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African American artists

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Ada “Bricktop” Smith (far left) seated at table with other women, the New York Public Library Digital Collections, 1920 – 1929 (Courtesy of the Schomburg Center).

Behind and Beyond Biography: Writing Black Women’s Lives and Thoughts

Ashley D. Farmer and Tanisha C. Ford explain the importance of biographical writing of African American women and the personal connection involved.
by Ashley D. Farmer, Tanisha C. Ford via Black Perspectives on May 31, 2022
Bar chart of different musical genres on a timeline of when they were popular.

A Timeline of African American Music: 1600 to the Present

An interactive visualization of the remarkable diversity of African American music, with essays on the characteristics of each genre and style.
by Portia K. Maultsby via Carnegie Hall on May 25, 2022
Biggie Smalls posing for the camera, with three friends looking on from behind.

Behind the Scenes of Ready to Die

An intimate look at the creation of an iconic album.
by Justin Tinsley via Literary Hub on May 20, 2022
John Bubbles dancing and Buck Washington playing keyboard, performing in Brooklyn, New York, 1930.

Never the Same Step Twice

Where previous generations of dancers arranged their steps into tidy, regular phrases, John Bubbles enjambed over bar lines, multiplying, twisting, tilting, turning.
by Brian Seibert via New York Review of Books on April 21, 2022
Advertisment for 1947 performance by singers and musicians Billie Holiday & Louis Armstrong

Did the Blues Originate in New Orleans?

Something unusual happened in New Orleans music around 1895. Was it the birth of the blues?
by Ted Gioia via The Honest Broker on April 18, 2022
Photo of Danyel Smith.

Danyel Smith Tells the History of Black Women in Pop Music

The author discusses Whitney Houston, Gladys Knight, racism in magazines, and why she’s so hopeful for the future of music and writing.
by Emily J. Lordi, Danyel Smith via The New Yorker on April 17, 2022
Nas performing at the 2022 Grammys.
partner

Grammys Have Little Credibility in the Hip-Hop Community

While the awards have recognized achievements in rap, Black artists continue to face musical segregation.
by A. D. Carson via Made By History on April 10, 2022
James Brown on stage singing, with people standing in shadow behind him.

Hanif Abdurraqib Breaks Down History’s Famous Beefs

On who gets caught in the crosshairs when it comes to “beef."
by Hanif Abdurraqib via Literary Hub on March 8, 2022
Odetta sitting on a park bench playing a guitar.

How Odetta Revolutionized Folk Music

She animated the horror and emotional intensity in American labor songs by projecting them like a European opera singer.
by Sasha Frere-Jones via The New Yorker on February 24, 2022
Dancers performing the Cakewalk.

Reconsidering Scott Joplin's 'The Entertainer'

The king of ragtime published his hit tune 120 years ago. Pianist Lara Downes believes the piece helped shape the future of American music.
by Lara Downes via NPR on February 7, 2022
Close up of Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night

The Slap That Changed American Film-Making

When Sidney Poitier slapped a white murder suspect on screen, it changed how the stories of Black Americans were portrayed on film.
by Steve Ryfle, Ashawnta Jackson via JSTOR Daily on February 4, 2022
Picture of country singer Charley Pride performing with guitar and microphone.

Charley Pride: How the US Country Star Became an Unlikely Hero During the Troubles

Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash cancelled gigs in Belfast during the violent 1970s, but Pride played on.
by Walker Mimms via The Guardian on December 8, 2021
A photo of Fontella Bass repeated as if it's a frame in a filmstrip.

Can't You See That I'm Lonely?

“Rescue Me,” on repeat.
by David Ramsey via Oxford American on December 7, 2021
Title card of the article styled like a Tina Turner album cover.

Manhattan in East St. Louis

The Club Manhattan could hold about 250 people. They did not know it at the time, but they were the earliest witnesses to the rise of the Queen of Rock & Roll.
by Maureen Mahon via Oxford American on December 7, 2021
The Crystals, a Black girl-group, performing at a high school prom.

