manning-palooza

This is a lovely clip (URL) of Frankie Manning and Norma Miller Dawn Hampton dancing together at the The Jelly Roll 4th Anniversary Party in New York on the 10th February this year. Frankie is 93, Norma Dawn is 87 ??. Both of them can still dance like mofos. The song is Shiny Stockings (Basie, of course, but performed by the George Gee big band).

I’m currently going through a big Frankie Manning phase. If I’m leading dumb I think to myself ‘what would Frankie do?’ Sure, he’d tell a long story about boobies, but then he’d do something silly to make the ladies laugh. I dig Norma Dawn, but this is a story about Frankie.
Manning has an autobiography coming out soon, which you can pre-order on amazon here.
There’s also an interesting interview with Manning (which you can download here, or grab via Yehoodi). At one point Manu asks Frankie about segregation. Manning’s answer is interesting, as he tells a number of stories which, while illustrating the nastiness of segregation, are also funny. They also – most interesting of all – make it clear that the best way of dealing with segregation if you didn’t want trouble was to quietly leave the room – to avoid conflict. It made me wonder if all those years of avoiding conflict has contributed to older African Americans metaphorically ‘leaving the room’ when segregation and race politics enter the discussion. Just quietly avoiding the issue or redirecting with a funny story. It’s fascinating, and something I’d like to find out more about.
—EDIT: to correct my not-paying-attention mistakes. Dawn Hampton and Norma Miller are two different people. Trev also pays more attention than I do —
—EDIT #2: Frankie Manning will be in Australia, in Sydney, in March/April (you can read the most unhelpful website here). I have no solid information on this gig, as it’s run by a woman/school who don’t do very good promotion. But of course, if you’re interested, this is one of the few chances you’ll get to hear/see Frankie teaching, talking and dancing in person in Australia—