Blues Legacies and Black Feminism

Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
AuthorAngela Davis
SubjectMusic history and analysis
PublisherPantheon Books
Publication date
1998
Pages427
ISBN9780679771265

Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday is a 1998 book by American academic, Angela Davis. Davis examines the music of blues singers Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Ma Rainey from a feminist perspective. Davis proposes that the singers gave a voice to the experiences of America's Black working class and Black women through the 1920–1930s leading into the 1940s, that challenged their depictions in wider American culture.[1][2]

Davis highlights the importance these women had on the early feminist movement. By using their voices and platform to speak out against topics women often times would be forced to avoid. The term "speaking bitterness[3]" was used to describe the strategy these women employed, singing about harsh topics in order to raise awareness. Some of these topics include: sexual freedom, marriage dynamics and domestic violence, economic independence, and cultural identity[3].

References

Notes
  1. ^ Hay 1998
  2. ^ Kirkus Reviews 1997
  3. ^ a b Davis, Angela Y. (2011). Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-679-77126-5.
Sources

Commentary and reviews

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