Jaen Black: A Woman of Many Talents

Jaen Black was born in Waco, Texas, where she lived until she was five years old. After the family moved to Dothan, Alabama, her mother became terminally ill. Jaen stayed there through the twelfth grade. Jaen left that small town, and went to Memphis State University for one year until she realized she was learning more on the street than in the classroom. Though she had a girlfriend for a couple of years in junior high, she didn’t realize right away what that meant.

Jaen didn’t follow a traditional career path for women. She worked as a construction laborer, stationary engineer, carpenter, and painter in Los Angeles, California. In Atlanta, Georgia, she was a strength training coach.

Jaen Black bought her first set of drums while she was in Los Angeles working as a commercial painter.  A self-taught drummer, she had wanted to play drums in elementary school, where she was blocked. They told her that girls only play clarinets or flute. Jaen’s response was, “I ain’t playing some damn flute!” Jaen had to push through some barriers to be a female drummer.

Jaen eventually moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she met the other members of what would become the band, Moral Hazard. They were a radical, theatrical concept band, performing skits between songs. Jaen played with several other bands in the Southeast, continuing to play when she moved to the Pacific Northwest.

Not one to sit still, Jaen studied Tang Soo Do Karate with Marianna Kaufman, assisting her with teaching a women’s karate group. Later, Jaen took up professional weight lifting, and she made her living as a strength coach for many years. She also took up with a therapy horse named Coal, saying that she and Coal were lifetime herd members. 

Among her many talents, Jaen Black is also a writer. She wrote a book of poetry and a novel titled Shame, both self-published.