Music as Community: Marginalized Voices

Making headlines when it was launched in 2015, Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley's undergraduate course "Beyonce Feminism, Rihanna Womanism" has inspired students from all walks of life. In Beyonce in Formation, Tinsley now takes her rich observations beyond the classroom, using the blockbuster album and video Lemonade as a soundtrack for vital next-millennium narratives. Woven with candid observations about her life as a feminist scholar of African studies...

"Gonzalez's manuscript uses the theoretical underpinnings of Chicana and African-American feminist intellectual history and epistemology to create a new understanding of the work done by Chicana artists and activists (or artivistas) from East Los Angeles from 1995 to the present. Gonzalez is a well-known musician from this community herself and, with this background, is especially focused on the ways the arts, particularly music, have created community...

From Sia to Elton John, from Billie Holiday to David Bowie, LGBT musicians have changed the course of modern music. But before their music-and the messages behind it-gained understanding and a place in the mainstream, how did the queer musicians of yesteryear fight to build foundations for those who would follow them? David Bowie Made Me Gay is the first book to cover the breadth of history of recorded music by and for the LGBT community. Darryl W....

"For far too long, women in hip-hop have been relegated to the shadows, viewed as the designated "First Lady" thrown a contract, a pawn in some beef, or even worse. But as Kathy Iandoli makes clear, the reality is very different. Today, hip-hop is dominated by successful women such as Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, yet there are scores of female artists whose influence continues to resonate. God Save the Queens pays tribute to the women of hip-hop--from...

The twin acts of singing and fighting for freedom have been inseparable in African American history. May We Forever Stand tells an essential part of that story. With lyrics penned by James Weldon Johnson and music composed by his brother Rosamond, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" was embraced almost immediately as an anthem that captured the story and the aspirations of black Americans. Since the song's creation, it has been adopted by the NAACP and performed...

Focusing on the artists Ice Cube, Dr Dre, the Geto Boys, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur, Quinn explores the origins, development, and immense popularity of gangsta rap. Including detailed readings in urban geography, neoconservative politics, subcultural formations, black cultural debates, and music industry conditions, this book explains how and why this music genre emerged.

Examining the culture and politics of the Black Power era of the late 1960s, this book explores the relationship of soul music to the Black Power movement from the vantage point of the musicians and black revolutionaries themselves. The 1960s were a turbulent time for race relations in the United States, but no other area in the country epitomized the radical social change that was taking place more than the San Francisco Bay Area the epicenter of...

The New York Times bestseller about a young black man's journey from violence and despair to the threshold of stardom: "A beautiful tribute to the power of good teachers" (Terry Gross, Fresh Air).
"One of the most inspiring stories I've come across in a long time."-Pamela Paul, New York Times Book Review
Ryan Speedo Green had a tough upbringing in southeastern Virginia: his family lived in a trailer park and later a bullet-riddled...

For a Kentucky rifleman who spent his tour trudging through Vietnam's Central Highlands, it was Nancy Sinatra's ""These Boots Are Made for Walkin'."" For a ""tunnel rat"" who blew smoke into the Viet Cong's underground tunnels, it was Jimi Hendrix's ""Purple Haze."" For a black marine distraught over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., it was Aretha Franklin's ""Chain of Fools."" And for countless other Vietnam vets, it was ""I Feel Like...