That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration

Subject: BS: That Hat
From: Skivee
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 02:21 AM

Wow. I loved it, even if i didn't understand it.
The place that makes it is reported to be swamped with orders.
Is this a great country or what?
PS Aretha though she didn't sound good. I thought she rocked da' joint!

Subject: RE: BS: That Hat
From: bald headed step child
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 02:27 AM

What hat?

Where?

I didn't see any hat.

BHSC

Subject: RE: BS: That Hat
From: open mike
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 02:33 AM

oh, you must mean this one..

http://www.freep.com/article/20090122/COL27/901220379?imw=Y

made in Detroit

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2009/01/inaugural-hat-t.html

(music content:)
we used to sing a song about a hat:

my hat it has 3 corners
3 corners has my hat
and had it not 3 corners
it would not be my hat..

then we would repeat it and each time
put in a motion instead of a word.

Subject: RE: BS: That Hat
From: bald headed step child
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 02:45 AM

Oh, that hat.

I remember that song also.

We also sang it in german and spanish but I don't recall the words to either.

It's like they have totally different words for everything.

BHSC

Subject: RE: BS: That Hat
From: Splott Man
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 03:34 AM

The 3-cornered hat song is German in origin (I think), from a time when Germany and France were at war (not the last 2 times), when the Germans wore 3-cornered hats, and the French wore 2-cornered hats.

But I'll check with my German friend and get back to you.

Subject: RE: BS: That Hat
From: clueless don
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 09:32 AM

That hat?

Where did you get that hat?
Where did you get that tile?
Isn't it a nobby one, all in the proper style?

Don

Subject: RE: BS: That Hat
From: lady penelope
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 09:38 AM

Mein hut er hat drie ecken
Drie ecken hat mein hut
Und hab er nicht drei
So ist es nicht mein hut

I think...

Subject: RE: BS: That Hat
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 10:16 AM

I think there should be anohter "ecken" at the end of line 3.

Subject: RE: BS: That Hat
From: Leadfingers
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 10:17 AM

Needs another 'ecken' at the end of the third line !

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 10:33 AM

I posted this comment in Mudcat's Happy Inauguration Day! thread:

For what it's worth, I think that Aretha Franklin's hat was a stylish replication of traditional Nigerian women's headwraps {which are called "geles" {pronounced gay-lays]in the USA anyway. I'm not sure which language the word "gele" is from.


This website has a number of photos of Nigerian women's headwraps.

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Flash Company
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 10:33 AM

What the ecken does it matter?

I'll get me coat!

FC

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 10:51 AM

Open Mike, here's your hyperlinks:

http://www.freep.com/article/20090122/COL27/901220379?imw=Y

**
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2009/01/inaugural-hat-t.html

-snip-

In that first article whose hyperlink is provided, it's mentioned that the [the hat designer] "Mr. Song Millinery's clientele is 90% African-American, churchgoing women."

The topic of wearing hats to church came up in this Mudcat thread about Black Church Services. In that thread I mentioned that in my experiences in Black churches, the custom was that all females had to cover their heads in church, But that same rule didn't apply for males. Nowadays it appears that most females don't wear hats to the Black churches I attend, though in the spring some women do wear a hat. And I'm aware of a ministers' wives group in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that has an annual luncheon and fashion show that focuses on hat wear. The women try to outdo each other in the purchasing and wearing most stylish hat.

Also, in that same Mudcat thread on Black chucrh services, it was interesting to me to note that in the videos of Jamaican church services and in the video of a Black women's church convention in Nova Scotia, Canada, almost all the women wore hats.

I'm sure that come springtime, or even before that, quite a number of those women will be wearing hats with a large in the front like the hat that Aretha Franklin wore to Barack Obama's inauguration.

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 11:05 AM

What the ecken does it matter?
-Flash Company

At the best of times, I don't have much of a sense of humor {humour}.
But Flash Company, I gathered from your "Let me get my coat" sentence that you were being witty.

But since I've a serious nature, let me say this:

In the scheme of things, this doesn't matter all that much. But it's interesting to see how fashion fads start and change. Imo, that's part of folk culture, which is why this Mudcat thread is above the line and not in the BS section.

For instance, I think that the rule that women's heads should be covered in church but not men's head says something about how that culture considers women. Given that the Holy Spirit is said to come from up above, could rule mean that women are considered to be the "weaker sex" and need more protection from the Holy Spirit?

Or did that rule that females must cover their hair in church originally come about because of hair being a characteristic of beauty, and women were supposed to be modest in church.

Maybe there are different reasons in different Christian denominations for the rule that females must cover their heads in church. But wherever that rule came from, even though it appears to be no longer a hard & fast custom in many Black churches that women must wear hats in church, I definitely believe that that tradition is the reason why 90% of that hat designers' customers are African American churchgoing women.

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 11:19 AM

This thread gives me an excuse to post a link to this video of contemporary African song:

You are my African Queen


This song is sung by 2face idibiah. This video features a musician playing an African instrument that looks like a tradtional banjo. The video also shows some Nigerian women wearing headwraps that are tied and not sown or pinned}.

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Tootler
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 11:21 AM

Not just in Black Churches, Azizi.

When I was young women always wore hats in church here in the UK. In fact most people (men and women) would wear hats when they were out of the house. The custom was that men took their hats off when entering a church, women left theirs on.

Going hatless seems to have started with my generation - those born during and after WWII. My mother gradually stopped wearing a hat most of the time - though she would never go to church without one, but my wife's mother, who was quite a bit older than my mother, never went out without a hat.

I think it was more a social custom than a religious one, but it is surprising how social customs can acquire a religious gloss.

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: NormanD
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 11:34 AM

What struck me most about Aretha Franklin's hat was how bland the colour was. The shape stood out, the shade certainly didn't - it was drab. I have seen groovier hats - both in colour and shape - amongst West African ladies going to and from church in Peckham, South London.

Amid the various crowd shots, one older man stood out - he was wearing a bright red trilby. I guess he knew what he was doing when he chose that colour - we may not remember him, but we remember his titfer!

I agree with Aretha's own estimation of her performance. But I am glad it was she singing rather than one of the oh-so-many over-ornamented younger singers who wring too much melisma out of every syllable.

A reaction by quite a few people over here in london was: "what is she doing singing the British national anthem, "God Save The Queen"? (OK, I know the story behind the shared tunes, and the other nations that use it as their anthem, so let's not get into that one.)

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Trevor Thomas
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 11:41 AM

Tootler I remember the same as you do. When I was a kid, all the older women wore hats in church. However, men had to remove their hats. I think this is still the case - I went to York Minster about 8 years ago and was asked to remove my cap by a very posh sounding feller who was wearing some sort of robe. He was very offended that I had a hat on and there he was, wearing a dress!

Azizi, I belive the origins of this custom to lie in the New Testament. St Paul specifically says that any man praying or prophesying with his head covered dishonours the lord, but at the same time any woman praying or prophsying with her head uncovered dishonours the lord.

I've no idea why, and all it sseems a bit arbitrary to me, to say the least. Still, that's religion I suppose. But I agree with you - these days it's largely tradition and custom, and ladies wear hats because all the other ladies are wearing hats (or don't wear them because nobody else is - depending on the area, I suppose).

These days, in the UK, even older ladies don't wear hats so much except at weddings - at weddings you see a lot of elaborate headgear on the females.

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Big Mick
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 12:38 PM

