John Jeremiah Sullivan and Daphne Brooks discuss his search for legendary blues artists Geeshie Wiley and Elvie Thomas as well as race records, the politics of blues collecting, and the glorious and turbulent history of black music in America.
Daphne Brooks is the author of two books: Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910 (Duke University Press), winner of The Errol Hill Award for Outstanding Scholarship on African American Performance from ASTR and Jeff Buckley’s Grace (Continuum, 2005). Brooks is currently working on a new book entitled Subterranean Blues: Black Women Sound Modernity (forthcoming from Harvard University Press).
Free & open to the public
Text from the Windham-Campbell Literary Prize web site: http://windhamcampbell.org/2015/event/lost-women-blues-and-birth-modern-…
Daphne Brooks is professor of African American Studies and Theatre at Yale University.