Josey’S Jazz: A Historical Novella

By Celeste M. Lennon

It is 1927 and Josey is an African American teenager living in the rural Deep South. Unfortunately Josey is unhappy, unsatisfied, and desperate to make her life whole. Finally with encouragement from her friends Deek and Martha, Josey decides she is deserving of happiness, ignores her grandmothers wishes for her to become a teacher, and embarks on a journey to the North where she hopes to fulfill her dream of becoming a singer.

After Josey hops a train and arrives in Harlem, she meets up with Martha and Deek who help her find a place to live and introduce her to the Harlem nightlife. But in the midst of Prohibition and rampant racism, Josey soon realizes that her dream may be more difficult to attain than she imagined. It is only after she sneaks into an underground club and takes the stage that everything begins to transform for Josey.

Joseys Jazz shares the tale of an African American teenager who sets out on a quest to follow her heart and pursue her dream of becoming a jazz singer in 1920s Harlem.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jul 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781480842472

Celeste M. Lennon

Celeste M. Lennon is from a rural town in North Carolina. She has spent over fifteen years in the education field. She enjoys working with youth in schools and churches. In her spare time, she enjoys writing about issues of everyday life. She is the mother of one daughter named Nyla. Celeste would like for you to like the Celeste M. Lennon Facebook page for new releases and giveaways. Feel free to share your thoughts with her on the following sites: Twitter: @CelestialAuthor Instagram: celeste_m_lennon_books Wix: celestelennon.wix.com/celeste Facebook: Celeste M. Lennon

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Copyright © 2017 Celeste M. Lennon.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-4246-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-4247-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017900441

Archway Publishing rev. date: 06/29/2017

Contents

Chapter One Empty

Chapter Two The Getaway

Chapter Three Harlem

Chapter Four Nightlife

Chapter Five Rent Party

Chapter Six Getting Rough

Chapter Seven Daddy

Chapter Eight Alone

Chapter Nine Deek’s In Trouble

To Josey, a figment of my imagination.

A 1920s version of me.

There is no secret to success except hard work and getting something indefinable, which we call the ‘breaks.’ In order for a writer to succeed, I suggest three things: read and write—and wait.

—COUNTEE CULLEN

CHAPTER ONE

Empty

Empty. Empty was the way I felt all the time. I spent my whole life searching—searching for something. Something was nagging and drawing me to look for it, but I had no idea where to start looking. I was longing for something. I felt like a part of me was missing, but I had no idea what to do to fill that void or how I could make my life whole.

I often complained to my Grandma Tish, to no avail. I would often make a fuss about my life and how I was so unsatisfied and not content with the things around me. She didn’t seem to quite understand me, though. She thought I was being selfish and rebellious. She said I ought to be grateful to grow up in a time that I didn’t know anything about the institution of slavery. I could understand why she felt the way she did to a certain extent, but I was a young gal looking to have fun.

Grandma Tish was born in 1854 to Geechee slave parents. They were descendants of West African slaves who were brought over to South Carolina and forced to work in rice paddies and cotton fields.

I loved my culture and my heritage. I loved the way my grandmother spoke Gullah. My accent growing up was strong, but I learned how to suppress it around people who were different from me. Sometimes I would get ashamed when other children told me that my speech sounded strange. Children would laugh at me and say I talked funny. I didn’t want to feel like an outcast, so I worked very hard to pronounce the English language correctly.

Grandma Tish was but a toddler when slaves were emancipated, but she saw many of the struggles of her ancestors. She grew up hearing about the cruelty and barbarity of enslavement from her family. Even though her parents were free after the emancipation, they were still bound to the land, because they had nowhere else to go. Some of the slaves who lived in the quarters with them left in search of other family members. Some left in hopes of seeking better opportunities up North. Some of the slaves just fell in love with the idea of being free, not under their old master’s hand, and left to start a life elsewhere. Some folks got together and formed their own towns on the opposite side of the tracks, the side of the tracks that was created for blacks to live and stay out of white communities. Others decided to stay and stick things out. That was the story of my family. They stayed to stick things out.

My great-grandparents were among those who decided to stay. They were offered a wage that was less than decent, but they had no other choice. And so they became sharecroppers and did what they had to do, until they could do better. My people had hope. A hope for a better tomorrow. The first-generation slaves who came over wished to be free so they could go back to the Motherland, Africa. As more generations of slaves were born, the thought of going back to Africa disappeared, because our native ties were severed. We just wanted freedom.

My great-granddaddy had dreams for his family. He dreamed that we would be more than somebody’s property. He was determined to make a better life for generations to come.

One thing that Grandma Tish always shared with me was that her parents had each other. Her mother, Eliza, once told her that there was a rumor that Grandma Tish’s father, Isaac, was to be sold along with five other men to help their master with a financial debt. This was heartbreaking news for Eliza, and she tried everything she could to sabotage those plans. She talked to other slaves who worked in what they called the Big House. The Big House was where the master lived with his family. Only the lighter-skinned slaves worked in the Big House, while darker-skinned slaves toiled in the fields. Eliza was a field slave.

Eliza asked a few of them to sneak in and get Isaac’s selling papers. There were only a few slaves who could read. If an illiterate slave happened to come across my great grandfather’s selling papers, they wouldn’t have known what they were reading no how. On top of that, it was putting other slaves at risk, and no one wanted to get involved. Grandma Tish told me that it was hard for Eliza to find slaves willing to help her. Meddling was a serious offense. Stealing was even worse. Slaves lived in fear of breaking the rules because of the consequences that could be cast down. There was a long list of punishments carried out by Master or overseers, and they varied from