Ted Joans (born Theodore Jones in Cairo, Illinois on July 4, 1928 - died on April 25, 2003, in Vancouver) is probably best known for his poetry, his charcoal chalk graffiti Bird Lives! on the walls of New York City upon Charlie Parker’s death and his mantra Jazz is my religion, surrealism is my point of view. He was trained as a trumpeter and a painter and studied fine arts at Indiana University. He was also a world traveler and was proud of being Black. Ted lived many lives. He arrived in New York in 1951, where he met Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and the Abstract Expressionist painters. Although he was a villager, he never considered himself a beatnik; instead, he was a jazz poet of the beat generation. In Paris, Ted Joans mingled with Elisa Breton, Joyce Mansour, and Jayne Cortez, all women affiliated with surrealism. Throughout his life, Ted never stopped asserting the urgency of surrealism’s imperatives from the perspective of a Black U.S. expatriate. He adopted Surrealism as a weapon to defend himself against the racial vicissitudes and violence imposed upon him in America, hence transforming it into a liberatory practice.

     Ted Joans was interested in portraits and faces of Old Masters. He used to go to museums in Europe and buy postcards of the Old Masters' paintings to make PasteUp Postcards. He then would cut out the faces from the acquired images and replace them with faces of Black people to create a literal transformation and underscore the racialized aspects of the previous omissions. He called this technique Outography. Ted Joans also painted and drew portraits of the people he met and befriended. Remembering and Remembrances (2000), is a drawing series he made between October 15, 23, and 29, 2000. For this series, he took a spontaneous approach similar to surrealist automatic writing and used it to express his connection to figures; such as André Breton, Malcolm X, Ishmael Reed, and Allen Ginsberg. The vast network of friendships he made with writers, poets, painters, and musicians, is also reflected in Long Distance, an exquisite corpse Ted Joans started in 1976. The work was finished in 2005 after his death and involved 133 contributors. Long Distance is currently exhibited in Vital Signs at MoMA (until February 22, 2025).

Artist C.V.

Ted Joans "Jazz is My Religion" 

I am a Black American, born poor, I lived in the ghettos and I was lucky enough to survive. I chose Surrealism when I was very young, before I even knew what it was. I felt there was a camaraderie like that which I found in Jazz. It was the only thing that seemed to disturb the powers that dominated me. I was born a black flower and therefore revolutionary in spite of my insignificant person.... I use my senses exercised by Surrealism.... I am Maldoror, Malcolm X, the Marquis de Sade, Breton, Lumumba, and many others still, so many that you cannot know them all. They are my fuel, my endurance, and I will continue to use all the means to win my freedom, which will become freedom for all. Black Power is a means to achieve this freedom.

Ted Joans, "Black Flower", L'archibras (1968)

Ted Joans New York Magazine by Jack Denton