Norman Jordan opens Jordan Collection in Malden, more
Norman Jordan, December 2007
Jordan Photographic Collection now in Malden at Norton House
Norman Jordan has been invited by WVSU to move part of his father’s photography collection to the Norton House in Malden, across the street from Booker T. Washington’s African Zion Baptist Church. It will be open the first and second Saturdays of each month from 10 AM to 5 PM. Jordan still lives in Tennessee where his wife is a professor teaching at a small college. Below is info about a new autobiographical article he wrote for Prof. Buriss of Radford University and other info on one of WV’s most creative and influential writers.
Professor Teresa Buriss teaches at Radford University in Virginia and is the senior contributing editor to “Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts and Culture.” I have been working with her on a new book about women leaders in Appalachia. I told her about Norman Jordan, WV’s leading Affrilachian poet. She asked me to write an article about him, so I tracked him down, and he wrote a great article that should be published next spring in Pluck!
In 2003 I previewed several films on Appalachia from a media company located in Cincinatti called Media Working Group. The film that I recall most vividly is “Coal Black Voices.” Since I have not been able to order films since 1997, I was unable to purchase a copy for use in WV, but I am sure I reviewed it in Graffiti magazine. Now, thanks to Professor Theresa Burriss, Contributing Senior Editor, Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture, my interest in Affrilachians has been revived. Indeed, my good friend Sanford Berman would like to convince the Library of Congress to create a new subject heading.[ Update 12.11.07 - the Library of Congress on 8.07 has used the term “Affrilachian” under its classification “African Americans Appalachian Region.”Congrats to Sandy.]
There is a great website for the film “Coal Black Voices” where you can watch the entire film or buy a DVD of it. There are also lesson plans, etc. Below is my description for the 2008 Goldenseal list of “new and once lost films on WV and Appalachia.”
COAL BLACK VOICES
2003 56 min. Media Working Group Features the work of the Affrilachian Poets, an ensemble of African-American and minority writers from Appalachia and the South who challenge the notions of an all-white region and culture and celebrate their African heritage and rural roots while encompassing themes of racism and black identity. Frank X Walker, consulting producer on this film, is a writer and founding member of the Affrilachian Poets. His photographs, poetry, short stories and essays have been featured in numerous publications, including “The Appalachian Journal,” and “Spirit and Flame: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry.” He has recently published his first book of poems by Old Cove Press called “Affrilachia.” He coined the term “Affrilachian.” Film website with study guides and place to purchase DVD - http://www.mwg.org/production/documentary/voices/. ( Available on-line also.)
Frank X. Walker’s website - http://www.frankxwalker.com/index.htm.
West Virginia has several Affrilachian poets, most notably Norman Jordan. Jordan worked in The Division of Culture and History for years, and after a struggle with the internal politics about the agency’s politics on Camp Washington-Carver, once a camp for African-American children in the state, resigned. He returned to his native town of Anstead and maintained his own musuem based on the photography of one of his ancestors. Here is part of an article that he wrote for Goldenseal magazine about his photographer/grandfather - http://www.wvculture.org/goldenseal/jordan.html.Jordan was once a well-known poet in Cleveland where a film was made about him. Here is my description of the film which can be borrowed at any WV public library from WVLC.
Dead Ends and New Dreams
25 mins. 1973 Case Western University VHS and 16 MMNorman Jordan is most famous for his museum in Ansted, West Virginia- African
American Heritage Family Tree Museum. In his 20s, he lived in Cleveland and was a leading poet. He worked with Jules Dassin on his film,”Up Tight!” [ Dassin was a very well known Hollywood activist director most famous for “Never on Sunday” and “The Naked City.”] For many years he was the director of the youth camp at Camp Washington-Carver for the Division of Culture and History, and worked in Archives. He also called himself “Peter Jesus” for several years. Access: WVLC. Jordan portrayed Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History, for years through the WV Humanities Council’s History Alive! program. He was also part of a book by William Drennen, the past commissioner of The Division of Culture & History, called ” Red White Black & Blue: Dual Memoir Of Race & Class In Appalachia” that Drennen wrote with his Charleston boyhood friend Koko Jones.
