Memphis Minnie again

Memphis Minnie!

Conference Time!

Yeah! Hanging with Laina D. Met/spoke to Rob Fields, Maureen Mahon, Reebee Garofalo, Greg Tate, Portia Maultsby, Suzanne Thomas (whee!) and Mellonnie Burnim! All folks whose work I love and they were all supercool! I thank them sincerely for that!

My dissertation title

is what keeps me going!!! It is the most awesomest title EVER! I see it on a book cover already and every time I tell friends, colleagues, fellow scholars they love it! Part of the title is inspired by a horrid old rap group album title and come to find out -- and thank you universe, God, Goddess, -- a woman of color guitarist I came across WHO IS ALSO GOING TO BE AT THE CONFERENCE -- has the exact same tagline of sorts as a descriptor of her and her band! That keeps me going because how awesome and random is that!! If I connected like that, then I am still on the right path! Go me!

saying stuff

The question is what organization or association or entities will give me money to do this research...attending grant writing workshops to suss this out...slightly frustrated...have decided to focus the disseration on black women guitarists in "rock" and do papers for conferences and other stuff leaning more toward black women guitarists and blues...I hate dichotomies...people are not easily divisible by the music they play...how do I make this work feasible and still get across a sense of generalness and specificity...that's a dichotomy...sigh...how do I universalize the topic as one scholar instructed me...also, I need a third professor for my orals committee...someone versed in the south and rock and blues, etc...I have someone in mind...I'll be damned if such an exciting topic becomes boring at the hands of other folks...No! No! No! I'm sticking to this...must get at the truth from their perspectives first...alla this in all its messiness of performance, race, the body, creativity, gender, sexuality, space and place.

Now that I have this list...now what? Because plenty of folk still act like black women who play the (electric) guitar are like leprechauns, rarities, anomalies...boo to that!

Wordle: Blues Women

Did I count right?

60 names on the list!!!!

More Than a Notion

Okay, so...I get it! When you are doing what you are supposed to be doing, amazing things happen like...

- finding out you have a superfun cousin who plays guitar and went on tour with various black rock bands

- that a conference about blacks and rock music is occurring in November and I can attend and a ton of awesome people whose music I love and whose words I love to read will be there! I am so excited!

- someone I met in Italy this summer met a contact for me who sings and plays guitar and participates in the Rock 'N' Roll Camp for Girls. Apparently, they lament the lack of presence of girls of color.

- I get to see Living Colour perform for the first time ever this summer!

- I have received support from esteemed professors in terms of the viability of my research interests

- I have decided to learn to play guitar for kicks and so I can have a clue!

One of these days

Wondering if I will have to one day confront the difference between a sister who is a "guitarist," a sister who plays the guitar, and a sister who is capable of playing the guitar.

Then there's me, the sister who wishes she could play guitar. Maybe I should learn (slowly) as part of this journey...at least I should have some sort of real-world clue about the instrument!

46!!!!

It's On!!!

I told my advisor about my change in dissertation topic! I have to redo and/or take some extra steps, but I am cool with it...onward and upward

Evergreen Questions/Concerns II

1. detailed work history
2. personal and archival cultural memorabilia and ephemera
3. old and recent newspaper articles, "mainstream" and "black"
4. Support from who/m?
5. impact of environment/region (especially South) on identity, music, style, etc.
6. gender considerations/sexism
7. black feminist impulses
8. issues of courage, self-definition/validation
9. contours of success/lack thereof
10. childhood, adolescence, young adulthood
11. impact of religion
12. role models, mentors
13. quality of technique, skill
14. songwriting skills
15. experience with industry
16. impact of academic education
17. women of their eras or ahead of the curve
18. hard times
19. skin color, body issues, hair issues
20. competition

Tomorrow!

I have to tell my advisor that I am switching dissertation topics! I am scared, why! What I want to do is just as legitimate and important, so why am I still scared!

Fcuk it though! I'm going to do it...the architecture and geography of black women guitarists identities, focusing on issues of race, gender, class, representation, space and place!

And maybe I should also interview "younger" guitarists too! Why wait for them to turn 70 plus before asking how they construct and negotiate their identities as contemporary black women and as creative musicians/artists. It will be awesome to interview them 20 years later, develop a body of work about them instead of lamenting after their deaths about why no one focused on them earlier!

tomorrow...tomorrow...I wonder if I will get in trouble for switch

Oh boy

So I thought I knew what I wanted my dissertation to be about, but now it seems like my heart is calling me to do oral history work with black women guitarists. This is what really excites me the most, the idea of interviewing them, contributing to some sort of archive on their behalf. They need to be remembered and honored and recognized so they can continue to inspire generations of black girls to pick up guitars and play and know that that instrument is at home in their hands and not just in a white man's hands, or a white woman's hands or a black man's hands. It is our instrument too.

I've got to decide who though...likely, older women in their 70s before it's too late to catch up to them in their 80s. And then I have got to find them and then Dear God, my learning curve is steep. Summer I will drown myself in research and catch up to a professor who can help school me and give me bibliography.

I am praying about this. I need some doors and windows to open up on my behalf and show me the path I should go down

History!!

The OBAMAS are locked and loaded in place!