In all my life I will never forget the opening moments of her song. I will remember her standing on a portico built by slaves, looking out at the mall and to her right, Pennsylvania Avenue where a scant couple of hundred years ago, there were slave pens and hotels where slaveowners had cells in the basement to "store" their slaves in. I then listened as this "Queen of Soul" started to sing the praises of her country, and when she sang the line, "sweet land of liberty", a tear appeared in the corner of my eye as I thought of all those folks who were denied many liberties for no other reason than what they were born as. Then she sang, "..land where my fathers died..." and the depth of that line, and its multiple meanings for this woman and all folks who remember how so many died..... and I started to sob. Some, as noted in this thread, choose to critique the performance, as did Aretha herself. I choose to listen to the words, and try to intuit what they mean to the singer, and myself, and use them as a means to reach deep into the significance of the event. I find myself pondering what this whole thing means to so many, and on so many levels. For the young ones who did not bear witness during their formative years to the outrages of fire hoses and police dogs, the murder of Martin, Malcom, Medgar, the little girls in the church, young Michael in Mobile, Bobby, John, Michael,James and Andrew in Mississippi, and so many others, .... for these young folks racism is a silly abstract. For those of us who did bear witness it is the beginning of the end of a very long struggle, a major victory along the way to a more perfect union. And for all, the hopes for our country captured in this wondrous family and all our hearts.

Yes, the hat is an eyecatcher. Some will mock, others will explain. But for me it was an expression of a much deeper pride, and for the fearful hope, and a vindication of a people. It was really just a frame for a face that has the depth of the ocean in the times it has come through, and a frame for a voice that was singing with love of country and a dream that has disappointed her so many times.

Why is it, friends, that the folks that have the least reason to express this grace, are the ones that are most filled with it?

Great hat, Aretha.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 12:42 PM

Thanks for the information that the custom of women wearing hats in church is found in White as well as non-White church cultures {though isn't the racial references when it comes to churches?}/

Also, Trevor Thomas, thanks for that information about the Biblical source for women covering their heads in church.

I have a vague memories of some church women loaning head scarfs to other women who weren't wearing a hat in church.

A viewer comment from one of the YouTube videos whose link I provided on that Black church service thread wrote "when my grandmother would pin that little floppy white hat on my head. :)
-totallywitit

=snip0

I wrote that I didn't have any memory of that custom, but I now vaguely recall my sisters and I being at church and wearing a paper doily on my hair that was pinned on with small black bobbie pins {remember those?}

I seem to recall that we wore this in place of a hat during some special church service-maybe it was for communion Sunday. But I know it couldn't have been on Easter Sunday, because way back then, no girl or woman would go to church on Easter Sunday without a new Easter hat {hence the words of the song "put on your Easter bonnet/ with all the frills upon it/you'll be the grandest lady/in the Easter parade".

**

NormanD, to each his or her own, but I don't agree wit you that the color of Aretha's hat was bland. I thought it stylishly matched her gray coat and I thought that gray was a better choice for a color than black or red would have been. Not that your comment was in any way negative, but if Aretha had worn red to the inauguration, there'd be all sorts of comments about how she didn't have any taste.

**

I had to look up what a trilby is. A photo of this man's hat can be seen in that Wikipedia page.

**

Did anyone else notice an older Black woman with a black & white head scarf on who was standing near the entrance to the building where Barack Obama and others walked out of? I think she probably was one of his Kenyan relatives.

That woman's head scarf was tied from the front to the back in similar fashion that some women wear a head scarf in the USA. It's not the traditional custom for East African women to tie cloth on their head like the women do in Nigeria and other West African nations.

However, given the largely negative connotations surrounding the custom of Black women wearing of head scarfs in slavery and post slavery times {for instance "Aunt Jemima}, I think that it's fitting that the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, has changed the dynamic and given prominence to a new type of hat worn by African American women, a hat that I believe may have been inspired by traditional West African styles.

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 01:08 PM

I hasten to say that I understand that enslaved Black women couldn't deck themselves with the headwraps that their ancestors wore in West Africa. I understand that there was a utilitarian purpose for those scarfs that 19th century and earlier Black women wore.

And I also know about the history of the tignon that Creole women were forced to wear:

"...tignon (also spelled and pronounced tiyon) is a series of headscarves or a large piece of material tied or wrapped around the head to form a kind of turban that resembles the West African gélé. It was worn by Creole women in Louisiana beginning in the Spanish colonial period, and continuing to a much lesser extent to the present day.

