borderspacer gutter spacer menu spacer gutter spacer body spacer gutter spacer border spacer
border spacer gutter spacer menu spacer gutter spacer body spacer gutter spacer border spacer
border spacer gutter spacer Black American Feminisms header gutter spacer border spacer
border spacer gutter spacer menu spacer gutter spacer body spacer gutter spacer border spacer
border spacer gutter spacer
menu border spacer menu gutter spacer menu links text spacer menu gutter spacer menu border spacer
menu border spacer menu gutter spacer menu border spacer
menu border spacer menu gutter spacer INTRODUCTION
- Important Note
- Introduction
- Purpose
- Description & Scope
- Locating Resources

ARTS & HUMANITIES
- Art
- Cultural Criticism
- Media, Film & TV
- Language &
  Literature

- LGBTQ Women
- Music
- Religion &
  Philosophy


SOCIAL SCIENCES
- Anthropology
- Economics
- History
- Politics
- Legal Theory
- Psychology
- Sociology

EDUCATION
- The Academy
- History of Education
- Pedagogy &
  Philosophy


HEALTH, MEDICINE & SCIENCE
- Health and Healing
- Science, Medicine,
  & Technology


(Auto)Biography, Memoirs, Personal Narratives

Interviews

Speeches

Multidisciplinary Anthologies

Periodicals: Special Issues

Websites

Home
menu gutter spacer menu border spacer
menu border spacer menu gutter spacer menu border spacer
menu border spacer
gutter spacer
A Multidisciplinary Bibliography
The Arts and Humanities
Music
Movin' On by Irmagean What can we learn from women like Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday that we may not be able to learn from Ida B. Wells, Anna Julia Cooper, and Mary Church Terrell? If we were beginning to appreciate the blasphemies of fictionalized blues women - especially their outrageous politics of sexuality - and the knowledge that might be gleaned from their lives about the possibilities of transforming gender relations within black communities, perhaps we also could benefit from a look at the artistic contributions of the original blues women.
Angela Y. Davis

Brooks, Daphne A. "'All That You Can't Leave Behind': Black Female Soul Singing and the Politics of Surrogation in the Age of Castastrophe." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalsim 8, no. 1 (2008): 180-204.

Burns, Lori. "Me'Shell Ndefeocello, 'Mary Magdalena' (1996)" In Disruptive Divas: Feminism, Identity & Popular Music, eds. Lori Burns and Melisse LaFrance. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Carby, Hazel V. "Black Women's Blues, Motown and Rock and Roll." In Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and African America. New York: Verso, 1999.

          . "It Jus Be's Dat Way Sometime: The Sexual Politics of Women's Blues. "In Gender and Discourse: The Power of Talk, eds. Alexandra Dundas Todd, and Sue Fisher. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1988; reprinted in Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and African America. New York: Verso, 1999.

          . "Playin' the Changes." Race Men: The W.E.B. DuBois Lectures. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.

          . "Policing the Black Woman's Body in an Urban Context." In Identities, eds. Kwame Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Originally published in Critical Inquiry 18, no. 4 (1992), 735-755. Reprinted in Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and African America. New York: Verso, 1999.

          . "The Sexual Politcs of Women's Blues." In Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and African America. New York: Vers0, 1999.

          . "They Put aSpell on You." In Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and African America. New York: Verso, 1999.

Chepp, Valerie. "Black Feminism and Third-Wave Women's Rap: A Content Analysis, 1996-2003." Popular Music and Society 35, no. 5 (December 2015): 545-564.

          . "Black Feminist Theory and the Poltiics of Irreverence: The Case of Women's Rap." Feminist Theory 16, no. 2 (August 2015): 207-220.

Clay, Andreana. "'I used to be Scared of the Dick': Queer Women of Color and Hip Hip Masculinity." In Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop Feminism Anthology, eds. Gwendolyn D. Pough, et al. Mira Loma, CA: Parker Publishing, 2007.

