hugely downplay Black History Month.

Was I slightly bummed that they hadn’t been slightly more explicit in their “resistance”?

Maybe?

It wasn’t till I was on the plane on the way home from New Orleans that I realized that they had done literally ALL they could to express their views at this particular moment in history. They just hadn’t used stage patter to do it, so it took me a minute to recognize it.

Blankers gonna blank

The musicians of the Arrowhead Jazz Band showed up for that free show and played their hearts out.

The formation of “Blankers gonna blank” that we hear most often is, “Haters gonna hate,” but this also goes for good things:

Jade Perdue gonna sing (oh and she also gonna play the piano and lead the band)

Hunter Miles Davis gonna drum

Kerry Lewis, Sr., gonna bass

Michael T. gonna play that damn piano

Gladney gonna sax, sing, and percuss - and by the way write songs too, check out “Selenite”:

Gladney graced us with a performance of his original song “Selenite” at this very show I’m telling you about. Gladney gonna glad, and he gonna make you glad too:

Gladney makes me glad! You can just about make out Michael T. on piano and Kerry Lewis, Sr., on bass, and there’s Hunter Miles Davis on drums again. Photo courtesy J, sorry it’s blurry but things were just happening! so! fast! at this powerhouse of a show.

That’s how their show conveyed alllll of their feelings and views - it just happened for them, because musicians gonna music, and music gonna affect the people experiencing it every time.

And we can ALL get on this “blankers gonna blank” train as well:

Designers gonna design

Coders gonna code

Writers gonna write

Marketers gonna market

Actors gonna act

Managers gonna manage (product managers are gonna product manage)

Producers gonna produce

Artists gonna art

Engineers gonna engineer

Parents gonna parent

Kids gonna kid

Bakers gonna bake

Walkers gonna walk

Runners gonna run

YouTubers gonna YouTube

Readers gonna read

Leaders gonna lead

&c.

So, if you find yourself at a loss today, maybe you’re wondering what to do about the fact that it’s Mardi Gras but it’s also the Joint Address to Congress &c., I want to encourage you to use those skills you have taken years to develop. If you feel you have no skills, try to put that feeling aside and just do what comes naturally. Pick up the tools of your trade and see what happens:

If you’re a designer, design something

If you’re a coder, code something

If you’re a runner, go for your personal best run

If you’re a writer, write

If you’re a parent, parent

If you’re a kid, kid

If you’re a leader, lead

Let your own hard-won skills guide you gently outta this quagmire, today and every day to come.

You don’t need a masterplan or an explicit response to any particular event.

You don’t need to crystalize your feelings into perfect charming stage patter.

You just need to find the channel for your thoughts and feelings to come out, as messy and as free as they’re gonna be.

If you blank, you’re a blanker

The “blankers gonna blank” formulation also works the other way around.

I have a lot of friends and colleagues who would hesitate to call themselves an “artist” or a “writer” or a “leader” or a this-and-that because they don’t feel worthy of wearing that label.

For example, I almost never describe myself as a “musician” despite the fact that I started music lessons when I was in first grade and have written 100+ songs and have studied singing all over the world and have recorded an album and am raising a family full of musicians. For me, that label is sitting up on a very high pedestal, for reasons I don’t even fully understand. These labels can be so powerful and intimidating.

But here’s the thing - if you blank, you’re a blanker.

I music all the time, so I am a musician, loath as I may be to wear that crown.

And if you blank, you are indeed a blanker. It’s already happening.

Say if you pick up a pencil and draw a teeny-tiny squiggly line, I’d say you can call yourself an artist. You don’t have to say it to anyone else, even me. Just tell yourself yep what if you are an artist already?

See what that validation unlocks in you.

The more the activity matters to you, the harder it might be to unlock the confidence of owning the label, so let your discomfort guide you to keep right at it.

If you need a book to help you wrap your head around the freedom to claim a label and just do a thing, I have a book for you to read. I highly recommend The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, given to me and my kids an eon ago by my friend L, who knows a lot about making stuff happen, from music to design to business to leadership to parenting:

Please stop what you are doing and go read The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. Readers gonna read remember!

Fill in the blanks

Kk so now it’s your turn.

Fill in the blanks:

Today I’m gonna _______ because I’m a _______.

_______ gonna _______, g*d*mn it.

Or just _______ gonna _______ if you don’t like all this swearing I do.

Let me know how it’s going.

How did you fill in those blanks today?

How did it feel?

And don’t go it alone,

Genevieve