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!