Songs in Black and Lavender

"Written with candor and humor, Hayes's study models a welcome, crucial, and decisive turn in scholarship on women's music.  Recommended."--Choice

"This is the book we've been waiting for. Hayes provides valuable interrogations of the internal and external politics around race, gender, sexuality, culture, and the formations of black feminist consciousness that can make or break a social movement." --Kimberly Springer, author of Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968–1980

"Exhibiting multiple sites of influence and authorities, the first chapter, 'Diary of a Mad Black Woman Festigoer,' is one of the most engaging ethnographies I have read. Who can resist a scholar who isn't afraid to talk about serious matters via one of the highest forms of intelligence: humor?"--Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop