Download or read book Words and Songs of Bessie Smith Billie Holiday and Nina Simone written by Melanie E. Bratcher and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-11-21 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the relationship between three African American women's dance-art-music sensibilities within the context of a Pan African aesthetic. Its purpose is three-fold: to show commonalities between Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone's lives and original compositions; to codify, examine and evaluate their selected song performances in accordance with the Pan African aesthetic "Nzuri theory/model;" and to illuminate the vast sources of transformational values that aesthetic analysis of African American song performance can foster. Following concordant procedures and principles of Afrocentricity, the study focuses on Smith, Holiday and Simone's performances as part of a whole African artistic and cultural value system. The goal of the Afrocentric methodological structure is to locate relevant African dynamics in songs and to promote knowledge for cultural transformation and continuity. Its use in this study provides meta-criteria for analyzing African American music, which the author has used to uniquely argue connections between African cultural memory and African-derived cultural expression.
Download or read book Africana Methodology written by James L. Conyer, Jr. and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-15 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book critically examines the collection, interpretation, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from an Afrocentric perspective. The necessity of interpretive Afrocentric research is relevant to position agency and to locate Africana studies in place, space, and time. This study will provide readers with a compilation of literary, historical, philosophical, and social science essays that describe and evaluate the Africana experience from a methodological perspective. Paradoxically, the collection presents measurable and qualitative research, in order to flush out a global Pan–Africanist consciousness.
Download or read book Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington and Miles Davis written by Aaron Lefkovitz and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-06-20 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis as distinctively global symbols of threatening and nonthreatening black masculinity. It centers them in debates over U.S. cultural exceptionalism, noting how they have been part of the definition of jazz as a jingoistic and exclusively American form of popular culture.
Download or read book Blues Funk Rhythm and Blues Soul Hip Hop and Rap written by Eddie S. Meadows and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-06-10 with total page 916 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the influence of African American music and study as a worldwide phenomenon, no comprehensive and fully annotated reference tool currently exists that covers the wide range of genres. This much needed bibliography fills an important gap in this research area and will prove an indispensable resource for librarians and scholars studying African American music and culture.
Download or read book Blues in the 21st Century Myth Self Expression and Trans Culturalism written by Douglas Mark Ponton and published by Vernon Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is the fruit of Douglas Mark Ponton’s and co-editor Uwe Zagratzki’s enduring interest in the Blues as a musical and cultural phenomenon and source of personal inspiration. Continuing in the tradition of Blues studies established by the likes of Samuel Charters and Paul Oliver, the authors hope to contribute to the revitalisation of the field through a multi-disciplinary approach designed to explore this constantly evolving social phenomenon in all its heterogeneity. Focusing either on particular artists (Lightnin’ Hopkins, Robert Johnson), or specific texts (Langston Hughes’ Weary Blues and Backlash Blues, Jimi Hendrix’s Machine Gun), the book tackles issues ranging from authenticity and musicology in Blues performance to the Blues in diaspora, while also applying techniques of linguistic analysis to the corpora of Blues texts. While some chapters focus on the Blues as a quintessentially American phenomenon, linked to a specific social context, others see it in its current evolutions, as the bearer of vital cultural attitudes into the digital age. This multidisciplinary volume will appeal to a broad range of scholars operating in a number of different academic disciplines, including Musicology, Linguistics, Sociology, History, Ethnomusicology, Literature, Economics and Cultural Studies. It will also interest educators across the Humanities, and could be used to exemplify the application to data of specific analytical methodologies, and as a general introduction to the field of Blues studies.