This headdress was the result of sumptuary laws passed in 1785 under the administration of Governor Esteban Rodriguez Miró. Called the tignon laws, they prescribed and enforced appropriate public dress for female gens de couleur in colonial society. At this time in Louisiana history, women of color vied with white women in beauty, dress, ostentation and manners. Many of them had become the placées of white French and Spanish Creole men, and this incurred the jealousy and anger of their wives, mothers, sisters, daughters and fiancées. One complaint that found currency with the authorities was that white men, in pursuing flirtations or liaisons, sometimes mistook and accosted women of the elite for the light-skinned, long-haired, but mixed-race women.

As a result, Governor Miró decreed that women of color and black women, slave or free, should cover their hair and heads with a knotted headdress and refrain from "excessive attention to dress" themselves in jewels or feathers to maintain class distinctions. But the women who were targets of this decree were inventive and imaginative. They decorated tignons with their jewels, ribbons, or by using the finest colored materials with which to wrap their hair. In other words, "[t]hey effectively re-interpreted the law without technically breaking the law"[1]--and they continued to be pursued by men"....

-snip-

That Wikipedia page includes a drawing of a woman wearing a tignon.

Furthermore, I'm aware that Black women in the Caribbean made an art form out of wearing head wraps. I've read in some printed book or magazine that the different ways that the women wore their headwraps in some Caribbean country meant that they were married, or that they were wsingle or the style conveyed some other message.

All of this to say, {excuse me if I brag} but we Black people sure do know how to style!

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 01:25 PM

I think the Brethren (extreme fundie types) still get women to wear hats in church in the UK.

The other place you see women wearing hats in Scotland is in Orange gatherings like the big parades. I used to live in a heavily Orange/Protestant part of Glasgow, and it had a hat shop that looked like a throwback to the 1930s, both in styles and display. I think it's still there.

You get Afro-Caribbean churches in London where the women dress up much like Azizi describes.

The inauguration hat that caught my eye was Pete Seeger's. It looked like an invertebrate alien that had made a bad landing.

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: ClaireBear
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 01:33 PM

I used to live in Oakland (California), which has a large African American population, and every Sunday when I drove down Alcatraz Avenue I'd notice the fabulous millinery (fabulous clothes from head to toe, in fact) spilling out of the various Baptist churches, which in Oakland are the African American churches.

Hence I've always wanted to write a song called "Baptist Hats" about the joy and exuberance of the African American style of worship (contrasted to the drabness of that of my white Catholic experience back then), but probably that title wouldn't work because to most it would suggest white Baptists -- right? So what should I call it? Maybe if I had a good title I'd actually write the song.

I loved Aretha's hat. And I have been known to wear head wraps, but never one as classy as that!

Claire

Subject: RE: That Hat
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 03:13 PM

One line in Jay Leno's monologue last night was something to the effect of:

"Obama was sworn in, and his first official act was to issue an executive order pardoning Aretha Franklin's hat."

Whatever your culture or fashion sense, that hat WAS an amazing sight.

To stodgy ol' me, who has neither much culture OR fashion sense, the hat was 'distracting'.

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 04:39 PM

Remember when Jackie Kennedy created the lace mantilla craze and everyone wore a mantilla to church.

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: MissouriMud
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 04:59 PM

I think Aretha has earned the right to wear pretty much any hat she wants.   As for her voice - I thought it was just grand for anyone in that weather, let alone a 66 year old.   I understand the string ensemble that played (Yoyo, Ishtak ect al) wouldnt even let their sound go out over the PA because of concerns their instruments would be out of tune due to weather (no doubt true) so, while they played live they had a recording they made two days earlier go out over the PA.   I guess Aretha could have done that but I'm glad she didnt - it was beautiful the way it was

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 05:11 PM

Okay. here's proof that I actually do have a sense of humor:

Aretha's Hat Is Everywhere

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 05:19 PM

The lace mantillas never caught on among Catholics in Wisconsin during the Kennedy era - they still wore babushkas (or, in emergency, Kleenex).

-Joe-

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: maire-aine
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 05:40 PM

The lace mantillas (or chaplets, that were about the size & shape of a crocheted doily, and yes kleenex in some cases) were only needed for a few years. By the mid-sixties, VaticanII & the associated freedoms had freed women from the obligation to cover their heads in Catholic churches (except in the most extremely conservative congregations). When I finished 8th grade, we still covered our heads; by the time I graduated from high school, nobody did. By the time I went to Italy in '72, everybody was shocked when they told us we had to cover our head to go into St Peter's.

