1. Theodore Joans was an American beatnik, surrealist, painter, filmmaker, collageist, jazz poet and jazz trumpeter who spent long periods of time in Paris while traveling through Africa.
17 Facts About Ted Joans
1. 2.
Ted Joans was the author of more than 30 books of poetry, prose, and collage; among them Black Pow-Wow, Beat Funky Jazz Poems, Afrodisia, Jazz is Our Religion, Double Trouble, WOW and Teducation.
3.
Ted Joans's motto was: "Jazz is my religion and Surrealism my point of view".
4.
Ted Joans's parents worked on the riverboats that plied the Ohio River and the Mississippi River.
5.
Ted Joans played the trumpet and was an avid jazz aficionado, following Bop as it developed, and continued to espouse jazz of all styles and eras throughout his life.
6.
Ted Joans became friends with Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac and, for a while, was a room mate with the jazz musician Charlie Parker.
7.
Ted Joans became a participant in the Beat Generation scene in Greenwich Village and was a contemporary and friend of Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Leroi Jones, Gregory Corso, Diane Di Prima, Bob Kaufman, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among many others.
8.
Ted Joans had moved to Paris in the 1960s and was welcomed into the Surrealist circle of Andre Breton and by James Baldwin.
9.
Ted Joans learned the French language and frequented the cafe Les Deux Magots in Saint Germain des Pres where he received mail and other messages.
10.
Ted Joans remained mostly in Paris until the mid-1990s, spending his summers in Europe and winters in Timbuktu in Mali.
11.
Ted Joans became active in African studies and traveled extensively throughout the African continent, frequently on foot, over many decades between periods of living in Europe and North America.
12.
Ted Joans continued to travel and maintained an active correspondence with a host of creative individuals, among them Langston Hughes, Michel Leiris, Aime Cesaire, Robert Creeley, Jake Lamar, James Baldwin, Jayne Cortez, Stokely Carmichael, Ishmael Reed, Paul Bowles, Franklin and Penelope Rosemont.
13.
Ted Joans' painting Bird Lives hangs in the De Young Museum in San Francisco.
14.
Ted Joans was the originator of the Bird Lives urban legend and graffiti street art in and about New York City after the death of Charlie Parker in 1955.
15.
Ted Joans often satirized American middle-class values in poems such as Playmates.
16.
Ted Joans was a contributor of jazz essays and reviews to magazines such as Coda and Jazz Magazine.
17.
Ted Joans fathered 10 children: Daline Jones-Weber of San Leandro, Ted Jones of Santa Monica, Teresa Jordan of Whittier, JeanneMarie Jones of Rialto, Robert Jones of Long Beach, Lars Jones of Oslo, Norway, Thor Jones of Oslo, Norway, Russell Jones of Scotland, Sylvia Jones and Yvette Jones-Johnson.