Dancing in My Dreams: A Spiritual Biography of Tina Turner (Ralph H. Craig III) --- A Review
DANCING IN MY DREAMS: A Spiritual Biography of TinaTurner. (Library of Religious Biography). By Ralph H. Craig III. Foreword by Jan Willis. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2023. Xviii + 260 pages (minus the index).
One day
before news came that the Queen of Rock and Roll, Tina Turner, had died I
received an advanced reader's copy of a new spiritual biography of the singer. I
must admit that this was a bit eerie. Whether you were a fan of Turner’s or
not, at least if you were of a certain age, you knew the name and at least a
few of her songs, including her signature song— "Proud Mary." What
you might not have known, at least I did not know, were the diverse spiritual
dimensions of her life. Nevertheless, it was these spiritual dimensions that
enabled her to overcome tremendous odds throughout her life, including an abusive
marriage to Ike Turner. That story has been told in this biography (due out
November 7, 2023) authored by Ralph Craig III.
Ralph
Craig’s biography of Turner Dancing in My Dreams appears as part of the Eerdmans Library of
Religious Biography, which means the focus of the biography will be the
spiritual dimensions, something that not all biographers will choose to focus
on. Since it is part of a collection of religious biographies published by a publisher
known for publishing Christian books, you would expect it to focus on spirituality
and religion. What we discover as we read the story of this amazing singer and
performer who was known as much for her dancing as her singing is that she was
deeply religious, though that spirituality was an intriguing mix that settled
in on her conversion to Buddhism around the time she left Ike Turner.
The
dancing aspect of Turner’s performances is captured in the title, though her
singing voice was quite powerful. Even though I wasn’t a big fan, growing up, I
knew her music (her music career began at about the same time as I was born).
While I might not have collected her records, as I read this biography I was
drawn into her story. As I write this
review, Ralph Craig's Dancing in My Dreams is not scheduled for
publication until the late fall of 2023. So, if you don't want to read any
spoilers, you might want to stop reading!
Before
we get to the story of Turner’s life, I would like to introduce the author of
this biography. Ralph Craig III holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from
Stanford University (May 2023). His dissertation focuses on medieval
representations of Buddhist preachers across South Asian Buddhist literature.
This is a reflection of his scholarly interest in Buddhism. In line with his
biography of Turner, he is interested in the intersection of Buddhism and
African American culture.
Now to
the biography. This is the story of a woman born and raised in rural Tennessee,
not far from Memphis. While we know her as Tina Turner, her birth name was Anna
Mae Bullock. Her now famous moniker was given to her by her husband Ike even
before their marriage as she joined his band as its lead singer. Early in life
her parents divorced and left her in the care of her two grandmothers. The two
grandmothers were very different in temperament and spirituality, and they contributed
differently to her spiritual development. Her grandmother on her father's side
was a strict Baptist, but it was the Black Baptist church that her paternal
grandmother introduced her to that provided a context for her to develop her
powerful singing voice. As for her maternal grandmother, she introduced Turner
to more non-traditional spiritual ways, including mysticism, Native American
spiritual traditions and practices, and supernaturalism. While she was in and
out of her parents' homes, it was while living with her mother that Turner was
introduced to Pentecostalism. All of these different religious communities and
expressions reflected different forms of Southern religious culture, all of
which helped form Bullock’s spiritual development.
It was
during her high school years living in St. Louis, that Anna Mae Bullock met Ike
Turner, who allowed her to occasionally sing with his band. This experience
introduced her to the Blues and R&B. In time she became an integral part of
the band. She would eventually become Ike’s wife, a marriage that was extremely
abusive and controlling. It would take many years for Tina to extricate herself
from Ike's control, a journey that Craig lays out in significant detail. We also
learn about the 1960s racial climate in which Ike and Tina moved, though
neither of them took an active role in the Civil Rights Movement.
During
these early years of her career (the 1960s), Turner began to draw on the
mysticism of her maternal grandmother as a spiritual support and solace. This
included turning to a variety of spiritual frameworks including astrology and
psychics. To the end of her life, Turner consulted astrologers and psychics to
help her plan her life. Eventually, however, she would discover Buddhism and by
the mid-1970s converted to Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism.
