Pinkster Fest And Other Fun Times

THE J’EDIT:

Here Comes A New Chapter For The Jiffy

As you probably know, The Jiffy (my hub for sharing documentary stories about upstate New York and other nearby places) is somewhat of a grab bag of platforms: the Instagram Feed, the podcast, the website, this newsletter, and a premium tier of the newsletter (J’Fay Supreme, which now includes a quarterly luxury leisure lifestyle magazine called J: Magazine).

I’ve been thinking about how to make the most of this entangled octopus, and I’m excited to share that all premium content will now be centralized within a membership platform called Fourthwall, which also provides me with a storefront where I can offer up merch to sell! Nothing’s changing about the newsletter itself, just the premium side.

If you’re a current premium subscriber, I’ll email you directly with what you can expect as I move us out of Beehiiv and over to the Private Members' Lounge of my Jiffy-Mart.

Speaking of The Jiffy-Mart: We haven’t officially cut the ribbons with the giant scissors yet, but I wanted to softly open the store for you today as a reader of this newsletter! I’ve got more about The Jiffy-Mart below.

In the meantime, I’d love to know your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, or questions, so please hit reply and let me know what you think!

_{As always, thank you for being here,
James}

THE SOFT OPEN

The Jiffy-Mart Is Now Open

The Jiffy-Mart is your neighborhood local convenience store of the James Cave Instagram Feed, where you can browse limited-edition goods, slow content, and other necessities!

It’s also a friendly third-space on the internet where you can join other J’Fay Supremers in the Members' Lounge or simply browse the aisles for free and just hang out.

Membership tiers include the Grab ‘N Go ($5/mo.), the Deluxe Aisle ($8/mo.), and the J’Fay Supreme ($15), with perks such as Audio Exclusives from The Jiffy Audio Newsletter Podcast, Jiffy Jaunts and other digital downloads, access to J: Magazine, BTS dispatches, quarterly investor briefs, your name engraved on the Load-Bearing Support Wall, and more! You can read all the benefits per tier here.

The Jiffy-Mart also offers merch, of course — a tried-and-true method to turn this distinct editorial brand and visual identity into something tangible that you can own and display, not only deepening your emotional connection to The Jiffy, but also supporting this project financially. Very important.

At opening, I’ve got an exclusive photographic print from James C’Avedon’s groundbreaking Mud Series, The Jiffy Début Bookmarks Collection, a stylish Jiffy Type Tote Bag, and more! Feel free to browse all the aisles and shop around here.

I’ll update the shop with more merch as the seasons change, but you’re always welcome to loiter at The Jiffy-Mart!

THIS TIME OF YEAR

A Pinkster Fest Report

The African American Archive of Columbia County hosted its annual Black Family Reunion in Kinderhook this weekend, and this year they added a Pinkster Festival, too.

The reunion is part of the Archive’s work with the Martin Van Buren (MVB) National Historic Site’s Lindenwald Descendants program – I produced a short video about it last year.

This year, the Archive’s Deputy Executive Director, Lisa Fludd-Smith, told me they decided to host it during Pinkster celebrations, “Because Pinkster would normally be the time when our ancestors would've gathered together. They would've had a few days off, they would've come and gathered together and reunited with long lost friends and family. And we thought, what better time to have a family reunion than at Pinkster?”

Pinkster Fest revives one of the oldest African American springtime celebrations in the U.S., tracing its roots to the 17th century. Originally a Dutch Pentecost holiday, Pinkster was transformed by enslaved Africans in New York into a few days of cultural autonomy, music, dance, and community with subtle forms of resistance every year.

As historian Jeroen Dewulf explores in “The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo,” Pinkster celebrations became spaces where Black people could assert identity and spiritual sovereignty, even under enslavement.

Lisa says, “ Pinkster came in the spring, usually after the harvest was sewn but before it was reaped. So there was a little bit of downtime, and it would be a time for the Dutch families to visit with their families. It also became a time when they would allow their enslaved people to have a few days off. The enslaved people took that holiday and kind of made it their own.”

Part of the tradition is to crown a Pinkster King, and Dewulf describes this ritual as a deliberate assertion of African political traditions.

Donald Hyman wore the crown at this weekend’s event, and told me: “ [The King] is necessary, he's part of the procession. He leads it. He hangs with the parade for the weeks that it’s there, and all the enslaved people look up to him. Now, one of the things he likes to do is he goes to every vendor, every day, and collect shillings from them. So he's kind of like a storekeeper or a landlord, you might say. But everybody respects Charley. It’s kind of like, you couldn't have a [Christmas parade] without Santa Claus.”

King Charley led the parade up around the baseball diamond to the Persons of Color Cemetery, where Mayor Dorene Weir, Megan O’Malley of the MVB National Historic Site, Vicki Jimpson-Fludd of the Archive, and King Charley spoke, and Reverends Linda Van Alstyne and Gloria Jimpson each offered a prayer. Then it was back to the pavilion for dances, choir performances, and food.

I’ll have a video about this in the coming weeks, and I shared some portraits of the Image Quilt Dance Theater over at the Instagram feed.

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