When I first saw Aretha, I was surprised by the hat, because the bow was a little large, but it is winter, so I hadn't expected her to be bare-headed. The more I see it, the better I like it.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: PoppaGator
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 05:42 PM

Prior to the mid 1960s and Vatican II, Roman Catholic practice was for males never to wear any kind of head covering in church, while females were absolutely required to have something, anything, on top of their heads. Like Joe said: "(or, in emergency, Kleenex)."

I don't remember the mantilla as coming into style with Jackie Kennedy. My recollection is that it was already established as an alternative to a real hat for churchgoing Catholic women. A mantilla was (is?) a fairly flimsy bit of lace you could drop onto your skull in order to comply with the headwear rule. I'm sure there were specific ways to folk, drape, and position it for maximum fashion conformity.

I feel pretty sure that those gender-specific headwear-in-church rules gdate back for centuries, and were probably in force throughout Christendom even before the Protestant Reformation. Now, only a half-century after the rules were relaxed by the last remaining institution to take these rules seriously, the whole deal seems to be very largely forgotten.

Now, traditional Jewish practice is to require men to cover, not uncover, their heads in the sanctuary. I have no idea what the rule might be for women. Anybody? Anybody?

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 05:52 PM

I watched the inauguration in the office with colleagues, and had to explain both that "My country 'tis of thee" shares a tune with the British national anthem, and that Sydney Carter's Lord of the Dance borrowed a tune from the Gift to be Simple!

Kitty

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 06:13 PM

I loved her hat. I thought it looked absolutely gorgeous against her beautiful dark skin, that pale silver and grey, with sparkles all around the bow...

And man, WHAT a BOW! :0)

You gotta have style and presence to carry off hats, not everyone can do it, but Aretha got it exactly right. *Nothing* else she wore detracted from the hat, all else was plain and elegant, because the hat was the icing on the cake. A bit like her new President.

Yes, 'God Save The Queen'...Oh, the times I've sung that tune to different words. Every day of my junior school life, every time you saw the late film in the cinema, everyone used to stand up and wait for it to be played.

I bet the Queen was watching it and thought "Oh nooooooooooo not *that* bloomin' tune, AGAIN!" :0)

A very moving and special day for everyone there and everyone watching.

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Peter T.
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 06:27 PM

I thought she was great -- actually the best performance at the end -- and the hat was a reminder that she is now A BIG WOMAN.

One of the nicest things still about a Sunday around where I live is that the black women go to church, and there is no nonsense: they dress up smart, smart, smart.   A real dignity.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Skivee
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 06:57 PM

Azizi, thanks for posting the link. Doesn't our citizen ex-veep look sharp with that hat?

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Skivee
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 07:03 PM

I just found a typo in my original post
"PS Aretha though she didn't sound good. I thought she rocked da' joint!" should have read:
PS Aretha THOUGHT she didn't sound good. I thought she rocked da' joint!

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inaugura
From: RTim
Date: 23 Jan 09 - 07:39 PM

But why did she pitch that song sooooooooo High??????????

Tim

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Mark Ross
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 02:44 AM

Actually. Perlman and Ma soaped their bows so they wouldn't make a sound. The piano had the keys disconnected from the hammer.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 03:12 AM

Our local paper says that copies of the hat are available for $180. I liked it. It looks like the kind of hat black women wear to church - with an air of flamboyance and fun. It may be hard for some people to think of Aretha as a church lady, but she IS a preacher's kid and often sang in her father's church in Detroit. I have a wonderful CD of a gospel concert she did at her father's church.

Our Catholic church isn't heated on choir practice night. I'm getting thin on top, so I sometimes wear my had inside during practice. One guy, a member of the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternal organization), made a big stink about my disrespectful wearing of a hat. This week, I remembered to tell him that the Knights wear hats (and swords) in church (click) - that shut him up.

