Dear self

It's time to do something about this blog

Happy Fourth of July courtesy of MALINA MOYE

THIS is why I love being a black woman! We're beautiful, brilliant and badass!!! WHY AM I SO LATE TO KNOWING HER?!!!!!!

Danielia Cotton, Live!

Barbara Lynn (1960s)

Shelley Doty (Sistas in the Pit)

The Duchess performing with Bo Diddley (late 1960s)

Back on the Scene, Crispy and Clean!

Well, IRB has given me the go ahead!!

It's about to be on like popcorn....

I haven't abandoned ship here

I have been on vaca though...mentally from my research. Needed to unclog my brain from the semester highs and semester shenanigans!

I'm getting back in the saddle next week. I've got a plan now!

Some things

So I presented a paper entitled "The Blues Body of Memphis Minnie in the Traveling South" two weeks ago at the Chesapeake regional chapter of the American Studies Association at Georgetown University. People were quite excited, so was I since I wasn't sure what the reaction would be. I talked about the guitar has an instrument of artistry, escape and access for her as a working class, early 20th century black woman who recognized her talent with the instrument and its possibilities for changing her life. That instrument gave Minnie the means to cross the borders and thresholds of all kinds of racialized and gendered spaces and places.

Advisor told me to step my game up by looking for black women who played the guitar in gospel music. Needless to say, blues, rock and gospel? I am swamped in books! He also suggested I consider how my research can be organized into a sortable database!

I swear though this never gets old, stumbling across names, names and more names. What is frustrating is when these names are just briefly referenced in passing in books, as in "Oh, Patton had a wife who played guitar." Yeah, and then that's it. So frustrated that folks were focused so much on interviewing the men that they ignored the women. So many bluesmen mention that their mothers and/or sisters played and/or taught them how to play the guitar!!!

Thinking that I will need to better organize the blog to be more consistent about the RIPs and who plays what instrument. May need to start adding some symbols with a legend to distinguish folk a bit more, otherwise it could be overwhelming.

75!!!!

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!!!!