Download or read book Jazz and the Philosophy of Art written by Lee B. Brown and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-01-31 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Co-authored by three prominent philosophers of art, Jazz and the Philosophy of Art is the first book in English to be exclusively devoted to philosophical issues in jazz. It covers such diverse topics as minstrelsy, bebop, Voodoo, social and tap dancing, parades, phonography, musical forgeries, and jazz singing, as well as Goodman’s allographic/autographic distinction, Adorno’s critique of popular music, and what improvisation is and is not. The book is organized into three parts. Drawing on innovative strategies adopted to address challenges that arise for the project of defining art, Part I shows how historical definitions of art provide a blueprint for a historical definition of jazz. Part II extends the book’s commitment to social-historical contextualism by exploring distinctive ways that jazz has shaped, and been shaped by, American culture. It uses the lens of jazz vocals to provide perspective on racial issues previously unaddressed in the work. It then examines the broader premise that jazz was a socially progressive force in American popular culture. Part III concentrates on a topic that has entered into the arguments of each of the previous chapters: what is jazz improvisation? It outlines a pluralistic framework in which distinctive performance intentions distinguish distinctive kinds of jazz improvisation. This book is a comprehensive and valuable resource for any reader interested in the intersections between jazz and philosophy.
Download or read book African American Studies written by Jeanette Davidson and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-19 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the diverse, expansive nature of African American Studies and its characteristic interdisciplinarity. It is intended for use with undergraduate/ beginning graduate students in African American Studies, American Studies and Ethnic Studies.Section I focuses on the historical development of the field and the diverse theoretical perspectives utilized in African American Studies. Section II examines African American Studies' commitment to community service and social activism, and includes exclusive interviews with acclaimed actor/activist Danny Glover and renowned scholar, Manning Marable. Section III presents international perspectives. Section IV includes selected areas of scholarship: Oral History as an important research methodology; African American Philosophy; African Aesthetics (song and dance); perspectives on Womanism, Black Feminism and Africana Womanism with a focus on literature; and African American Religion. The book concludes with African American Studies' strengths and
Download or read book Searching for Sycorax written by Kinitra D. Brooks and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2017-12-07 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Searching for Sycorax highlights the unique position of Black women in horror as both characters and creators. Kinitra D. Brooks creates a racially gendered critical analysis of African diasporic women, challenging the horror genre’s historic themes and interrogating forms of literature that have often been ignored by Black feminist theory. Brooks examines the works of women across the African diaspora, from Haiti, Trinidad, and Jamaica, to England and the United States, looking at new and canonized horror texts by Nalo Hopkinson, NK Jemisin, Gloria Naylor, and Chesya Burke. These Black women fiction writers take advantage of horror’s ability to highlight U.S. white dominant cultural anxieties by using Africana folklore to revise horror’s semiotics within their own imaginary. Ultimately, Brooks compares the legacy of Shakespeare’s Sycorax (of The Tempest) to Black women writers themselves, who, deprived of mainstream access to self-articulation, nevertheless influence the trajectory of horror criticism by forcing the genre to de-centralize whiteness and maleness.
Download or read book Voice Lessons written by Nancy Mairs and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 1997-01-19 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Voice Lessons is a book about writing from a woman with a remarkable story to tell and an utterly distinctive voice in which to tell it. Nancy Mairs's essays have been called "triumphs... of will, style, candor, thought and even form" (Los Angeles Times). She has won acclaim for her autobiographical writing on themes from living with depression to renewing a marriage, from sex to religion. In Voice Lessons, Mairs's subjects are literary, but as always her approach is personal, revealing, and inspiring. Mairs first shares her sharply drawn story on how "finding a voice" as an essayist transformed her life when she was a graduate student, wife, and mother in her late thirties. In a tribute to the liberating power of literature and feminist ideas, she shows how the words of other writers made possible a new career, a new life in difficult times. Voice Lessons goes on to explore other women's writing and to outline a singular kind of literary life. Always grounding her writing in personal experience, always making ideas concrete, Mairs gives us essays on writing and the body, the challenges of autobiography, the revelatory power of Virginia Woolf and Alice Walker, the literature of personal disaster, and the art of dealing with rejection. Articulate, witty, incisive, and inspirational, Voice Lessons is a book for writers and aspiring writers, and for everyone who loves women's writing.
