This week we're going back to 1920s Chicago with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom! Join us as we learn about The Defender, some NSFW slang, recording contracts, Ma Rainey's love life, and more!
Sources:
Katherine A. Bitner, "The Role of the Chicago Defender in the Great Migration of 1916-1918," Negro History Bulletin 48, 2 (1985)
James R. Grossman, "Blowing the Trumpet: The Chicago Defender and Black Migration During World War I," Illnois Historical Journal 78, 2 (1985)
Mary E. Stovall, "The Chicago Defender in the Progressive Era," Illinois Historical Journal 83, 3 (1990)
Chicago Defender Homepage (Current Version): https://chicagodefender.com/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Rainey%27s_Black_Bottom_(film)
K. Allison Hammer, ""Just like a natural man": The B.D. styles of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and Bessie Smith," Journal of Lesbian Studies (2019): 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2019.1562284
Robert Springer, "Folklore, Commercialism and Exploitation: Copyright in the Blues," Popular Music 26, no.1 (2007): 33-45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4500298
Mariana Brandman, "Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886-1939)," National Women's History Museum. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/gertrude-ma-rainey
Jas Obrecht, ""See See Rider Blues"--Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1924)," Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/Ma%20Rainey.pdf
Edward McClelland, "The Complicated Record Exec Left Out of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," Chicago Mag (20 January 2021). https://www.chicagomag.com/arts-culture/ma-rainey-j-mayo-williams/
Layli Phillips and Marla R. Stewart, ""I Am Just So Glad You Are Alive": New Perspectives on Non-Traditional, Non-Conforming, and Transgressive Expressions of Gender, Sexuality, and Race Among African Americans," Journal of African American Studies 12, no.4 (2008): 378-400. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41819183
Rebecca Bush, "Woman, Southern, Bisexual," The Public Historian 41, no.2 (2019): 94-115. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26862126
Steve Goodson, "Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886-1939) "Hear Me Talkin' to You"," in Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times eds. Ann Short Chirhart and Kathleen Ann Clark (University of Georgia Press). https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt175734n.12
Jonathan Ned Katz, "Ma Rainey's "Prove It On Me Blues," 1928: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey's Amazing Resistance Anthem," OutHistory. https://www.outhistory.org/oldwiki/index.php?title=Ma_Rainey%27s_%22Prove_It_On_Me_Blues,%22_1928
Carla Williams, "Blues Music," 2015, http://www.glbtqarchive.com/arts/blues_A.pdf
Complete Timeline of Slang Terms for Vagina: https://timelinesofslang.com/vaginact.html
"Pussy," Green's Dictionary of Slang: https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/bl252wa
Online Etymology Dictionary: https://www.etymonline.com/word/pussy
"Pussy and Pusillanimous" Penn Language Log: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=24012#:~:text=There's%20a%20plausible%20and%20well,development%20of%20pussy%20%3D%20female%20genitals
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2p85xj
