Afram Blog Post #1

Shayla Chandler


              The first reading that I would like to explore is the piece by Langston Hughes and his talk about Memphis Minnie. The part I find most compelling is when he is talking about how the owners "never smile" or "move in time to the music". He does not say that they are white men, but he does say that they are "not negroes", and due to the time I am sure that the club is probably run by white men. The reason that I find this interesting is because it is a perfect example of the social hierarchy invalidating the most oppressed groups art merely because they are in the oppressed group. One would think that these men who run the place would be in the business because they have some love for music and performance, but rather they seem to only view those like Memphis Minnie as a way for exploitation.
         The other reading this week that I wanted to expand upon is "Notes on Women Who Rock" because I find the work of this project to be important and underrated. There are conferences that are put on in order to showcase and give representation on women in music along with culture and lifestyle. Along with this there are Graduate Workshops in order for students to collaborate and it is a gathering that is so important because it is a "genuinely unique intellectual and creative space" that rarely gets to happen. Before this class, I had never thought of the ways in how music can create freedom and target social inequities and it seems that WWR is a great project to empower communities.

The first song that I chose is I'll Be Seeing You by Dinah Shore because it is a ballad that has to do with significant others, boyfriends and husbands, being sent off to the war. This ties in with the first reading because Memphis Minnie was around the same time (around the war.) I picked it to contrast the differences of music at this time. I'll Be Seeing You was really popular and one of the more notable songs of this time and is sung by a white woman. I had never heard of Memphis Minnie before this class, but have heard the song by Dinah Shore. It ties into how white america and society enjoys the innocence and the longing by white women and that makes them famous while the owners of the club where Memphis Minnie played don't even give her a second thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m80VsBOHQWU
The second song that I chose is Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday. This is an iconic and tragic song that is sung by a woman with a beautiful voice but is expressing the heartache and despair of racial violence. I picked this one to tie into the second reading on Women Who Rock because it is a example of how not all of the music needs to be empowering and uplifting, but rather it can expose true tragedy and explain how society treats black americans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI