“Neglecting to broaden their
view
has kept some men doing one thing all their lives”
(Napoleon Hill)
Everything gets labeled on how
you want to describe something. You look at a flower peeking it’s face out of
the soil and you can easily say, it’s a hyacinth or it’s a rosebud. You listen
to a sound of music and you can identify it as R&B, Jazz or Pop music. And
so, thinking about this made me think about myself and how I label myself when giving a short description about who I am beyond just the face and name.
When asked to describe myself, usually the first thing I would say is that I am a
singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, NY which is true. But, I write more than songs.
Poetry Writing
I
have been writing poetry since the fifth grade and recently, I authored two poetry books: The first was titled “Pulchritudinous” and the second “And
Then There Was the Music; Poetry & An Essay.” Check out my author page
on Amazon Author Central here: https://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Jeannot/e/B076N7XYC6
Songwriting & Writing Compositions
I write compositions. The
first one I ever wrote was quite recently when I found myself with this melody
in my brain that I just had to write down on paper but what I wrote was more
than just the words, but the chords of the song on paper before even recording
the tune into what it came to be. Thankful that I had good friends who helped
me to complete the tune entitled “God is Love” which you can check out
on Spotify here:
Blog Writing
I write blog posts which surprisingly
enough has been getting so much love lately and I am so thankful that people actually
are interested in what I have to write. Thank you all who take the time to check
out my blogsite. If it had not been for my college professor in his teaching of
Professional writing, I never would have started writing blogposts at all. But
he made us all start a blog site and this was my first one, if you are interested in checkign it out: https://stephanayjnotes.blogspot.com/.
Playwriting
And so, writing has always
been my thing. But what I never did was found such an interest in writing
something that I researched “how to” do it. It taught me how to place my words
on the page, the font face to use, how to space things out and everything. And that
is how I wrote my first play and the production of it was performed live this
weekend for the first time.
It was nerve wrecking. It
tested my faith. It brought tears to my eyes and made me work harder than I
ever had at anything before, but I got through it.
For the first time
ever, I wrote a little play, “And Then There Were The Ladies of Jazz;” a
production that I could have never have been able to see come to life if I had
let go of God’s unchanging hand.
And Then There Were The Ladies of Jazz;
A Women's History Month Celebration
by Stephanie Jeannot
 |
the cast of "And Then There Were the Ladies of Jazz
From left to right: Rachiim Sahu, Stephanie Jeannot. Napoleon Revels-Bey, JAzz E Matt,
Dalthannette Munlin, Danny Dalelio, Stacey Haughton, & Charles Bartlett. |
The
setting
The first television series by
a person of color: The Nat King Cole Show on NBC
The
Cast
Host: Nat
King Cole (Jazz E Matt)
Co-host in celebration of Women's History Month: Ella
Fitzgerald (Stephanie Jeannot)
All-Star
Band
Trumpet: Louis
Armstrong (Charles Bartlett)
 |
| Louis Armstrong |
Saxophone: John
Coltrane (Herb Lewis)
Piano: Bill
Evans (Danny Dalelio)
Bass: Charles
Mingus (Rachiim Sahu)
Drums: Max
Roach (Napoleon Revels-Bey)
 |
| Max Roach |
Special
Guest Appearances
 |
| Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday and Carmen McRae |
Billie
Holiday (Stacey Haughton)
Carmen
McRae (Dalthannette Munlin)
Sarah
Vaughan (Stephanie Jeannot)
Ray Charles (Wayne Holmes)
 |
| Sarah Vaughan |
I wanted to tell a story and I
wanted everybody to hear some historical things dealing with racial and gender
identities that these women in jazz had to endure to become the iconic
individuals that they are. But I wanted to make it fun and give people something to watch that was interesting and fun.
I can’t believe we did it.
Thank you to everybody who came out to support and for laughing and clapping when I was hoping that these things would happen. You all are so blessed and to
have this weight of wanting to see it happen as badly as I did, off my shoulder,
is so inspiring to me; Especially after the worthless worrying, the setting up of the room, the three wardrobe changes I did which included trying to come out my shell by putting on my tap shoes, and the singing a
plethora of songs that left me feeling weary, but good. All that is left to say is...
thank you and God is awesome.
And to all the people who gave
me advice or had their hands in it. So very thankful. And for every circumstance that helped me with getting the costumes together or to printout some stationaries for my guest audience to take home and the putting together of props that seemed weirdly placed into my zine, just for me, at the most awkward time and in such unique ways. And for all the musicians and singers who
had to see me get into my crazy... thank you for bearing with me.
It was fun. It was a
delight. It was a pleasure. It was a vision I had as a way of celebrating women’s
history month and I am glad to have seen it come to light. And now I am happy to say, I am a singer and writer from Brooklyn, NY.
Thank you so much
for checking out my blogpost. God bless!
