Babylon girls
Subtitle: Black women performers at the threshold of the modern
By: Jayna Brown.
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Durham
Language: eng
Number of pages: 339
ISBN-13: 9780822341338; 9780822341574
Subjects: African American women entertainers -- Biography
Genres: Biography.
Description: "Babylon Girls is a groundbreaking cultural history of the African American women who performed in variety shows - chorus lines, burlesque revues, cabaret acts, and the like - between 1890 and 1945. Through a consideration of the gestures, costuming, vocal techniques, and stagecraft developed by African American singers and dancers, Jayna Brown explains how these women shaped the movement and style of an emerging urban popular culture. In an era of U.S. and British imperialism, these women challenged and played with constructions of race, gender, and the body as they moved across stages and geographic space. They pioneered dance movements including the cakewalk, the shimmy, and the Charleston - black dances by which the "New Woman" defined herself. These early-twentieth-century performers brought these dances with them as they toured across the United States and around the world, becoming cosmopolitan subjects more widely traveled than many of their audiences"--Book cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.