          . "'Like an Old Soul Record': Black Feminism, Queer Sexuality, and the Hip-Hop Generation." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalsim 8, no. 1 (2008): 53-73.

Cole Johnnetta Betsch and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. "No Respect: Gender Politics and Hip Hop." In Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women's Equality in African American Communities. New York: One World Ballantine Books, 2003.

Cooper, Denise. "Hip Hop Feminism: From Bitches to Queens and the Varied Experiences in Between." In Voices of a New Generation: A Feminist Anthology, eds. Sara Weir and Constnace Faulkner. Boston: Pearson, 2004.

Crenshaw, Kimberle. "Beyond Racism and Misogyny: Black Feminism and the 2 Live Crew." Boston Review 16, no. 6 (1991): 6-33. Reprinted in Words That Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech and the First Amendment, eds, Mari J. Matusda et al (Boulder: CO: Westview press, 1993). Reprinted in Feminist Social Thought: A Reader, ed Diana Tietjens Meyers (New York: Routledge, 1997). Reprinted in Reflections: An Anthology of African American Philosophy, eds. William H. Hardy, and James Montmarquet, (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thompson Learning, 2000).

Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. New York: Pantheon, 1998.

          . "Black Women and Music: A Historical Legacy of Struggle. "In Wild Women in the Whirlwind: Afro-American Culture and the Contemporary Literary Renaissance, eds. Joanne M. Braxton, and Andree Nicola McLaughlin. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990.

Fitts, Mako. "'Drop It Like It's Hot': Culture Industry Laborers and Their Perspectives on Rap Music Video Production." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalsim 8, no. 1 (2008): 211-235.

Gaunt, Kyra D. "African American Women Between Hopscotch and Hip Hop". In Feminism, Multiculturalism, and the Media: Global Diversities, ed. Angharad N. Valdivia. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995.

Gines, Kathryn. "Queen Bees and Big Pimps: Sex and Sexuality in Hip Hop." In Hip Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason. Chicago: Open Court, 2005.

Gossett, Hattie, and Carolyn Johnson. "Jazzwomen." Heresies 10 (1980) 65-68.

Griffin, Farah Jasmine. If you Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday. New York: Free Press, 2001.

Harrison, Daphne Duval. Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988.

Harrison, Daphne Duval. "BlackWomen in the Blues Tradition." In The Afro-American Woman: Struggles and Images. eds. Sharon Harley and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 1978.

Hawk, David. "Interview: Tricia Rose on Hip-Hop." Critical Matrix: The Princeton Journal of Women, Gender, and Culture 7, no. 2 (1993), 45-58.

Hayes, Eileen M., and Linda F. Williams. Black Women and Music: More than the Blues. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.

          . Songs in Black and Lavender: Race, Sexual Politics, and Women's Music. Urbana: University Of Illinois Press, 2010.

Henry, Wilma J, Nicole M. West, and Andrea Jackson. "Hip-Hop's Influence on the Identity Development of Black Female College Students: A Literature Review." Journal of College Student Development 51, no. 3 (May-June 2010): 237-251.

Jackson, Brown. "Black Women and Music: A Survey From Africa to the New World." In Black Women Cross-Culturally, ed. Filomina Chioma Steady. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman, 1981. Originally Published in Minority Voices 2, no. 2 (199): 15-27.

Johnson, Maria V. "'Jelly Jelly Jellyroll': Lesbian Sexuality and Identity in Women's Blues." Women and Music 31 December 2003, 31+.

          . "Pouring Out the Blues: Gwen 'Sugar Mama' Avery's Song of Freedom." Frontiers 25, no. 1 (2004): 93-110.

Karpf, Juanita. "'As With Words of Fire': Art Music and Nineteenth-Century African American Discourse." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 24, no. 3, (1992): 603-632.

Keyes, Cheryl L. "'We're More Than a Novelty Boys': Strategies of Female Rappers in the Rap Music Tradition." In Feminist Messages: A Coding in Women's Folk Culture, ed. Joan Newton Radner. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Kirk-Duggan, Cheryl A. Exocizing Evil: A Womanist Perspective on the Spirituals.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997.

