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"African American women musicians"
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They raised me up : a black single mother and the women who inspired her
\"At the height of the cocaine-fueled 1980s, Carolyn Wilkins left a disastrous marriage in Washington State and, hoping to make it in the music business, moved with her four-year-old daughter to a gritty working-class town on the edge of Boston. They Raised Me Up is the story of her battle to succeed in the world of jam sessions and jazz clubs--a man's world where women were seen as either sex objects or doormats. To survive, she had to find a way to pay the bills, overcome a crippling case of stage fright, fend off a series of unsuitable men, and most important, find a reliable babysitter. Alternating with Carolyn's story are the stories of her ancestors and mentors--five musically gifted women who struggled to realize their dreams at the turn of the twentieth century: Philippa Schuyler, Marjory Jackson, Lilly Pruett, Ruth Lipscomb, Alberta Sweeney.\"--Dust jacket.
Book
They Raised Me Up
At the height of the cocaine-fueled 1980s, Carolyn Wilkins left a disastrous marriage in Seattle and, hoping to make it in the music business, moved with her four-year-old daughter to a gritty working-class town on the edge of Boston. They Raised Me Up is the story of her battle to succeed in the world of jam sessions and jazz clubs--a man’s world where women were seen as either sex objects or doormats. To survive, she had to find a way to pay the bills, overcome a crippling case of stage fright, fend off a series of unsuitable men, and most important, find a reliable babysitter. Alternating with Carolyn’s story are the stories of her ancestors and mentors--five musically gifted women who struggled to realize their dreams at the turn of the twentieth century: Philippa Schuyler, whose efforts to “pass” for white inspired Carolyn to embrace her own black identity despite her “damn near white” appearance and biracial child; Marjory Jackson, the musician and single mother whose dark complexion and flamboyant lifestyle raised eyebrows among her contemporaries in the snobby, color-conscious world of the African American elite; Lilly Pruett, the daughter of an illiterate sharecropper whose stunning beauty might have been her only ticket out of the “Jim Crow” South; Ruth Lipscomb, the country girl who dreamed, against all odds, of becoming a concert pianist and realized her improbable ambition in 1941; Alberta Sweeney, who survived a devastating personal tragedy by relying on the musical talent and spiritual stamina she had acquired growing up in a rough-and-tumble Kansas mining town. They Raised Me Up interweaves memoir with family history to create an entertaining, informative, and engrossing read that will appeal to anyone with an interest in African American or women’s history or to readers simply looking for an intriguing story about music and family.
eBook
Put Your Hands on Your Hips and Act Like a Woman
In a gathering of griot traditions fusing storytelling, cultural history, and social and literary criticism,Put Your Hands on Your Hips and Act Like a Woman \"re-members\" and represents how women of the African diaspora have drawn on ancient traditions to record memory, history, and experience in performance. These women's songs and dances provide us with a wealth of polyphonic text that records their reflections on identity, imagination, and agency, providing a collective performed autobiography that complements the small body of pre-twentieth-century African and African American women's writing. Gale P. Jackson engages with a range of vibrant traditions to provide windows into multiple discourses as well as \"new\" and old paradigms for locating the history, philosophy, pedagogy, and theory embedded in a lineage of African diaspora performance and to articulate and address the postcolonial fragmentation of humanist thinking. In lyrically interdisciplinary movement, across herstories, geographies, and genres, cultural continuities, improvisation, and transformative action,Put Your Hands on Your Hips and Act Like a Woman offers a fresh perspective on familiar material and an expansion of our sources, reading, and vision of African diaspora, African American, and American literatures.
eBook
Queen of bebop : the musical lives of Sarah Vaughan
An account of the life of the influential jazz singer and civil rights advocate shares insights into her contributions as an African-American artist, drawing on inside sources to discuss her creative process and challenge misperceptions about her character.
Book
Rock, Rosetta, rock! Roll, Rosetta, roll! : presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock n' roll
Award-winning author Tonya Bolden and acclaimed illustrator R. Gregory Christie deliver an inspiring true story about the life, career, and impact of 20th-century blues and gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who was a trailblazer for rock-and-roll.
Book
Wild women don't have the blues : the women, the music, the legacy
The story of Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Ida Cox, and other pioneering blues women from early in the century. We learn of their vision and their struggle, their pain and their humor. The film recreates the stories of these pioneering women who left an indeliable mark on the music and the heart of America.
Streaming Video
Michael and me : the untold story of Michael Jackson's secret romance
\"More than seven years after his death, Michael Jackson continues to fascinate the world. Shana Mangatal was one of Jackson's only constant and true rocks of stability for nearly two decades. Their relationship was quiet and sweet and real - a closely guarded secret known only to a few trusted employee and friends. Shana is now coming forward to tell their love story. Sometimes strange, sometimes surprising, always fascinating, this is the story that Jackson fans have been waiting for. During her seven years working for Michael's personal manager in the 1990s, Shana witnessed the scandals and the lawsuits, the release of groundbreaking albums and the subsequent world tours, the making of big-budget short films, and the addictions. It was through this business relationship that their trust and love for each other grew. Shana kept a meticulous diary throughout it all. Her story is rich with every little detail. Michael and Me entertains and inspires, but above all, Shana continues to treat Michael (and his legacy) with respect. This is not an exploitative tell-all but rather a book that shows the side of Michael people never knew. In it, Shana paints a more intimate picture of this beloved yet very misunderstood man.\" --Publisher's description.
Book
His eye is on the sparrow
Ethel Caffie-Austin, a daughter of the coalfields, is West Virginia's \"First Lady of Gospel Music.\" The recipient of numerous awards in the U.S. and Europe, Caffie-Austin was guest artist at Wolf Trap, has sung with Pete Seeger, and appeared on West Virginia's Mountain Stage with Joan Baez, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Kathy Mattea. She made her debut at the Kennedy Center in Women of Gospel. This documentary features Caffie-Austin performing a range of spirituals, hymns and contemporary gospel numbers that represent the rich cultural heritage of African American song and worship. Caffie-Austin's enthusiasm and belief in the redemptive power of faith are apparent as she is seen teaching gospel to a youth group, ministering to inmates at a state prison, and leading the choir at the Black Sacred Music Festival in Institute, West Virginia. Oral history, archival material, and interviews are combined with performance footage to tell a powerful story of personal freedom and triumph through faith, wisdom, and the support of a caring community.
Streaming Video