Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday

From one of this country's most important intellectuals comes a brilliant analysis of the blues tradition that examines the careers of three crucial black women blues singers through a feminist lens. Angela Davis provides the historical, social, and political contexts with which to reinterpret the performances and lyrics of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday as powerful articulations of an alternative consciousness profoundly at odds with mainstream American culture.The works of Rainey, Smith, and Holiday have been largely misund

"READ IT!" according to Ashley O'Brien. this is such a cool book. I loved learning about African American feminism in the context of American History, and more importantly: music. I wish they made such thorough and exciting books for every genre of American music, but this history is unique and definitely worth the read. Bought it for a class. Reader said i enjoyed this book.. i was writing a paper for a grad class on blues women using Ann Petry's The Street as a main source, and this book came in handy. Davis gives us some really good insight into the worlds of blueswomen. When i get settled, i will reread this so that i can catch everything i may have missed first time arou. "Herstory not history" according to Michele Johnson. Angela Y. Davis tells the story of women's blues during the 1920s and 19Herstory not history Angela Y. Davis tells the story of women's blues during the 1920s and 1930s. She closely analyses lyrical content and sets the songs of the 'Classic' blues singers within a historical context of feminism. The text is brilliant to read. It is an exciting new (though written in 1999) way of conceptualisin. 0s. She closely analyses lyrical content and sets the songs of the 'Classic' blues singers within a historical context of feminism. The text is brilliant to read. It is an exciting new (though written in 1999) way of conceptualisin

The artists addressed radical subjects such as physical and economic abuse, race relations, and female sexual power, including lesbianism. The female blues singers of the 1920s, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, and Bessie Smith, not only invented a musical genre, but they also became models of how African American women could become economically independent in a culture that had not previously allowed it. . Davis's study emphasizes the impact that these singers, and later Billie Holiday, had on the poor and working-class communities from which they came. Ma Rainey was well known as a lover of women as well as men, and her song "Prove It on Me" describes a butch woman who dresses like a man and dates women. Angela Y. Both Smith and Rainey composed, arranged, and managed their own