June Is African American Music Appreciation Month

Created on May 8, 2023, 8:44 am

Last Updated May 8, 2023, 9:19 am

The month-long observance, which was first inducted on June 7, 1979, by President Jimmy Carter was christened as Black Music Month. President Barack Obama renamed the national observance as African-American Music Appreciation Month. The observance was created to recognize and celebrate the historical influence African-Americans have had on the music industry and is intended to pay homage to the many artists, writers, songs and albums that have inspired music lovers and shaped American pop culture.

1) She raised her voice!: 50 black women who sang their way into music history

Author

Elizabeth, Jordannah

Description

"From jazz and blues, hip hop and R&B, pop, punk, and opera, Black women have made major contributions to the history and formation of musical genres for more than a century. In this fully illustrated middle grade anthology, 50 strong, empowering, and inspiring Black women singers' bios will teach kids to follow their dreams, to think outside the box, and to push the boundaries of what's expected. Written by music writer and journalist Jordannah Elizabeth...

2) Summer of soul

Description

In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary, part music film, part historical record, created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was largely forgotten,...

3) The come up: an oral history of the rise of hip-hop

Author

Abrams, Jonathan

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"The essential oral history of hip-hop, from its origins on the playgrounds of the Bronx to its reign as the most powerful force in pop culture--from the award-winning journalist behind All the Pieces Matter, the New York Times bestselling oral history of The Wire. The music that we would later know as hip-hop was born at a party in the Bronx in the summer of 1973. Now, fifty years later, it's the most popular genre in America and its electric impact...

4) A child's introduction to jazz: the musicians, culture, and roots of the world's coolest music

Author

Series

Child's introduction

Description

"A Child's Introduction to Jazz explores the rich history of jazz music, including profiles of famous musicians like Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. Written by A Child's Introduction to African American History author Jabari Asim, the book includes downloadable links throughout, to allow kids to listen along to the instruments and musical flair of jazz"--

5) Rock, Rosetta, rock! Roll, Rosetta, roll!: presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock & roll

Author

Description

"Award-winning author Tonya Bolden and acclaimed illustrator R. Gregory Christie deliver an inspiring true story about the life, career, and impact of 20th-century blues and gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who was a trailblazer for rock-and-roll. Includes a timeline of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's life, author's note, and a list of sources. Before there was Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Johnny Cash, there was Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The godmother...

6) Black country music: listening for revolutions

Author

Royster, Francesca

Series

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

""What happens when we look at US country music through a black feminist and queer eye?" Francesca Royster suggests it reveals a group of mostly invisible fans and performers in a "white" musical genre, some of whom are intervening in that space in ways that are creative, risky and inherently "soulful." While loving country music can be an exercise in shaming and rejection for these fans, the music is also a space of creativity, resistance, and power....

7) Dirty Bird blues

Author

Major, Clarence

Series

Penguin classics

Description

"Set in post-World War II Chicago and Omaha, the novel features Manfred Banks, a young, harmonica-blowing blues singer who is always writing music in his head. Torn between his friendships with fellow musicians and nightclub life and his responsibilities to his wife and child, along with the pressures of dealing with a racist America that assaults him at every turn, Manfred seeks easy answers in "Dirty Bird" (Old Crow whiskey) and in moving on. He...

8) Yellow Dog blues

Author

Duncan, Alice Faye

Description

"Traveling across the Mississippi Delta, Bo Willie searches blues landmarks like Dockery Farms and Beale Street for his missing dog"--

9) Nina: a story of Nina Simone

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"A biography of Nina Simone, an acclaimed singer whose music gave voice to the struggle for racial equality during the Civil Rights Movement"--

10) A little devil in America: notes in praise of black performance

Author

Abdurraqib, Hanif

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"A Little Devil in America is an urgent project that unravels all modes and methods of black performance, in this moment when black performers are coming to terms with their value, reception, and immense impact on America. With sharp insight, humor, and heart, Abdurraqib examines how black performance happens in specific moments in time and space--midcentury Paris, the moon, or a cramped living room in Columbus, Ohio. At the outset of this project,...

11) R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul

Author

Weatherford, Carole Boston

Description

"Aretha Franklin was born to sing. The daughter of a pastor and a gospel singer, her musical talent was clear from her earliest days in her father's Detroit church. Aretha sang with a soaring voice that spanned more than three octaves. Her incredible talent and string of hit songs earned her the title "the Queen of Soul." This Queen was a multi-Grammy winner and the first female inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And there was even more to...

12) Chuck Berry: an American life

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"The definitive biography of Chuck Berry, legendary performer and inventor of rock and roll and author of classics like 'Johnny B. Goode,' 'Maybellene,' 'You Never Can Tell,' and 'Roll Over Beethoven.' Chuck Berry long ago earned a reputation as a person who gave nothing away. He could be a difficult man to be around off-stage, and was extremely closed off in interviews. There was the work, and then there was the man, who was not easily given to describing...

13) Stompin' at the Savoy: how Chick Webb became the King of drums

Author

Donohue, Moira Rose

Formats:

Description

"Black American jazz drummer William Henry "Chick" Webb led one of the big bands of the swing era, earning him the nickname the "King of the Savoy.""--

14) Isn't her grace amazing!: the women who changed gospel music

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"A unique tribute to often overlooked women who have left an indelible mark on Gospel Music--powerful talents who overcame racism and sexism to define the genre, establish its sound, and set the standard for good sangin' for generations."--Amazon.

15) Shine bright: a very personal history of Black women in pop

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

"From one of the preeminent cultural critics of her generation, a radiant weave of memoir, criticism, and biography that tells the story of Black women in music--from the Dixie Cups to Gladys Knight to Janet, Whitney, and Mariah -- as the foundational story of American pop"--

16) Well of souls: uncovering the banjo's hidden history

Author

Gaddy, Kristina R

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

"An illuminating history of the banjo, revealing its origins at the crossroads of slavery, religion, and music. In an extraordinary story unfolding across two hundred years, Kristina Gaddy uncovers the banjo's key role in Black spirituality, ritual, and rebellion. Through meticulous research in diaries, letters, archives, and art, she traces the banjo's beginnings from the seventeenth century, when enslaved people of African descent created it from...

17) It was all a dream: Biggie and the world that made him

Author

Tinsley, Justin

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

"The Notorious B.I.G. was one of the most charismatic and talented artists of the 1990s. Born Christopher Wallace and raised in Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, Biggie lived an almost archetypal rap life: young trouble, drug dealing, guns, prison, a giant hit record, the wealth and international superstardom that came with it, then an early violent death. Biggie released his first record, Ready to Die, in 1994, when he was only 22. Less than three...