Black Diva of the Thirties
Black Diva of the Thirties

Author: David E. Weaver

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2009-11-12

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1628467533

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While undergoing routine surgery to remove a benign tumor, Ruby Elzy died. She was only thirty-five. Had she lived, she would have been one of the first Black artists to appear in grand opera. Although now in the shadows, she was a shining star in her day. She entertained Eleanor Roosevelt in the White House. She was Paul Robeson's leading lady in the movie version of The Emperor Jones. She starred in Birth of the Blues opposite Bing Crosby and Mary Martin. She sang at Harlem's Apollo Theater and in the Hollywood Bowl. Her remarkable soprano voice was known to millions over the radio. She was personally chosen by George Gershwin to create one of the leading roles in his masterpiece, that of Serena in the original production of Porgy and Bess. Her signature song was the vocally demanding “My Man's Gone Now.” From obscurity she had risen to great heights. Ruby Pearl Elzy (1908-1943) was born in abject poverty in Pontotoc, Mississippi. Her father abandoned the family when she was five, leaving her mother, a strong, devout woman, to raise four small children. Ruby first sang publicly at the age of four and even in childhood dreamed of a career on the stage. Good fortune struck when a visiting professor, overwhelmed upon hearing her beautiful voice at Rust College in Mississippi, arranged for her to study music at Ohio State University. Later, on a Rosenwald Fellowship, she enrolled at the Juilliard School in New York City. After more than eight hundred performances in Porgy and Bess, she set her sights on a huge goal, to sing in grand opera. She was at the peak of her form. While she was preparing for her debut in the title role of Verdi's Aida, tragedy struck. During her brief career, Ruby Elzy was in the top tier of American sopranos and a precursor who paved a way for Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, and other black divas of the operatic stage. This biography acknowledges her exceptional talent, recognizes her contribution to American music, and tells her tragic yet inspiring story.

William Levi Dawson
William Levi Dawson

Author: Mark Hugh Malone

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2023-03-24

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 149684484X

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William Levi Dawson (1899–1990) overcame adversity and Jim Crow racism to become a nationally recognized composer, choral arranger, conductor, and professor of music. In William Levi Dawson: American Music Educator, Mark Hugh Malone tells the fascinating tale of Dawson’s early life, quest for education, rise to success at the Tuskegee Institute, achievement of national notoriety as a composer, and retirement years spent conducting choirs throughout the US and world. From his days as a student at Tuskegee in the final years of Booker T. Washington’s presidency, Dawson continually pursued education in music, despite racial barriers to college admission. Returning to Tuskegee later in life, he became director of the School of Music. Under his direction, the Tuskegee Choir achieved national recognition by singing at Radio City Music Hall, presenting concerts for Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and performing on nationwide radio and television broadcasts. Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, only the second extended musical work to be written by an African American, was premiered by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra in both Philadelphia and New York City. Dawson’s arrangements of spirituals, the original folk music of African Americans enslaved in America during the antebellum period, quickly became highly sought-after choral works. This biographical account of Dawson's life is narrated with a generous sprinkling of his personal memories and photographs.

The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film
The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film

Author: Melissa U. D. Goldsmith

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-10-07

Total Pages: 487

ISBN-13: 1442269871

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Musicians, both fictional and real, have long been subjects of cinema. From biopics of composers Beethoven and Mozart to the rise (and often fall) of imaginary bands in The Commitments and Almost Famous, music of all types has inspired hundreds of films. The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film features the most significant productions from around the world, including straightforward biographies, rockumentaries, and even the occasional mockumentary. The wide-ranging scope of this volume allows for the inclusion of films about fictional singers and bands, with emphasis on a variety of themes: songwriter–band relationships, the rise and fall of a career, music saving the day, the promoter’s point of view, band competitions, the traveling band, and rock-based absurdity. Among the films discussed in this book are Amadeus, The Blues Brothers, The Buddy Holly Story, The Commitments, Dreamgirls, The Glenn Miller Story, A Hard Day’s Night, I’m Not There, Jailhouse Rock, A Mighty Wind, Ray, ’Round Midnight, The Runaways, School of Rock, That Thing You Do!, and Walk the Line.With entries that span the decades and highlight a variety of music genres, The Encyclopedia of Musicians and Bands on Film is a valuable resource for moviegoers and music lovers alike, as well as scholars of both film and music.

The Mississippi Encyclopedia
The Mississippi Encyclopedia

Author: Ted Ownby

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2017-05-25

Total Pages: 1461

ISBN-13: 1496811593

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Recipient of the 2018 Special Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters and Recipient of a 2018 Heritage Award for Education from the Mississippi Heritage Trust The perfect book for every Mississippian who cares about the state, this is a mammoth collaboration in which thirty subject editors suggested topics, over seven hundred scholars wrote entries, and countless individuals made suggestions. The volume will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about Mississippi and the people who call it home. The book will be especially helpful to students, teachers, and scholars researching, writing about, or otherwise discovering the state, past and present. The volume contains entries on every county, every governor, and numerous musicians, writers, artists, and activists. Each entry provides an authoritative but accessible introduction to the topic discussed. The Mississippi Encyclopedia also features long essays on agriculture, archaeology, the civil rights movement, the Civil War, drama, education, the environment, ethnicity, fiction, folklife, foodways, geography, industry and industrial workers, law, medicine, music, myths and representations, Native Americans, nonfiction, poetry, politics and government, the press, religion, social and economic history, sports, and visual art. It includes solid, clear information in a single volume, offering with clarity and scholarship a breadth of topics unavailable anywhere else. This book also includes many surprises readers can only find by browsing.