          . "Justified, Santified, and Redeemed: Blessed Expectation in Black Women's Blues and Gospels." In Embracing the Spirit: Womanist Perspectives on Hope, Salvation, and Transformation, ed. Emilie Maureen Townes.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997.

Lafrance, Melisse. "Textual Subversion: The Narrative Sabotage of Race, Gender, and Desire in the Music of MeShell Ndegeocello." In Disruptive Divas: Feminism, Identity, & Popular Music. Lori Burns and Melisse Lafrance. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Lucas, Demetria. "Who's Zoomin Who." Savoy. April 2003, 22.

McDonald, Trevy A. "'Tired of the World According to Young Men's Machismo'":. In Nature of a Sistuh: Black Women's Lived Experiences in Contemporary Culture, eds. Trevy McDonald and T. Ford-Ahmed. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1999.

Mahmoud, Jasmine. "Black Love? Black Love!: All Aboard the Presence of Punk in Seattle's NighTraiN." Women & Performance22, no. 2-3 (July-November 2012): 315-323.

McMurray, Anaya. " Hotep and Hip-Hop: Can Black Muslim Women Be Down with Hip-Hop?" Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalsim 8, no. 1 (2008): 74-92.

Mitchell, Mozelle G. "Women at the Well: Mahalia Jackson and the Inner and Outer Spiritual Transformation." In Embracing the Spirit: Womanist Perspectives on Hope, Salvation, and Transformation, ed. Emilie Maureen Townes. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997.

Mockus, Martha. "MeShell Ndegeocello: Musical Articulations of Black Feminism." In Umaking Race, Remaking Soul: Transformative Aesthetics and the Practice of Freedom, eds Christa Davis, and Angela L. Cotton. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007.

Morgan, Joan. "The Bad boy." Essence November 1997, 111-112+.

          . "The Bad Girls of Hip-Hop." Essence March 1997, 76-77+.

          . "Fly-Girls, Bitches and Hos." The Village Voice 13 February 1996, 32+. Reprinted in When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist, (NewYork: Simon and Schuster, 1999).

          . "Hail Mary." Essence April 1997, 74-76+.

          . "Like Mike." The Village Voice 14 April 1998, 115+.

Morgan, Marcyliena, "Hip-Hop Women Shredding the Veil: Race and Class in Popular Feminist Identity." South Atlantic Quarterly 104, no. 3 (2005): 425-444.

Oware, Matthew. "A 'Man's Woman'?: Contradictory Messages in the Songs of Female Rappers, 1992-2000." In Voices of a New Generation: A Feminist Anthology, eds. Sara Weir and Constance Walker. Boston: Pearson, 2010.

Painia, Brianne A. "My Crown Too Heavy Like the Queen Nefertiti": A Black Feminist Analysis of Erikah Badu, Beyonce Knowles, Nicki Minaj, and Janelle Moore. Ph. D diss., George Washington University, 2014.

Peoples, Whitney A. "'Under Construction': Identifying Foundations of Hip-Hop Feminism and Exploring Bridges Between Black Second-Wave and Hip-Hop Feminism" Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalsim 8, no. 1 (2008): 19-52. Reprinted in No Permanent Waves: Recasting Histories of U.S. Feminism, ed Nancy A. Hewitt (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Universtiy Press, 2010).

Perry, Imani. "It's My Thang and I'll Swing It the Way That I Feel!: Sexuality and Black Women Rappers." In Gender, Race and Class in Media: A Text-Reader, eds. Gail Dines, and Jean M. Humez. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995.

Phelps, Carmen. "Identifying Blues: An Interview with Lesbian Blues Musician and Lyricist Gaye Adegbalola." Jounral of Lesbian Studies 15, no. 1 (2011): 83-94.

