Yeah, LEJ, I read about it in one of the links, the three usual parts of the show.... but being still such a student and not an expert (much less priestess, sheeshe Jaque!), I would not want to expand upon it myself but rather refer you to the links and ask that you look around and see what you find with which to address that.

I read a lyric this AM that was about a black person doing something bad and tied out to be bird-plucked or something, and the verses go through a succession of near misses that become victories. It ends with the last bird choosing to free him instead, cuz it's the bird of freedom. OK, lousy paraphrase, but the point was-- imagine in the middle of a white audience at a minstrel show, hearing THAT!? But then maybe that one was for the black audience.

And there is the fascination of the dry, cracked sheets of paper so lovingly scanned into our present memories.... just what they heck were they DOING?

It's recent enough we can ALMOST remember it for ourselves, but just out of reach except by passed-along stories about it.

So near, and so very, very far.

~Susan