{"id":552,"date":"2006-04-05T21:10:19","date_gmt":"2006-04-05T21:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/2006\/04\/psychic-convers.html"},"modified":"2006-04-05T21:10:19","modified_gmt":"2006-04-05T21:10:19","slug":"psychic-convers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/04\/psychic-convers.html","title":{"rendered":"“Psychic Conversion” (p1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Malcolmx_2\"<\/a> Ray Bakke calls it the "second conversion."  Malcolm X called it a "Psychic Conversion."<\/strong>  It is what happens when we realized that we are not just individuals but also part of a group.  It occurs when we realize that our culture can live in concert with the cultures around us.  It is born of rage and internal conflict and Jazz is essential to experience it.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Cornel West, when speaking of Malcolm X and his "Psychic Conversion," speaks of jazz as being more than music but a consciousness<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFurthermore, the cultural hybrid character of black life leads us to highlight a metaphor alien to Malcolm X\u2019s perspective\u2014yet, consonate with his performances to audiences\u2014namely, the metaphor of jazz.  <\/span>I use the term \u201cjazz\u201d here not so much as a term for a musical art form, as for a mode of being in the world, and improvisational mode of protean, fluid, and flexible dispositions toward reality suspicious of \u201ceither\/or\u201d viewpoints, dogmatic pronouncements, or supremacist ideologies.  <\/span>To be a jazz freedom fighter is to attempt to galvanize and energize world-weary people into forms of organization with accountable leadership that promote critical exchange and broad reflection.  <\/span>The interplay of individuality and unity is not one of uniformity and unanimity imposed from above but rather of conflict among diverse groupings that reach a dynamic consensus subject to questioning and criticism.  <\/span>As with a soloist in a jazz quartet, quintet or band, individuality is promoted in order to sustain and increase the creative<\/em> tension with the group\u2014a tension that yields higher levels of performance to achieve the aim of the collective project.  <\/span>This kind of critical and democratic sensibility flies in the face of any policing of borders and boundaries of \u201cblackness,\u201d \u201cmaleness,\u201d \u201cfemaleness,\u201d or \u201cwhiteness.\u201d  <\/span>(Race Matters, p150-51)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To be continued…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ray Bakke calls it the "second conversion."  Malcolm X called it a "Psychic Conversion."  It is what happens when we realized that we are not just individuals but also part of a group.  It occurs when we realize that our culture can live in concert with the cultures around us.  It is born of rage…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"yoast_head":"\n"Psychic Conversion" (p1) - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/04\/psychic-convers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Psychic Conversion" (p1) - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ray Bakke calls it the "second conversion."  Malcolm X called it a "Psychic Conversion."  It is what happens when we realized that we are not just individuals but also part of a group.  It occurs when we realize that our culture can live in concert with the cultures around us.  It is born of rage…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/04\/psychic-convers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-04-05T21:10:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/jazztheologian.typepad.com\/findingthegroove\/images\/malcolmx_2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Gelinas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Psychic Conversion\" (p1) - The Jazz Theologian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2006\/04\/psychic-convers.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Psychic Conversion\" (p1) - 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Robert Gelinas on Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01","name":"Robert Gelinas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","caption":"Robert Gelinas"},"description":"\"For more information visit: Jazztheologian.com Robert Gelinas is Lead-Pastor (and resident Jazz Theologian) of Colorado Community Church\u00e2\u20ac\u201da multi-cultural, interdenominational community of 3000+ followers of Christ in the Denver area. Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}