Black Resonance : Iconic Women Singers and African American Literature

Ever since Bessie Smith’s powerful voice conspired with the “race records” industry to make her a star in the 1920s, African American writers have memorialized the sounds and theorized the politics of black women’s singing. In __Black Resonance__, Emily J. Lordi analyzes writings by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Gayl Jones, and Nikki Giovanni that engage such iconic singers as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. Focusing on two generations of artists from the 1920s to the 1970s, __Black Resonance__ reveals a musical-literary tradition in which singers and writers, faced with similar challenges and harboring similar aims, developed comparable expressive techniques. Drawing together such seemingly disparate works as Bessie Smith’s blues and Richard Wright’s neglected film of __Native Son__, Mahalia Jackson’s gospel music and Ralph Ellison’s __Invisible Man__, each chapter pairs one writer with one singer to crystallize the artistic practice they share: lyricism, sincerity, understatement, haunting, and the creation of a signature voice. In the process, Lordi demonstrates that popular female singers are not passive muses with raw, natural, or ineffable talent. Rather, they are experimental artists who innovate black expressive possibilities right alongside their literary peers. The first study of black music and literature to centralize the music of black women, __Black Resonance__ offers new ways of reading and hearing some of the twentieth century’s most beloved and challenging voices. Black Resonance analyzes writings by Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Gayl Jones, and Nikki Giovanni that engage such iconic singers as Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, and Aretha Franklin. The book focuses on two generations of artists from the 1920s to the 1970s; each chapter pairs one writer with one singer to crystallize the artistic practice they share: lyricism, sincerity, understatement, haunting, and the creation of a signature voice. Introduction: Black resonance Vivid lyricism: Richard Wright and Bessie Smith's blues The timbre of sincerity: Mahalia Jackson's gospel sound and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man Understatement: James Baldwin, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday Haunting: Gayl Jones's Corregidora and Billie Holiday's "strange Fruit" Signature voices: Nikki Giovanni, Aretha Franklin, and the Black Arts movement Epilogue: "At Last": Etta James, poetry, hip hop.