The Holy in Between Show
I started a show! Called The Holy in Between, on YouTube.
Years ago, I became obsessed with in between spaces, realizing that’s where change and therefore magic happens. There are so many blueprints available to us for living healthy, wholesome and joyous lives, but these blueprints were not created by those who played it safe.
The blueprints come from those who weren’t afraid to experiment and get funky with it! Sister Rosetta Tharpe (singer, songwriter, and guitarist) comes to mind, specifically her ability to understand and conjure the very fine line between gospel, rhythm and blues, as well as rock n roll. Her growing up in the church taught her discipline, but being queer, open to expansion and exploring that in between space by mastering the electric guitar?? THAT’S what made her the legend known as The Godmother of Rock n Roll.
Rosetta Nubin (or Rosether Atkins) March 20, 1915 - October 9, 1973 (aged 58)
And because this life is made up of math, when researching Sister Tharpe, my ears perked up because we done seen this before. When Kirk Franklin started introducing secular music to his gospel ensembles, it had the church up in arms. I remember my dad, our choir director, choosing to get funky and have the choir at our church sing Kirk’s controversial mainstream hits. It got the people talking lol.
Then a couple of decades later, Kanye and his Sunday Service Choir did theee absolute most with the Jesus is Born album. I wasn’t Christian anymore when the album came out, but I definitely had opinions about them remaking So Anxious by Ginuwine. Ginuwine?!?!?! Yeah, ya’ll wildin lol but then a friend later confided in me about their experience at a Sunday Service Choir event. About how they felt the Holy Spirit and were considering getting baptized.
My mind was blown, but hey - the magic of expansion happens when we tap into those holy in between spaces. Artists used popular, mainstream music to create relatability with the masses, and then added their own message that was in alignment with their specific purpose.
That’s what the Holy in Between is about.
Taking the blueprints of those who came before us and adding our own funk to it, inevitably leaving our mark on the world. Ancient wisdom is all around us, but our society has made it taboo to talk about or even acknowledge.
This is why our history is being banned and discouraged from being taught in schools. Our resilience is something they mystify as black girl magic, black boy joy, etc. But that’s the kicker, it’s not some out of this world phenomenon - it’s who we are when we are tapped into these in between spaces.
Last example before I take my seat (this is where you say, take your time preacher lol). This project was also incredibly inspired by Victor Green and his wife, Alma, the creators of the Green Book. I went down the rabbit hole of how the Negro Motorist Travel Book wasn’t just a way to escape the terrifying Jim Crow South, as most records would have us believe.
It was a vehicle for movement, a third option that was conjured by the creativity of our ancestors. We didn’t just have to take their shit, and we are too proud of a people to just roll over and die, so what did we do?
We created hubs of wealth, resources and community that allowed us to continue living within our ingenuity during some scary ass times. Victor Green just so happen to write it all down, and follow the thread of HIS destiny. As a postal worker, he had access to the systems that connected these hubs - the mail. This led to him paying his coworkers and beyond for tips of restaurants, hotels, stores and other services to include in the Green Book.
Because of this, I LOATHE how this resource is referred to as just a way to escape Jim Crow. It was an electrifying undercurrent that pushed our people from:
→ Jim Crow to
→ The Great Migration & joining the work force, breaking glass ceilings in new industries like Ford Motors in Detroit, the mines in California to
→ LEISURE! We had schmoney to spend, during a time in which they were pouring acid into their pools so we would stay out. So, we transformed the Green Book into a travel agency, documenting delicious fun in places like Idlewild, Michigan and Harlem in which we were able to let loose and enjoy each other. This led to
→ The Civil Rights Movement, oh yes. The book transformed again to include segments on knowing our rights, as well as documenting historically infamous Green Book locations like the A.G. Gaston Motel, that expanded into having it’s own “War Room” for Civil Rights leaders to meet and strategize.
Shortly after the Civil Rights Act was signed, Victor Green transitioned. His wife, Alma continued publishing volumes, which (to me) feels like a double whammy of not only a completed purpose, but divine partnership that has it’s own separate purpose and destiny outside of each person’s individual destiny.
I became obsessed with researching the still standing sites from the Green Book, seeing the connection in my own family history of growing up in an RV traveling down south to Mississippi during summers, and how that led to my comfort in traveling abroad and living a semi-nomadic lifestyle. We’ll talk more about this on the show, but do you see the magic?
The in between spaces are things that were second nature to those who came before us: community, divination, herbs, ancestor veneration, ritual, more specifically ritual around death, divine partnership, grandma’s recipes, travel, geometry and math, etc. etc. etc.
I truly do believe that it iis our responsibility to study these spaces, and continue adding to the canon with our own ase, our unique talents and gifts.
Compound them blessings, as we create a new world.
This is the show's background, and the next entry will give more context about this space—The Holy Diaries.
See you there,
Janiece Ifasooto