Q&A with Dr. Tiffany Jackson: Get Your People Person On
I know we’re all tired of reflecting on the pandemic (okay, actually, I’m not; I’m even working on an essay about it, sooo sorry), but for me and presumably many other artists used to working in solitude, this experience has been a mixed bag for the creative process. It’s a gift, in a way—nowhere to go! nobody to see! at last!—but some days it feels like the final straw on a lifestyle that was already pretty isolated to begin with. As a writer, I tend to feel pressure to keep going inward. More time? Write more. More space? Think more deeply. Feeling stressed? Write that out, too. Constantly reaching inward has made me into a burnt-out zombie on more than one (or fifty) occasions in the past year. So, this week, it was a blessing to be reminded by Dr. Tiffany Jackson that art, in fact, reaches out.
I met Tiffany during our graduate studies at the University of Connecticut and I can say objectively that she is amazing (even Oprah selected her as a traveling companion in 2003!). Tiffany is a singer, voice teacher, bodybuilder, certified personal trainer, and sports nutrition specialist. (Really, what isn’t she?) After honing her craft with the Houston Grand Opera—where she originated the role of Alma March in the world premiere of Mark Adamo’s Little Women—she sang with orchestras all over the world, including making her debut at Carnegie Hall in 2005. Also known for her jazz singing, Tiffany has performed at the Blue Note Jazz Club and Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 2011, she brought her fitness and music worlds together and performed on America’s Got Talent as “Necessary Diva,” the opera-singing bodybuilder. Most recently, Tiffany wrote and directed her autobiographical one-woman show From the Hood to the Ivy League, and she’s become increasingly active as an advocate for social justice in the arts, in part through her nonprofit Gift-Passion-Purpose Project, Inc.
For Tiffany, everything—even the creative process—is about connecting with people.
Q&A with Dr. Tiffany Jackson, soprano & bodybuilder
Q: You call yourself “Necessary Diva.” What does that name mean to you?
A: Once when a bodybuilding friend and I were preparing for a show, my friend said, “You are a necessary damn diva!” I dropped the “damn” and kept the “necessary diva.” It became my alter ego. I felt like I needed an alter ego as a bodybuilder and an opera singer. I needed to make those two things exist in one person, so the name gives me an excuse to do that.
Q: How does your fitness world inform your creative world?
A: I’m completely mesmerized by the body, and by the fact that we have the ability to feel things like our hearts beating. When I’m preparing for a bodybuilding show I can feel my body literally changing. As opera singers, so much of what we do is focused on breath and posture and body, and everyone’s always talking about confidence. I feel more empowered as a singer because of my body awareness. Even as I was walking today, I could feel my abs going “crunch crunch crunch” and I thought, “Oh, I like that! I can feel my body working!” I think sometimes we take that for granted—that we are living, breathing beings. I’m always conscious and aware of my breath, my heartbeat, and how I’m feeling. This helps me with singing because it allows me to really go internally when I’m standing in front of people. A lot of singers suffer from stage fright, but when I become one with my body, I’m not even aware people are there. I’m very happy I found this at fifty years old. It’s also very spiritual. I call it “mind-body-soul-building” instead of “bodybuilding.” It’s all integrated into the singing. They don’t exist apart from one another.
Q: Do you feel this kind of body-mindfulness at all times?
A: Yes, and it’s empowering. It helps when you feel like you’re lost or you’re not being seen, or when you’re in front of the orchestra with the maestro or with anybody you feel has power over you. It has a way of centering you while you’re in their presence. Sometimes I have to bring myself back into the space, because I’m hearing what they’re saying but I’m also very aware of how I’m feeling about what they’re saying. Because of that awareness, I’m able to say what I need from them, and I leave those situations feeling like I was seen and heard.
Q: What’s an ideal creative process day like for you?
A: I take my time waking up and connecting with myself. Mornings are about body awareness, getting something healthy in the body, and going to a session with my trainer or for a walk. I meditate and think as I walk. Sometimes I listen to music but that can distract me. I want to be aware of sounds and people, or I might memorize lyrics. Walking is an important part of my creative process. I wrote a lot of my one-woman show while walking. Then I may teach a few voice students. Every day I do some teaching or mentoring. When I’m done with that, I’m like, “Okay, Tiffany, what about you? You need to practice!” I’ll usually pull out my favorite music, so maybe African-American art songs or some Ricky Ian Gordon songs. Right now, I’m learning songs from a book my friend [Dr. Louise Toppin] edited, Rediscovering Margaret Bonds. I always sing something I love first, before I branch out into other things to challenge me vocally. After I practice, I’ll get online and see if there’s an interesting conversation to join. For me, creativity doesn’t mean sitting down and saying, “Okay, I’m about to create right now.” No. I need to be doing something. And it’s always about connecting with myself and connecting with others.
