“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” – 2 Corinthians 3:17. In the 1920s, Frankie ‘Half Pint’ Jaxon was a vaudeville singer known for his over-the-top drag performances, comedy, and raunchy blues songs.
With his flair for drama, Jaxon also collaborated with blues royalty like Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters and with the “father of gospel music,” Thomas A. Dorsey. Jaxon recorded many queer-coded hits like, ‘I’m Gonna Dance with the Guy Who Brung Me.”
While drag is more celebrated today, for a Black man in the 1920s, Jaxon’s use of drag was a radical challenge to the gender binary. It also invited his audiences to expand their understanding of what was possible for the blues genre.
Most importantly, Jaxon exercised his freedom of expression with no fear of what others might think of him.
If you weren’t worried about being judged, what parts of yourself would you explore more? Black liberation is freely exploring every version of ourselves out loud.