Introduction: How Do I Make that Sound? A New Feminist Poetics

Abstract

In his biography of classic blues singer Bessie Smith, Chris Albertson tells the story of a 1928 party hosted by New York journalist Carl Van Vechten and his wife, dancer Fania Marinoff (141–46). Although Smith usually shunned events hosted by white devotees of black life like Van Vechten, she agreed to attend this gathering with niece Ruby Walker and composer Porter Grainger. After Smith sang several numbers, stopping for a drink after each one, Walker and Grainger decided it was time to leave. They liberated Smith from her place at the piano and began steering her toward the door, but Marinoff intervened, spreading her arms and demanding a kiss from Smith. The singer was so irritated by this display of polite white condescension that she shoved her hostess away and swore at her. Marinoff was visibly shocked by the rebuff; however, the trio managed to make their exit without further incident.