Download or read book Masterplots Two written by Tyrone Williams and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Williams (Xavier U.) presents 367 three-to-four page essays, 101 commissioned new for this edition, on significant African American works of literature, from Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change, a work of cultural criticism by Molefi K. Asante,to Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, the "biomythography" of Audre Lorde. The works covered range from early colonial era writings through works of the beginning of the 21st century. Most of the essays address a single long work, while others review an author's work in a certain genre, such as short fiction, poetry, essays, or speeches. Each entry begins with information on title, subtitle, author's name and birth/death dates, type of work, date of first publication and production. For fiction, information is also presented on type of plot, setting, and principal characters. The essays then describe events or contents of the work and address broad themes and meanings connected to the work. Essays on fiction works include discussion of main character or characters, while nonfiction work includes sections on "form and content" and "analysis." All essays end with discussion of critical context. Also included with the essays are annotated bibliographies on secondary sources. The final volume includes indexes organized by type of work, title, and authors. Examples of works covered, in addition to the two already mentioned, include Ain't I a Woman by bell hooks, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany, The Black Muslims in America by C. Eric Lincoln; The Content of Our Character by Shelby Steele, Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, Roots by Alex Haley, The Signifying Monkey by Henry Louis Gates, Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington, and Walkin' the Dog by Walter Mosley. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).
Download or read book The American Voice written by and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Musicians Composers of the 20th Century written by Alfred William Cramer and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain...these are the people who helped shape the history of music. Their stories and others are told in Musicians and Composers of the 20th Century. This five volume set offers biographical and critical essays on over 600 musicians in just about every genre imaginable, from Accordion Players to Musical Theater Composers to World Music, and everything in between.
Download or read book New Books on Women Gender and Feminism written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Devil the Lovers Me written by Kimberlee Auerbach and published by Dutton Adult. This book was released on 2007 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author describes her survival of an abusive relationship, her mother's mid-life sexual proclivities, and the interference of friends and her father during a promising new romance, challenges that prompted her visit to an atypical tarot card reader.
Download or read book The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture written by Janet Sturman and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 6589 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Music and Culture presents key concepts in the study of music in its cultural context and provides an introduction to the discipline of ethnomusicology, its methods, concerns, and its contributions to knowledge and understanding of the world's musical cultures, styles, and practices. The diverse voices of contributors to this encyclopedia confirm ethnomusicology's fundamental ethos of inclusion and respect for diversity. Combined, the multiplicity of topics and approaches are presented in an easy-to-search A-Z format and offer a fresh perspective on the field and the subject of music in culture. Key features include: Approximately 730 signed articles, authored by prominent scholars, are arranged A-to-Z and published in a choice of print or electronic editions Pedagogical elements include Further Readings and Cross References to conclude each article and a Reader’s Guide in the front matter organizing entries by broad topical or thematic areas Back matter includes an annotated Resource Guide to further research (journals, books, and associations), an appendix listing notable archives, libraries, and museums, and a detailed Index The Index, Reader’s Guide themes, and Cross References combine for thorough search-and-browse capabilities in the electronic edition
Download or read book Sinister Wisdom written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Liner Notes for the Revolution written by Daphne A. Brooks and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning Black feminist music critic takes us on an epic journey through radical sound from Bessie Smith to Beyoncé. Daphne A. Brooks explores more than a century of music archives to examine the critics, collectors, and listeners who have determined perceptions of Black women on stage and in the recording studio. How is it possible, she asks, that iconic artists such as Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé exist simultaneously at the center and on the fringe of the culture industry? 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 commentator. Brooks tackles the complicated racial politics of blues music recording, song collecting, and rock and roll 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 Cécile McLorin Salvant, Rhiannon Giddens, and Valerie June take their place as cultural historians. With an innovative perspective on the story of Black women in popular music—and who should rightly tell it—Liner Notes for the Revolution pioneers a long overdue recognition and celebration of Black women musicians as radical intellectuals.
