June is Black Music Month, but as we like to say for us black music is 24/7/365 for nearly 40 years now! Black roots music to be exact. Yep, that’s def what our genre is; zydeco is music born to the black and mixed race French speaking creators of Louisiana. Hard stop. Many also identify as Creole, which is just another definition to further describe our unique history and heritage. My Louisiana brothers and sisters come in all colors, just like our African American brethren do every where around the world.
We are committed to continue to do our part to uphold the values that are paramount to our success and the success of our colleagues who work professionally in music as POC, small business owners and in my case, also a teaching artist. We have long been keeping this message of diversity and inclusion in our mission. By heritage and history, our group kind of embodies what racial inclusion and diversity looks like in America. Our history is one of many challenges as well as many victories living and working in the Deep South and often times in a music industry/performing arts field, where racial equality isn’t always the norm. In fact some might say the music industry is one of the greatest offenders of racial and gender inequality.
Let me be crystal clear though, we have been beyond fortunate to work with some of the most righteous and fair people in this business. They are not just business associates, but are more like family and close friends. Many of our greatest allies in this journey were not African American, but are white and they saw our cultural and racial identity as an asset to their programming and mission. Truth.
Of course one of the first to support a group of young brothers from rural SoLA, Terrance Simien & The Mallet Playboys, was our Cajun cousins Richard Landry and Tina Girouard, a once married couple living in Cecilia, LA. They exposed this country kid of 19-20 to a world of bohemian visual artists, photographers and musicians who were not black. Dickie went on to manage us for a few years, and if it were not for Tina – we would not have had Dickie – she nudged him along to see us perform, toothache and all! Next up, were my Latino brothers in Los Lobos who gave me & my bandmates an amazing opportunity to tour with them in 1987 when “La Bamba” hit number one on the Billboard charts. Check this y’all: a Mexican American rock band from East L.A. brings mixed race Creole zydeco group on tour for 6 weeks to show their audiences what black roots music from Louisiana looked and sounded like.
Later in our career, Dave Matthews Band/Coran Capshaw and the late Robert Palmer/Ron Kaplan, Paradigm Artists – both put us on their stages, and in front of their audiences as well. Predominantly white Blues societies all over the country presented zydeco along side black blues artists. The U.S State Department, Ambassadors and career civil servants around the globe have helped shine a light on African Americans who they value as a vital part of America’s multicultural and multiracial identity.
There are too many promoters, arts presenter, club owners and festival organizers to acknowledge right here in this limited space and time – but they know who they are and they have never wavered in their support of black artists, culture and celebrated our history together. They have ensured fair performance opportunities with equitable compensation.
Sadly though, there are still many white audiences who are not being exposed to black artists, and if they are – there are not enough BIPOC* on these stages. We can and should better as a country. *Black, Indigenous and People of Color.
The Recording Academy, of which I am proud to be a two time GRAMMY award winner, and on the Board of Governors, Memphis Chapter – came out with some solid action points to shine a light on black music & its creators. We applaud them and their plan:
- Amplify the voices of Black creators: We commit to amplifying the voices of Black creators and will host a series of live and digital programs and events to promote Black music and shine a light on racial injustice.
- We will publish a digital catalogue of Black artists across genres that the world should know and support
- Educate: We are committed to making the Recording Academy a diverse and inclusive environment for underrepresented communities to work and thrive. We have a lot of work to do and recognize that learning (and unlearning) inclusive practices is key.
- We will be hosting a series of internal conversations to inform our D&I strategy and to educate managers on how to lead diverse teams
- We will be launching an Inclusion Rider to be implemented at the Recording Academy with the goal for it to be used across the entire music industry
- We recently hired a Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer and have seen the value, therefore, we are appealing to music companies and major labels to add a Diversity & Inclusion leadership position to their organizational chart
Love and respect to you and yours.
#InclusionIsIntentional
~TS