Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound

"Daphne A. Brooks explores more than a century of music archives to examine the critics, collectors, and listeners who have determined perceptions of African American women on stage and in the recording studio. Liner Notes for the Revolution offers a startling new perspective on these acclaimed figures-a perspective informed by the overlooked contributions of other black women concerned with the work of their musical peers. Zora Neale Hurston appears as a sound archivist and a performer, Lorraine Hansberry as a queer black feminist critic of modern culture, and Pauline Hopkins as America's first black female cultural intellectual. Brooks tackles the complicated racial politics of blues music recording, collecting, and rock and roll music criticism. She makes lyrical forays into the blues pioneers Bessie Smith and Mamie Smith, as well as fans who became critics, like the record-label entrepreneur and writer Rosetta Reitz. In the twenty-first century, pop superstar Janelle Monae's liner notes are recognized for their innovations, while celebrated singers Cecile McLorin Salvant, Rhiannon Giddens, and Valerie June take their place as serious cultural historians. Above all, Liner Notes for the Revolution reads black female musicians and entertainers as intellectuals. At stake is the question of who gets to tell the story of black women in popular music and how"--… (more)