LITM Extra - Interview with Daphne A. Brooks pt.2 [excerpt]

Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

This is an excerpt of a full length episode currently only available to patrons. To become a patron and support what we're doing from £3 per month, head to www.patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

In this week's patrons-only episode we conclude our two-part interview with Black Feminist scholar and music critic Daphne A. Brooks. Following from our previous show, Daphne disucsses some of the contemporary figures in her new book Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound, including Janelle Monáe, who along with the Wonderland Arts Collective engage in an act of intellectual worldbuilding around her music, and the deep archival searching of jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant. With reference to Beyoncé Tim, Jeremy and Daphne consider to what extent we are living through an ascendent period of Black feminist consciousness and discuss the way such Black female megastars are held in cultural production.

We also took advantage of speaking with Daphne to ask her about the Harlem Cultural Festival, the so-called 'Black Woodstock' which the excellent new film and firm LITM favourite Summer of Soul documents, as well as to commemorate the recent passing of two titans of Black cultural writing, Greg Tate and bell hooks. We are so grateful to Daphne for being so generous with her time, insight and humour.

Daphne A. Brooks is William R. Kenan, Jr. professor of African American studies, American Studies, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Music at Yale University; she is also director of graduate studies.She specializes in African American literary cultural performance studies, especially 19th century and trans-Atlantic culture. She is a rock music lover and has attributed her research interests in black performance to being a fan of rock music since a very young age.

Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:

Janelle Monáe - Make Me Feel
Cécile McLorin Salvant - Ghost Song
Beyoncé - ***Flawless
Burnt Sugar - Conduction #5
Burnt Sugar - Rock'n'Roll Suicide