Department of English

Bessie, Beyonce, and 20th Century Black Women Performers
African American women performers from blues woman Bessie Smith to French
cabaret star Josephine Baker, from jazz darling Billie Holiday to rock icon
Tina Turner, and from hip hop legend Lauryn Hill to millennial star Beyonce,
have constantly redefined and expanded American popular music.  Using the long
20th century as our historical marker, this course will explore how African
American women performers have consciously and sometimes contradictorily
navigated the racial and sexual limits of American popular culture in order to
assert their own particular narratives of artistic and political freedom.