Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
Description
In this groundbreaking study, Angela Y. Davis reexamines the lives, music, and cultural significance of Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday through the lens of Black feminism. Placing their performances and lyrics within the racial, gendered, social, and political realities of their times, Davis reveals the blues as more than entertainment: it is a powerful form of social memory and self-definition. She shows how these artists’ candor, independence, and refusal of respectability’s restrictions created space for alternative ideas about sexuality, morality, desire, and freedom. Combining meticulous musical and lyrical analysis with incisive historical scholarship, the book offers a vital reinterpretation of American music and Black women’s cultural expression.
Available Editions
paperback
Vintage
Published Jan 26, 1999
464 pages
ISBN: 9780679771265
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Details
First Published
1998
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday by Angela Y. Davis.