Q: It’s beautiful how such a big part of your creative process is connecting with others. Is this your favorite part?
A: I feel like I’ve been blessed with such an empathetic spirit. Every day there’s something that makes me think, “Oh my goodness, that was amazing.” Like today, I was walking through my old neighborhood. I grew up in the projects in New Haven and the neighborhood has been demolished. There used to be a dead-end street where my apartment was, and today I saw that they opened it up and made it a through street. I saw a contractor and I said to him, “I cannot believe what I’m seeing! I lived in an apartment that was right over there.” And he said something that was totally racially blind. He said, “It’s a good thing you made it out.” I didn’t get mad at him, but I did respond to him. I was like, “Wow… I didn’t make it out of anything!” I’m an empath to a fault. When somebody says something like that, it cuts very deeply because it’s such an ignorant comment. I think it shocked him when I said, “You don’t understand, there are hundreds of people who are doing great who lived in this neighborhood.” But those are the moments I love—the moments when I’m having conversations, connecting with people. I have those moments all the time because I’m open to them. Whether people are saying things that are blind or not, I learn from them and I don’t shy away from the conversation. I open myself up for people to be their real selves, which is a beautiful thing because then we can connect.
Q: Your nonprofit Gift-Passion-Purpose Project, Inc. nurtures aspiring artists in underrepresented communities. How do you see your role as an artist in the advancement of social justice?
A: Change has historically come about through the creative endeavors of people, mostly BIPOC people, who are screaming for equality. Take the blues, for example. Black women were the first to record the blues—before men—in the late 1920s and early 30s. Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith—for the first time, these women could express themselves. The blues created space for them. It gave them freedom to say what they wanted and it was accepted by people. That’s a type of social justice. Through creative expression, people are able to be themselves more openly, and their stories are heard by people who would not ordinarily give a damn about a Bessie Smith, for example. Hip hop is another example of that. One of the first social justice raps was “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash. All of the sudden people in rural America were like, “This is what’s happening in New York City?” I’m intentional about being a social justice advocate through the arts. Sometimes people don’t agree with what I’m saying in my talks, but when I share 10 or 15 minutes of my one-woman show, they feel something. Sometimes if you just put a song to it, put a dance to it, people are better able to digest what’s being said. I also talk about decentering Eurocentrism in music education, and it’s weird talking about that while being a classically trained singer with five degrees in classical music. It’s so odd for me to say, “Curriculums are just too white-centered,” right? But I always felt like you don’t have to be one thing or the other. I can be a bona fide opera singer and also say, “Y’all need to do better!”
Q: What advice do you have for artists who are new to anti-racist work?
A: Just sit back and listen. Sometimes people who are new to anti-racism become overzealous. It becomes white people policing white people, saying, “You’re not doing it right.” Then BIPOC folks sit back and think, “Okay, they’re fighting about me, but… I don’t feel like it’s about me.” It’s great to see a bunch of white folks walking around with signs that say Black Lives Matter, and I think it’s beautiful, but I also just have a little side-eye any time I see it. It can be performative. I know it’s coming from a good place, but the work of anti-racism really begins with you. It begins with self-awareness and self-reflection. Right there. Don’t even think about moving for six or seven months. Stay right in that zone! Then when you come outside of that, you can speak from your perspective. You can speak from your lived life and not from a book. To advance social justice for any community, I don’t get in front of them, screaming louder than they are about their own damn cause. I go to the people who are affected and I ask them how I can help.
Feeling inspired? You can support Tiffany’s Gift-Passion-Purpose Project by donating or spreading the word. You can also find Tiffany on Instagram, Twitter, or Clubhouse @necessarydiva.
In her one-woman show From the Hood to the Ivy League, Tiffany sings “Strange Fruit”—the anti-lynching song by Abel Meeropol (recorded by Billie Holiday) that’s been called the beginning of the civil rights movement.
Yep, you called it! I’m leaving you here with Grandmaster Flash.
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