Frank wrote on Nov 13
th, 2024 at 12:38pm:
Yale University’s African American Studies Professor Daphne Brooks intends to use the performer’s wide-ranging repertoire, including footage of her live performances, as a “portal” for students to learn about Black intellectuals, from Frederick Douglass to Toni Morrison.
Daphne Brooks (born 1968) is an American writer and black studies scholar who 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.
Major works
[
B]Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850–1910[/b]
Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850–1910 (Duke University Press, 2006) is Brooks’ major work on performance studies. The book seeks to explore the way black protagonists embody African American experiences as they assert subjectivity by resisting the racial institution and creating black identities through performance.
Jeff Buckley’s Grace"I was amazed that this young, stunningly handsome white guy from Southern California could sing like Nina Simone one minute and sound like Robert Plant the next".
Brooks notes Buckley's music as being shaped by a ""wild elixir of discordant musical and cultural influences", from Nina Simone and Billie Holiday to Led Zeppelin and Queen to Emily Dickinson and Toni Morrison".[11] In Brooks's words, Buckley embodied "cultural heterogeneity" and transformed the music of the 70s, 80s, and 90s into a distinct kind of music.