An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 6/9/2020
Doubly appropriate to Pride Month, meet Gladys Bentley, one of the titans of the Harlem Renaissance. This deep-growling alto didn't just tiptoe around the gender norms of the day, she freakin' jumped headalong into them. You got to remember, wearing men's clothes in the 1930's tended to bring out the pearl-clutchers --and yes, that was at times sufficient to bring the overly-aggressive police specifically to harass (and shutter) a performance. Also unsurprisingly, later on when the 1950's really got rolling in all their behavioral enforcement, Gladys opted to tone down her essential self --wearing dresses and even publicly marrying a man. :(
Her works are reasonably easy to unearth --a few intelligent searches on her name combined with "Worried Blues" and "Them There Eyes" will have you chilling out in a 1920's speakeasy, soaking up the ambiance pretty swiftly! [grin]
(Incidentally please don't assume that I somehow already knew all about these amazing individuals that I've lately been drawing and presenting --like many of you, I am in fact addressing an embarrassingly wide knowledge gap and am humbly sharing my findings.)
Next page - Lesson 4: "Ma" Rainey