Jes Grew, the ragtime/jazz movement that is sweeping the nation in Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo, is not only a musical revolution, but also a spiritual reawakening for African Americans. The movement, likened to a "Loa," an infectious worm or spirit, is an attitude, an idea, a time of change that has been suppressed and delayed for too long.

As a piece of the collective black identity, the Atonists see Jes Grew as a threat to their hold on society, though not all see it that way; poet Nathan Brown says to magazine publisher Hinkle Von Vampton, "It may be a malady to you but many of us are trying to catch it" (117). Von Vampton is also informed by poet Major Young, "We all have our own unique styles," and that Jes Grew provides the opportunity and permission to grab at that style and display it any way...