GWSS #1

Name: Chenyu L.

This week's readings were stunning to me. I am the kind of person like Gayle Wald, who does not always enjoy writing biographies. But from those readings, I realized the importance of such a figure to pass down the stories, especially the ones being habitually ignored.

Wald, while writing a biography for a musician in "erasure," intended to correct the misrepresentations like the one below:

This observer had gone on to write that Rosetta Tharpe looked and sounded like a "blacked-up Elvis in drag" ...

Elvis is, to be honest, more popular, and well-known than Sister Tharpe, so the general audience might find the quote to be educational. But we who read and hear about Sister Tharpe know that she is much more and greater than "blacked-up Elvis." How can we do to help more people be aware of that? Archives maybe.

Same thing came to me when I came to learn about Alice Bag. I did not know much about punk. And so, when I listened to Glottony before the reading, I was a bit lost. It was hard for me to draw a spiritual or musical connection between Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Alice Bag. But the readings helped me exploring what was behind the scenes. In Professor Habell-Pallán's article, she addressed where Alice Bag receives her rage on stage and how she expresses it later in the text:

Alice locates her stage rage in the anger and helplessness she felt witnessing domestic abuse within her family... she snaps her head back in a frenzied dance, she takes a deep breath and bares her teeth. 

Alice exposed the hidden side of her on stage. Without conscious intention, she brought her not yet to be proclaimed identity to her music, the estilo bravío to her punk; she shouted out her fear and anger towards her father regarding the domestic abuse she witnessed. She found freedom in music and performances. But these stories would be hidden or erased forever if no one is out there to archive them.

There a quote I love from the documentary about Sister Rosetta Tharp that I wish to address at the end of this post:

“Rosetta would sing until she made us cry, she would sing until she made us dance for joy.” 

Songs:
Sister Act - Hail Holy Queen
To me, Sister Act is the movie that sparks my primary attention and interest in Gospel music. I cannot skip this scene when speaking about Gospel music. The liveliness and joyfulness in the movement of the choir, the musical notes, and even the audience is one of the most beautiful things that I have ever experienced. It is no wonder that this genre would give birth to the freedom in Sister Rosetta Tharpe's voice and performance.

Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five - Once In A While
A lot of people have heard of Louis Armstrong, and some of them might know his band, his Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions, but little do the general audience know about the presence of a woman in this scene. Lil Hardin Armstrong, Louis' wife, was the original pianist and songwriter of many of their recordings. She is a talented and bold figure supporting Louis behind his back while he wandered in the big urban city of Chicago, while also independent enough to organize her own bands years later. To me personally, she "jazzes the Archive."

Articles:
Gayle Wald, “Rosetta Tharpe and Feminist Unforgetting,” Journal of Women's History, Volume 21, Number 4, Winter 2009, 157-160. (PDF)
Michelle Habell-Pallán, “ ‘Death to Racism and Punk Rock Revisionism’ in Alice Bag’s Vexing Voice and the Unspeakable Influence of Cancion Ranchera on Hollywood Punk” in Pop When the World Falls Apart. (PDF)

Film:
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock & Roll