Ma Rainey

The dilemma of the place and expression of sexuality in literary content contradicted the black feminist theory, which concentrated primarily on black women’s intellectual activity. Women’s blues enabled black women to use an alternate form of representation in order to express the contradictions of feminism, sexuality, and power. Blues music articulated the cultural and political struggle over sexual relations. Hazel Carby stated that “Women blues singers frequently appear as liminal figures…

traveling minstrel show, she met a woman named Gertrude “Ma” Rainey. Yet she was not hired as singer but hired as a dancer because at the time Rainey was the head singer. Gertrude became like a mother to Bessie teaching her how to really use her voice and become the woman we all know as the “Empress of The Blues”. Bessie learned how to capture an audience, use her voice in many different ways and how to be successful in show business. Ma may have been a mentor to Bessie but she bagan to create…

Throughout this semester, the class learned about horrifying injustices brought upon black women during slavery. Black women’s bodies were not their own and could be used at anytime by the white slave masters. Furthermore, even after the abolition of slavery black women continued to suffer at the hands of white men. While they were physically free under the law, white men continued to rape and abuse black women because of the perpetual mentality that white community was better than the black.…

Sweet harmony and valiant lyrics ring out in the sky as a group of people in the street clap and dance to the beat of the music. The lyrics speak of overcoming all and living in what seems to be such a distant world. The people enjoying the music are African-Americans and they are playing a genre known today as the Blues. The origin of the Blues genre dates back to the Atlantic Slave Trade, which took place from 1619 to 1809 and beyond. In order to get the cheapest labor for future plans in the…

The Blues, Jazz, Ragtime and Negro Spiritual music had a big influence and affected the American society in a good way. The music allowed people to express their feelings and was able to share great talent without feeling discriminated. The music was heard everywhere and many artists tried to follow or create new music using the four genres of music. We’re still enjoying the music of that era today. With the spiritual music, the African American expressed the pain of slaves for spiritual and…

Singers (Robert Johnson), Jazz moved "up the river" to Chicago (Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton), and Dixieland - New Orleans (King Oliver). The blues, which had influenced jazz from the beginning, became increasingly popular due to singers like Ma Rainey, Mamie Smith and Bessie Smith---the latter selling thousands of discs, including a national hit, “Down Hearted Blues”. The period from the end of the First World War until the start of the Depression in 1929 is known as the "Jazz Age"(Jazz…

The Violence that Oppression Causes August Wilson is able to capture all the struggles black people in America had to endure in the 20th century in his plays, including Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Two struggles that stand out to me are black people’s lack of access to good employment, and racial discrimination experienced everyday. As would be expected, anger in black communities is the result of these daily struggles. When some people get angry, they can easily not take it out on…

struggled with only one source of income, she started to use her voice to help make income by singing on the street. One of her most famous songs was "Down Hearted Blues", which got her a record deal with Columbia Records. She was also trained under Ma Rainey. She earned the title of "Empress of the Blues". She became the highest-paid blues singer of her time. Another woman discussed in the video is Nella Larson. She was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother was Danish, and she was sent to live…

The blues originated from African-Americans on Southern plantations in the nineteenth century. Slaves, ex-slaves, and families of slaves were the main creators of blues music (Kopp, AllAboutJazz.com). Bessie Smith is known as the most popular female blues singer in the 1920s. Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on the fifteenth of April of 1894. Growing up, Smith did not really have her parents in her life due to them both dying while she was young, around eight or nine years-old (Editors…

It is also considered to be a rebirth of African American arts. Three major figures during the Harlem Renaissance include Alain Leroy Locke, Ma Rainey, and Louis Armstrong. Alain Leroy Locke was an American writer, philosopher and educator. He was known as the “Dean” of the Harlem Renaissance since he named the movement in 1925 as the “New Negro Movement.” Locke was the guest editor of the newspaper…