Turner’s
turn to Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism came at the same time she began to break
free of Ike’s control. Friends and her son Ronnie first introduced Turner to
Buddhism in the early 1970s. The form she embraced was Soka Gakkai Nichiren
Buddhism, which Craig helpfully introduces us to. This form of Buddhism was founded
in 1930 in Japan and by the 1970s had become a leading version. She received as
part of her initiation into this form of Buddhism a Gohonzon (a mandalic
scroll with a spiritual phrase embedded on it), which Turner chanted, gaining
strength from her chanting. While Turner began to engage with Buddhism she
didn't give up her interest in astrology or consulting psychics. Her attraction
to Buddhism was combined with her interest in various forms of metaphysical
religion.
Turner's
move into Buddhism coincided with her break with Ike, which was quite difficult
as Ike had from the beginning controlled almost every aspect of her life.
Additionally, launching her own career was difficult since many venues and
recording companies did not welcome Black women as solo artists. Thus, once
again, it was her engagement with Buddhism that helped her manage this
transition into a new life without Ike. Though there were many challenges
involved in her break with Ike, eventually she was able to develop her own
identity separate from Ike. She was fortunate, that other musicians including
David Bowie, intervened and helped her launch a career that made her one of the
best-known singers in the world. Interestingly, she first made her mark not in
the United States but in Europe.
While
this is a spiritual biography, thus privileging her spiritual journey, this is
also a true biography so we gain insight into the entirety of Turner’s life and
career. When she began her solo career, while performing in small clubs and Las
Vegas hotels, she made it her goal to fill arenas. That would come. It wasn’t
easy, but she persisted and attained her dream. It was her engagement with
Buddhism, especially chanting, that helped her achieve her dreams, dreams that
included overcoming both the racism and sexism present in the music industry.
While she achieved her dream of becoming a successful solo artist who filled
stadiums and arenas, she had one more dream left to be fulfilled. That dream
involved becoming a Buddhist teacher.
As
early as the mid-1980s, Tina began to dream of becoming a religious teacher.
However, this did not take place until after she retired from her performing at
the live concerts she had become known for. Before that occurred, Turner would
limit the discussion of her beliefs to interviews. Then, in the early 2000s, as
she left behind her public music career, she began to find opportunities to
engage in spiritual teaching. As part of her engagement as a Buddhist teacher,
she released albums and books that expressed her beliefs.
While
we may know Tina Turner best for her music, as Ralph Craig notes, "At
every major juncture of Turner's life there was religion: she learned to dream
in the cotton fields of Nutbush and found comfort in the natural, earthly
spirituality of her maternal grandmother. This spirituality was itself rooted
in a stream of Black southern religious culture that centered conjure, root
work, dreams, visions, signs, and the wilderness experience" (p. 217). While
these influences impacted her spiritually, her paternal grandmother’s introduction
of Turner to the Black Baptist tradition helped her find her singing voice in
the church choir. Then, her introduction to Buddhism helped Turner find her
independent voice as a singer, person, and ultimately as a religious teacher.
I
believe that readers of Dancing in My Dreams: A Spiritual Biography of TinaTurner will come to a new appreciation of a female rock star known for her
dancing and singing. It is clear that there is much more to Tina Turner than
many of us realized. Whether we share her religious beliefs and practices, as
we read her life story, we will discover how her diverse spiritual experiences
joined with her commitment to Buddhism to form and sustain her in life. As I
noted at the beginning, I received the Advanced Reader’s copy the day before Tina
Turner died. Craig might add that fact in the final edition, but even if that
wasn’t possible, we have here a full life story. So, as Ralph Craig points out
as he concludes Dancing in My Dreams: “Through telling her story, in
often graphic detail, Tina Turner has taught countless people the world over
how to triumph over their obstacles, how to change their own poison into
medicine” (p. 220). For that reason, this is a welcome biography.
Note that Dancing in MyDreams will not be released until November 7, 2023. However, you may
preorder at Amazon and other outlets, including the publisher.
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