Tomorrow night, October 10, 2018, Book Soup in West Hollywood will host the book launch for “Women Who Rock: From Bessie to Beyoncé. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl” at 7 PM.
The book is a collection of more than 100 essays about women who have been agents of change, challenging social conventions and expectations.
Profiling artists from all musical genres, like Bessie Smith, Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, Joni Mitchell, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, Dolly Parton, Sleater-Kinney, and our newest political hero, Taylor Swift. The articles are written by women music journalists and writers, and illustrated in full color with portraits of the pioneering musicians by women artists. In her introduction, editor Evelyn McDonnell gives us a taste of the radness to come:
“In the beginning, there was rhythm.” So shrieked teenaged Ari Up with full-throated joy over the herky-jerk of Viv Albertine’s guitar, the dub lope of Tessa Pollitt’s bass, and helter-skelter drums by Budgie (Soiuxsie Sioux’s beau) in a 1980 song by English punk tarts the Slits. Rhythm—the repeated ordering of breaks and beats, of stops and starts, of motion and stillness, of life and death—gives popular music its pulse, its purpose.
There will be readings at Book Soup by editor Evelyn McDonnell, pioneering riot grrrl, Allison Wolfe, as well as our own LA Beat contributor, Lucretia Tye Jasmine. If you can’t make the event. you can find the book on Amazon.