Pough, Gwendolyn D. Check it While I Wreck it: Black Womanhood, Hip Hop Culture, and the Public Sphere. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004.

          . "What It do, Shorty? Women, Hip-Hop, and a Feminist Agenda." Black Women, Gender & Families 1, no. 2 (Fall 2007): 78-99.

Reid-Brinkley, Shanara R. "The Essence of Res(ex)spectibility: Black Women's Negotiation of Black Femininity in Rap Music Video." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalsim 8, no. 1 (2008): 19-52.

Richardson, Matt. "Make Me Wanna Holler: Meshell Ndegeocello, Black Queer Aesthetics, and Feminist Critiques." Journal of Lesbian Studies 18, no. 3 (July-September 2014): 237-251.

Roberts, Robin. "Ladies First: Queen Latifah's Afrocentric Feminist Music Video." African American Review 28, no. 2 (1994): 245-257.

Rose, Tricia. "Hidden Politics: Discursive and Institutional Policing of Rap Music." In Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture, ed. William Eric Perkins. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.

          . Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Hanover, MA: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.

          . "Rap Music and the Demononization of Young Black Males." In Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary Art, ed. Thelma Golden. New York: Whitney Museum of Art, 1994.

Russell, Michele. "Slave Codes and Liner Notes." In All the Women are White, All the Blacks Are Men: Black Women's Studies, eds. Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott and Barbara Smith.Old Westbury, NY: The Feminist Press, 1982.

Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean. Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women. New York: New York University Press, 2007.

          . "Played In Full: In Pimps Up, Ho's Down, T. Dedean Sharpley-Whiting Asks Where Hip Hop Went Wrong for Women." Interview by Andi Zeisler. Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, no. 36 (Summer 2007): 40-43.

Stallings, L.H. "Queen B(?)'s Queering of Neo-Soul Desire." In Mutha' is Half a Word: Intersections of Folklore, Vernacular, Myth, and Queerness in Black Female Culture. L.H. Stallings. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2007.

          . "Representin' for the Bitches: Queen B(?) in Hip Hop Culture." Mutha' is Half a Word: Intersections of Folklore, Vernacular, Myth, and Queerness in Black Female Culture. L.H. Stallings. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2007.

Stinson, Elizabeth. "Means of Detection: A Critical Archiving of Black Feminism and Punk Performance." Women & Performance 22, no 2-3 (July 2012): 275-312.

Thomas, Greg. Hip-Hop Revolution in the Flesh: Power, Knowledge, and Pleasure in Lil' Kim's Lyricism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Tinsley, Omise'eke Natasha. Beyonce in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2018.

Wallace, Michele. "When Black Feminism Faces the Music and the Music is Rap." New York Times 29 July 1990, 12.

Weeks, Debbie. "Where My girls? Black Girls and the Construction of the Sexual." In All About the Girl: Culture, Power, and Identity. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Williams, Sherley Anne. "Returning to the Blues: Esther Phillips and Contemporary Blues Culture." Callaloo 14, no. 4 (1991): 816-828.

          . "Two Words on Music: Black Community." In Black Popular Culture: A Project by Michele Wallace, ed. Gina Dent. Seattle: Bay Press, 1992.

- click here to return to the top of page and menu -
gutter spacer border spacer
border spacer gutter spacer border spacer
border spacer gutter spacer This Web site was made possible by a grant from the Librarians Association of the University of California. Author: Sherri L. Barnes, UCSB Libraries.
Updated: 5/18/19
All images, artwork, and design are copyrighted © and may not be used or reproduced without the express written consent from the following: Background image extrapolated from "True Self" © Karin Turner. "Movin' On" © Irmagean. Site design © Gwen Harlow. License to use images may be available through private treaty with the artist.
gutter spacer border spacer
border spacer gutter spacer menu spacer gutter spacer body spacer gutter spacer border spacer
borderspacer gutter spacer menu spacer gutter spacer body spacer gutter spacer border spacer
spacer