Embedded Files
Berry, D. R. & Gross, K. N. (2020). A Black women's history of the United States. Beacon Press.
Written by two award winning Black women historians, this book offers a revisionist history of the United States that centers the historical contributions, lived experiences, and resilience of Black women. It includes discussion of the inner lives, struggles, and creativity of Black women artists, performers, writers, singers, and dancers who have “given voice to our humanity” and shaped the fabric of American culture in the face of interlocking systems of oppression.
Carby, H. V. (1999). Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and African America. Verso.
This book of collected works brings together key essays by Black British feminist Hazel Carby. The section on “Women, Migration and the Formation of the Blues” is particularly relevant to this project.
Guy-Sheftall, B. (1995). Words of fire: An anthology of African-American feminist thought. New Press.
This anthology brings together key writings by notable Black feminists like bell hooks, Angela Davis, Michele Wallace, Cheryl Clarke, Barbara Smith, Audre Lorde, Pat Hill Collins, Deborah King, and more. The essays trace the development of feminist consciousness among Black women and provide theoretical frameworks for understanding the ways in which Black women negotiate and resist interlocking systems of oppression built up around race, class, and gender.
Collins, P. H. (1999). Black feminist thought: Knowledge consciousness and the politics of empowerment (1st ed.). Routledge.
Sociologist Pat Hill Collins traces the historical development of Black feminist thought through core themes like work and family, controlling images, the power of self-definition, activism, and the sexual politics of Black womanhood. Collin’s concept of the matrix of domination provides a theoretical and analytical framework for understanding Black women’s contributions to the blues and the ways in which the blues served as a site for the development of Black women blues artists’ self-definitions and distinctive standpoints.
Collins, P. H. (2005). Black sexual politics: African Americans gender and the new racism. Routledge.
This book explores Black sexual politics at the intersection of gender, race, and sexuality. The section on “Rethinking Black Gender Ideology” provides a framework for understanding the ways in which working-class Black blues women challenged controlling images of Black womanhood and asserted their sexual agency through their performances.
Hill Collins, P. & Bilge S. (2016). Intersectionality. John Wiley & Sons.
"Collins and Bilge provide a much-needed, introduction to the field of intersectional knowledge and praxis. They analyze the emergence, growth and contours of the concept and show how intersectional frameworks speak to topics as diverse as human rights, neoliberalism, identity politics, immigration, hip hop, global social protest, diversity, digital media, Black feminism in Brazil, violence and World Cup soccer." [From the Publisher]
Hooks, B. (2006). Ain't I a woman: Black women and feminism (20. print). South End Press.
“Examining the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, the devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism among feminists, and the black woman's involvement with feminism, hooks attempts to move us beyond racist and sexist assumptions.” [From the Publisher]. This book provides a framework for understanding the erasure of the contributions and legacies of Black women blues guitarists to blues history and culture.
Hull, A. G. Bell-Scott, P. Smith B. & Cooper B. C. (2015). All the women are white all the Blacks are men but some of us are brave: Black women's studies (Second). Feminist Press at the City University of New York.
Winner of the Outstanding Women of Color Award and the Women’s Educator’s Curriculum Material Award, this edited volume challenges the erasure of Black women in both feminist and Black studies by centering the lived experiences of Black women in America and their contributions to American life. Contributors include The Combahee River Collective, Barbara Smith, Michele Wallace, Patricia Bell Scott, Elizabeth Higginbotham, Gloria T. Hull, and other notable Black feminist scholars. The essays about Black women’s contributions to the blues are especially relevant to this project.
Hunter, T. W. (19981997). To 'joy my freedom: Southern Black women's lives and labors after the civil war (1st Harvard University Press pbk.). Harvard University Press.
This book gives voice to Black women in the south who worked as domestic laborers. It covers the days leading up to the end of slavery, the Civil War, the Great Migration, and World War I. This book provides a historical framework for understanding the lives, legacies, and music of Black women country blues artists in the south.
Jones, J. (2010). Labor of love labor of sorrow: Black women work and the family from slavery to the present. Basic Books.
Winner of numerous prizes and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History, this book traces the history of Black women’s labor “as enslaved workers, wage earners, nurturers, and community activist from 1830 to the present” (p. 1), looking specifically at the ways in which Black women’s labor was shaped by racialized gender ideologies. This book provides a social, historical, and cultural context for understanding the lived experiences of Black women blues musicians.
Lerner, G. (1992). Black women in white America: A documentary history (Vintage books). Vintage Books.
In this rare collection of documentary sources, Black women "speak of themselves, their lives, ambitions, and struggles from the colonial period to the present day. Theirs are stories of oppression and survival, of family and community self-help, of inspiring heroism and grass-roots organizational continuity in the face of racism, economic hardship, and, far too often, violence." This book provides historical context for understanding the lives of Black women country blues artists.
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