Black Music Month 2021: Overview

Surprising no one, I have not quite finished my reading. I like the reason though. I got a late start on Nile Rogers' Le Freak because my sister was reading it. I like inspiring others to read things, and when people in my circle have read the same books so we can talk about them.

Also, overall we are pretty fond of Nile Rogers.

This is how things have been going...

I have finished reading The Beautiful Ones by Prince, with Dan Piepenbring, and I, Tina: My Life Story by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder. 

I still have about 70 pages left of Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny. I should be able to finish tonight, but things happen.

I have watched Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and One Night in Miami, as planned. 

I am going to have to hold off on The United States Versus Billie Holiday. There was a time when I remember watching free things on Hulu, but now it needs a subscription. Considering that I kept the Netflix subscription makes me reluctant to start any more trials, at least until I am gainfully employed again. 

(It remains a source of frustration that there is so much streaming content that stays locked into paid services, even years later when you might have expected them to move into a library collection or something.)

There were some surprises along the way, as is to be expected. I discovered a behind the scenes special for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Using some temporary Prime access for One Night in Miami also found Mary J. Blige's My Life, a special celebrating the 25th anniversary of the album.

A Facebook exchange about Patti Smith had a friend send me to The Defiant Ones (Peacock is included with our cable).

The Oregon Symphony has a Symphony Storytime series combining children's books with music, and one of their recent recordings was based on Harlem's Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills by Renée Watson and Christian Robinson. 

https://www.orsymphony.org/discover/watch-listen/symphony-storytime/

Finally, our local library did a Zoom presentation on the early African-American composers.

https://wccls.bibliocommons.com/events/60abd60c7b4a222500983acc

And that is one key and wonderful thing. Even though there are things that I may want and be unable to find, there is always so much available .

I am going to go finish that book, and then write some thoughts out over the coming week.