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