Next week, I think I'll wear a obamayarmulke to choir practice. That, or an Aretha hat....

-Joe-


I was a bit of an unbeliever when Mark said Yo Yo Ma and Perlman soaped their bows, but the New York Times says it's so. They "bow-synched" the piece, a recording they made two days earlier. It was a wonderful performance of a John Williams arrangement of "Simple Gifts," but I'm not quite as impressed now...

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inaugura
From: NormanD
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 06:35 AM

Poppa D asked:
"Now, traditional Jewish practice is to require men to cover, not uncover, their heads in the sanctuary. I have no idea what the rule might be for women. Anybody? Anybody?"

I don't play with that team any more, but memory tells me that women also keep their heads covered, with hats or scarves, whereas 'girls' (not my definition or word') go bare-headed. Ultra-orthodox women wear wigs - usually sculpted and quite ostentatious looking hair pieces - and maybe a lid on top of that. I've done my best to forget all that, so excuse imprecision.

And Lizzie Cornish, our words to the national anthem? Lots, such as :
"God save our pussy cats
Feed them on bacon scraps
God save our cats...."

Ahaha, I detect a serious case of thread drift......

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Azizi
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 09:06 AM

One of the topics of conversation at a social event that I attended yesterday was how White tv entertainers and White journalists couldn't understand that Aretha Franklin's hat was in the tradition of other stylish Black women's "church hats". Fwiw, with only one exception in a group of 26 Black women ranging in age from 27 to 84 years, the women loved Aretha's hat, though some said that they wouldn't wear it.

See this repost of a comment that I added to Mudcat's Black Church Services thread:

Subject: RE: Black Church Services
From: Azizi - PM
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 08:56 AM

Here's an excerpt from an online review of the photographic book:
Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats by Michael Cunningham & Craig Marberry

[shown there with the cover photo]

"Countless black women would rather attend church naked than hatless. For these women, a church hat, flamboyant as it may be, is no mere fashion accessory; it's a cherished African American custom, one observed with boundless passion by black women of various religious denominations. A woman's hat speaks long before its wearer utters a word. It's what Deirdre Guion calls "hattitude...there's a little more strut in your carriage when you wear a nice hat. There's something special about you." If a hat says a lot about a person, it says even more about a people-the customs they observe, the symbols they prize, and the fashions they fancy.

Photographer Michael Cunningham beautifully captures the self-expressions of women of all ages-from young glamorous women to serene but stylish grandmothers. Award-winning journalist Craig Marberry provides an intimate look at the women and their lives. Together they've captured a captivating custom, this wearing of church hats, a peculiar convergence of faith and fashion that keeps the Sabbath both holy and glamorous".

-snip-

And here's a link to an online review of the photographic book:

Soul Sanctuary: Images of the African American Worship Experience
by Jason Miccolo Johnson (Author), Gordon Parks (Contributor), Cain Hope Felder (Contributor), Barbranda Lumpkins Walls (Contributor), Dr. H. Beecher Hicks (Contributor)

"SOUL SANCTUARY is a photographic celebration of the most influential institution in the black communitythe black churchand its unique worship experience. The first illustrated gift book to depict the spiritual dimension of the black church and the pride that prevails within the church-going family, SOUL SANCTUARY is a multidenominational journey into the heart of the black worship experience. Churches in small rural and urban storefronts and large inner-city and suburban mega churches are featured. As the official photographer for Washington, DCs African Methodist Episcopal Church for the past 25 years, Jason Miccolo Johnson is a passionate church insider. His unique status gives his work a rare quality of intimacy as he captures the unbridled spirit of the black church through its congregants facial expressions and body language, their uniforms and dress, and, ultimately, the dignity of their worship.

About the Author
Jason Miccolo Johnson has been the African Methodist Episcopal Church's official photographer for the past 25 years. He has covered the annual conventions of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Church of God in Christ, and the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. He is a former production assistant at ABC Network News' Good Morning America in Washington, D.C.

Barbranda Lumpkins Walls is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years of experience in newspapers, magazines, and online media. She spent 13 years as an editor at USA Today and was managing editor at Heart & Soul, a healthy lifestyles magazine for African-American women, and then programming director for AOL Black Voices".