Autobiographical Reminiscences of African-American Classical Singers, 1853-present
Autobiographical Reminiscences of African-American Classical Singers, 1853-present

Author: Elizabeth Nash

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13:

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Artist profiles. Eva Alberta Jessye -- James Langston Hughes -- Josephine Wright -- Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield -- Sissieretta Jones -- Estelle Pinckney Clough -- Dena J. Epstein -- Benjamin M. Holmes -- Jennie Jackson -- Minnie Tate -- Maggie Porter Cole -- Thomas Rutling -- Georgie Gordon -- Julia Jackson -- Mabel Lewis -- Hinton D. Alexander -- Ella Sheppard -- E. Azalia Hackley -- Julius C. Bledsoe -- Carl Diton -- Abbie Mitchell -- Roland Hayes -- George Shirley -- Todd Duncan -- Camilla Williams -- Marian Anderson -- Paul Robeson -- Dorothy Maynor -- Betty Allen -- Leontyne Price -- William Warfield -- Shirley Verrett -- Grace Bumbry -- Simon Estes -- Jessye Norman -- Sylvia Olden Lee -- Kathleen Battle -- Vinson Cole -- Herbert Perry -- Mark S. Doss -- Denyce Graves -- Paul Laurence Dunbar -- Rosalyn M. Story -- James Weldon Johnson -- John Lovell, Jr. -- John Wesley Work -- J.A. Myers -- Marion Kerby -- Edward H. Boatner -- Harry T. Burleigh -- Hall Johnson -- Norman L. Merrifield -- Marvin V. Curtis -- Lee V. Cloud.

Bulletproof Diva
Bulletproof Diva

Author: Lisa Jones

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 1997-02-19

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0385471238

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In Bulletproof Diva, Lisa Jones brings the wit and candor of her infamous Village Voice column, "Skin Trade," to a much larger audience. Chock full of the "fierce black girl humor" that has made her column so popular, this provocative collection of essays and observations on race, sex, identity, and the politics of style speaks to a young generation of blacks who were raised in an integrated society and are now waiting for America to deliver on its promises of equality. The thirty-seven short pieces and six long essays in Bulletproof Diva cover a wide range of topics, many of them extremely controversial. Jones moves smoothly from issues of ethnicity in a changing America, challenging viewpoints on African-American and mixed race identity, to "butt theory" and the roller-coaster politics of black hair. Written in a style that is as appealing as it is unapologetic, Bulletproof Diva marks the debut of a genuinely gifted young writer with a distinctive voice and a fresh perspective on the black cultural scene.

American Diva: Extraordinary, Unruly, Fabulous
American Diva: Extraordinary, Unruly, Fabulous

Author: Deborah Paredez

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2024-05-21

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1324035315

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An impassioned homage to the divas who shake up our world and transform it with their bold, dazzling artistry. What does it mean to be a “diva”? A shifting, increasingly loaded term, it has been used to both deride and celebrate charismatic and unapologetically fierce performers like Aretha Franklin, Divine, and the women of Labelle. In this brilliant, powerful blend of incisive criticism and electric memoir, Deborah Paredez—scholar, cultural critic, and lifelong diva devotee—unravels our enduring fascination with these icons and explores how divas have challenged American ideas about feminism, performance, and freedom. American Diva journeys into Tina Turner’s scintillating performances, Celia Cruz’s command of the male-dominated salsa world, the transcendent revival of Jomama Jones after a period of exile, and the unparalleled excellence of Venus and Serena Williams. Recounting how she and her mother endlessly watched Rita Moreno’s powerhouse portrayal of Anita in West Side Story and how she learned much about being bigger than life from her fabulous Tía Lucia, Paredez chronicles the celebrated and skilled performers who not only shaped her life but boldly expressed the aspiration for freedom among brown, Black, and gay communities. Paredez also traces the evolution of the diva through the decades, dismayed at the mid-aughts’ commodification and juvenilizing of its meaning but finding its lasting beauty and power. Filled with sharp insights and great heart, American Diva is a spirited tribute to the power of performance and the joys of fandom.

Night's Dancer
Night's Dancer

Author: Yaël Tamar Lewin

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press

Published: 2015-08-14

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 0819571156

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The biography of the first African-American prima ballerina Winner of the The Marfield Prize / National Award for Arts Writing (2011) Dancer Janet Collins, born in New Orleans in 1917 and raised in Los Angeles, soared high over the color line as the first African-American prima ballerina at the Metropolitan Opera. Night's Dancer chronicles the life of this extraordinary and elusive woman, who became a unique concert dance soloist as well as a black trailblazer in the white world of classical ballet. During her career, Collins endured an era in which racial bias prevailed, and subsequently prevented her from appearing in the South. Nonetheless, her brilliant performances transformed the way black dancers were viewed in ballet. The book begins with an unfinished memoir written by Collins in which she gives a captivating account of her childhood and young adult years, including her rejection by the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Dance scholar Yaël Tamar Lewin then picks up the thread of Collins's story. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with Collins and her family, friends, and colleagues to explore Collins's development as a dancer, choreographer, and painter, Lewin gives us a profoundly moving portrait of an artist of indomitable spirit.

Fifty Black Women Who Changed America
Fifty Black Women Who Changed America

Author: Amy Alexander

Publisher: Dafina Books

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9780758201850

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From former slaves, housewives and college professors to Nobel Award-, Pulitzer Prize- and Olympic Gold-winners, this compelling anthology offers vivid and inspiring portraits of fifty black women who made monumental contributions to the world, including Sojourner Truth, Hattie McDaniel, Ella Fitzgerald, Oprah Winfrey, Tina Turner and many more women - both famous and little-known.