The Kansas City School That Became a Stop for R. & B. Performers

In the nineteen-sixties, artists such as Bo Diddley and the Ike & Tina Turner Revue played the prom at Pembroke-Country Day.
by David Dale Owen via The New Yorker on December 4, 2021
Richard Wright.

Outcasts and Desperados

Reflections on Richard Wright’s recently published novel, "The Man Who Lived Underground."
by Adam Shatz via London Review of Books on October 4, 2021
Album cover for "We Insist!", which features African American men sitting at a lunch counter

The Sounds of Struggle

Sixty years ago, a pathbreaking jazz album fused politics and art in the fight for Black liberation. Black artists are taking similar strides today.
by Michael Beyea Reagan via Boston Review on June 24, 2021
A black and white photograph of a person playing the guitar.

My Father, Cultural Appropriator

The daughter of Buddy Holly's bandmate reflects on the defensiveness some white people have about the roots of rock 'n' roll.
by Sarah Curtis via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 5, 2021
Eubie Blake, Flournoy Miller, Noble Sissle, Aubrey Lyles smiling in round photograph.

'Footnotes' Review: Spotlight on ‘Shuffle Along’

When a pair of college friends with a knack for comedy met up with a musical double act, they had the ingredients for a sensation.
by John Check via The Wall Street Journal on May 21, 2021
A cover of the newspaper Muhammad Speaks

Muhammad Speaks for Freedom, Justice, and Equality

The official newspaper of the Nation of Islam—published from 1960-1975—combined investigative journalism and Black Nationalist views on racial uplift.
by Khuram Hussain via JSTOR Daily on May 13, 2021
John Coltrane writing on a piece of paper, with a saxophone in his lap.

How Malcolm X Inspired John Coltrane to Embrace Islamic Spirituality

Reflections on "A Love Supreme," artistic transformation, and the Black Arts Movement.
by Richard Brent Turner via Literary Hub on May 4, 2021
A graffiti mural in Los Angeles

The Emergence Of Gangsta Rap

A review of "To Live and Defy in LA: How Gangsta Rap Changed America."
by Katherine Rye Jewell via The Metropole on March 30, 2021
Andra Day as Billie Holiday in her dressing room

The Trials of Billie Holiday

Two new movies emphasize the singer’s spirit of defiance and political courage.
by Lidija Haas via The New Republic on February 26, 2021
Painting of the American flag.

Stars, Stripes and Dollars

Michael Prodger on the artists who make huge sums for painting the US flag.
by Michael Prodger via The Critic on November 30, 2020
Cover of "The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 1960s"

In Search of Soul

A musicological conversation about the history and social value of Black music.
by Sasha Frere-Jones, Emily J. Lordi via Bookforum on November 24, 2020
Abstract picture of Robert Johnson

The Devil Had Nothing to Do With It

“Robert Johnson was one of the most inventive geniuses of all time,” wrote Bob Dylan. “We still haven’t caught up with him.”
by Greil Marcus via New York Review of Books on November 13, 2020
Massacre in Boston

Knives Out

‘Struggle: From the History of the American People’ charts the strife of early US history in a fierce Cubist/Expressionist style.
by Sanford Schwartz via New York Review of Books on November 5, 2020

Ashes to Ashes

Should art heal the centuries of racial violence and injustice in the US?
by Taylor Rees via Psyche on October 21, 2020
Crowd outside New York theater waiting for Macbeth production, 1936.

"The Play That Electrified Harlem"

Shakespeare's Macbeth and the Federal Theatre Project
by Paul Allen Sommerfeld via Library of Congress on September 28, 2020
Langston Hughes signing an autograph surrounded by five other people

Let America Be America Again

Langston Hughes, "poet laureate of Harlem," dreamed of an America that lived up to its ideals.
by Louis P. Masur via The American Scholar on September 8, 2020
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