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Mooh
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 10:05 AM

The hat was great! She has presence.

However, she took a breath in the middle of words and her phrasing wasn't what it could have been. Maybe not her best day.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Charmion
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 12:38 PM

That hat was remarkably like one my grandmother -- resident of Montreal, and very English -- wore with great éclat circa 1925.

I have been watching the HBO series "The Wire" on DVD. In an episode concerning the rivalry between Omar Little, robber of drug-dealers, and the Barksdale organization of pushers and murderers, Omar is attacked one Sunday morning when he drops out of his normal wicked life to take his grandmother to church. (In the alternate universe of "The Wire", Baltimore's drug dealers observe a truce on Sunday morning so all parties to the conflict can go to church with their families in peace.) The gunmen who draw down on Omar fail to kill him, but put a bullet through his grandmother's Sunday hat -- "she church crown", to quote Omar. To punish the gunman for breaking the church truce, the Barksdales force him to replace the hat.

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Nerd
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 03:21 PM

The prescriptions about covered heads for women and uncovered heads for men are in 1 Corinthians 11. The logic is very tortured, so rather than me gussing at the meaning, here it is, KJV:

3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.


4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.


5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.


6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.


7 For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.


8 For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man.


9 Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.


10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.


11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.


12 For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.


13 Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?


14 Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?


15 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.


Okay, Paul. Whatever you say.

Nice hat, Aretha!

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Azizi
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 03:47 PM

Thanks for posting that Biblical reference, Nerd!

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 03:48 PM

And Mudcat already has a thread about the appropriate song:

Where Did You Get That Hat?

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Peter T.
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 04:34 PM

Another classic contradiction: the final verse says the woman has long hair as a covering -- then doesn't that mean she already has a hat-like thing on her head? Why another one?

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inaugura
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 05:53 PM

Traditionally, Jewish men cover their heads at all times, not just at services. Reform Judaism largely did away with that; at the congregation I went to in New York City 50 years ago, head covering was optional for men at services. If a Reform Jewish man wore a hat outside of services, or a Reform Jewish woman wore one at any time, it had to do with style, not religion.

Things have changed, and nowadays covering the head is expected of all men at Reform services, and many women also cover their heads.

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: JennieG
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 07:08 PM

I can remember that women always wore a hat to church, even as a little Sunday-school going girl I wore a straw hat. By the time I was a teenager we still wore hats for warmth in winter but only a pretty bow and/or flower concoction (I made my own) in summer, as a nod to the custom. However the older - my mother's and grandmother's generations - clung to their hats for a while longer. At weddings, the people in the wedding party wore hats but they became optional for other attendees. The girls/women who attended the Catholic churches wore the lace mantilla if they didn't wear a hat. This was in a country town in Oz in the late 50s-early 60s, I imagine it was the same the world over - it was a conservative time everywhere.

I thought Aretha looked stylish and certainly warm!

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 08:28 PM

Muslim men often cover their heads too, particularly when praying in mosques. It seems to be entirely a personal matter (in Turkey, anyway). It's quite common for men to use small knitted skullcaps - smaller and stretchier than the typical Jewish yarmulke, and never held on with a pin - I think the idea is that the most devoted mosque-goers have little enough hair left that a pin would be pointless, so they grip by friction. Also they fit easily in your pocket. I carry one in Turkey to wear when it might help to fit in.

Jeremy Seal's "A Fez of the Heart" is one of the oddest travel books I've read. He goes round Turkey tracing the history of state intervention in men's headgear. As with women's head coverings, a frequent theme is that the worst intolerance (up to the point of massacre) has more often been on the part of the secularists. I can see on the web that there is a Turkish dance-song "The Man Who Passes By Selling Caps" (relating to Ataturk's forcible imposition of the Western flat cap) but haven't yet managed to find the song itself.

Subject: RE: That Hat - Aretha Franklin singing at inauguration
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Feb 17 - 12:35 AM

This is a performance in December, 2015. Looks like Aretha's still going strong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diwF1-xJwZM