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Muthoni the Drummer Queen

Muthoni The Drummer Queen

- Welcome To The Disco

AfricaUnsigned on Aug 1, 2011

Free to enter, The Observer/ Jonathan Cape/ Comica Graphic Short Story Prize, top prize: £1,000 (UK/ Ireland)

Deadline: 14 October 2011

ARE YOU AN ASPIRING NOVELIST? DO YOU HAVE AN ORIGINAL STORY TO TELL? Jonathan Cape and Comica have got together with The Observer to offer you the chance to see your work in print and win £1,000. Take this opportunity to get your work read by industry experts.

The judges are:

• David Nicholls (best selling author of One Day)
• Bryan Talbot (graphic novelist)
• Rachel Cooke (The Observer)
• Dan Franklin (Publisher, Jonathan Cape)
• Paul Gravett (Director, Comica Festival)
• Suzanne Dean (Random House Creative Director)

The first prize is £1,000 and the publication of your 4 page story in The Observer Review.
The runner-up will receive £250 and your work will appear on www.guardian.co.uk. and the Vintage website.

Deadline for entries: 14th October 2011

Terms and conditions

Entrants - This competition is open to anyone aged 16 and over who is a resident of the UK or the Republic of Ireland, except for employees of Jonathan Cape (promoter), The Observer, Comica, their families and any other company connected with the competition. The promoter will only accept 1 (one) entry per entrant subject to point 6 below.

Dates - Graphic stories entries will be accepted until Friday 14th October 2011 (closing date). The winning entrant and runner up will be notified by telephone in the week beginning Monday 24th October 2011. The name of the winning entrant and runner-up will be announced and printed in The Observer on Sunday 6th November.

Prizes - The following prizes:

(a) £1,000 (one thousand pounds Sterling) to the winning entrant; and
(b) £250 (two hundred and fifty pounds Sterling) to the runner-up, prizes will be awarded at the Comica Festival at the ICA in London on Sunday 8th November.

Copyright / Ownership - Entrants will own and retain any copyright in their entries. Where an entry is produced as the result of the collaboration of a writer and an artist (i.e. joint authors) the promoter will accept the joint authors of the entry as joint entrants.

Entry Specifications - Entrants are advised to retain a copy of entries. Entries can be with or without words, in black and white or colour, and fiction or non-fiction. Each entry must be:

(a) in English;
(b) an original work of which the entrant is the author (or joint
author in respect of point 5 above) which has not been previously
professionally or commercially published and is not in breach of any third party right;
(c) complete in itself (i.e. not a fragment of a larger work); there is no maximum or minimum number of panels;
(d) designed to run across 4 single pages of The Observer magazine, i.e. not necessarily across double page spreads [NB. 1 Observer Magazine
page is 206mm wide x 272mm high] and displaying at Comica (i.e. so the design should be able to be scaled up or down to fit the outlet);
(e) submitted as flat work (i.e. not as a booklet]. Artwork must not be rolled in a tube. It can be submitted on paper no bigger than A3.
(f) No work can be returned. Copies of original works will be accepted.

Unacceptable Entries - Entries which are illegible, submitted by email or on a disk, or received after the closing date will not be accepted. The promoter will not be responsible for delayed, undelivered or lost entries.

Events - Events may occur which render the awarding of the prizes impossible due to reasons beyond the control of the promoter and the promoter may, at its absolute discretion, vary, amend, suspend or withdraw the prizes with or without notice.

Judges - The competition will be judged by 6 judges who will look for emerging talent and seek to identify writers/artists of excellent and original graphic short stories. The judges’ decisions will be final and no correspondence will be entered into in relation to their decisions or the competition.

Winning Entrant - The winning entrant [and runner-up] grant[s] The Observer, the promoter and Comica all necessary and relevant permissions in relation to the publication of the winning entr[y/ies] in The Observer, on www.guardian.co.uk and www.capegraphicnovels.co.uk, and at the Comica festival at the ICA. The winning entrant [and runner-up] also agree[s] to the promoter’s use of his/her name[s] and photograph[s] in relation to publicity material. The Observer, the promoter and Comica each reserve the right to edit the winning [and runner-up] entr[y/ies] in respect of the above publication.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: CapeCompetition@randomhouse.co.uk

For submissions: The Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize, 2nd Floor, Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA

Website: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk

 

The Inaugural Dambudzo Marechera Writing Competition (Zimbabwe)

Deadline: 15 October 2011

Writers International Network Zimbabwe proudly unveils the inaugural Dambudzo Marechera Writing Competition, which aims to motivate and award unpublished writers. The legacy of the late great Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera (1952-1987) is undoubtedly conspicuous in the literary circles locally and internationally. Many general and scholarly books have been written on the life and works of Marechera. International conferences to discuss his enigmatic life and works are being held across the globe at universities and Book Fairs. Marechera was a storyteller and poet of great talent who was but at one time called a ‘mad man’ by his own. We have seen it fit to honor his outstanding inspiration to the local writing industry by having this competition named after him.

Themes should be social.

CATEGORIES

Short Story

Length: 2500 words
Language: English
Maximum Number of Entries: Two stories

Poetry

Length: One page
Language: Shona
Maximum Number of Entries: Two poems

REGULATIONS

· Stories and poems should be original and unpublished
· Deadline for submissions is October 15, 2011
· Competition is open to residents and citizens of Zimbabwe
· Winners will be announced and awarded in December at the Writers’ End of Year Get-Together

PRIZES

UNDISCLOSED AT THE MOMENT

Entries, clearly labeled ‘Dambudzo Marechera Writing Competition’ must be posted or hand-delivered to 168 Chinhoyi Street, Harare before October 15 2011.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: winzimbabwe@gmail.com

For submissions: 168 Chinhoyi Street, Harare

Website: http://win-zimbabwe.blogspot.com

 

2011 Spilling Ink Fiction Prize

Now Open!
Closing Date: October 1, 2011
Winning and short-listed entries notified no later than October 31, 2011+++

1^st Prize – £500, publication, 1 free copy of annual print anthology

2^nd Prize – £250, publication, 1 free copy of annual print anthology

3^rd Prize – £125, publication, 1 free copy of annual print anthology

Shortlisted Entries* – publication, 1 free copy of annual print anthology

Entry fee £5

* Number of entries shortlisted will be determined by the quality of submissions

Competition Guidelines

• 3,000 words max (no minimum).
• There is no theme. All styles (including experimental) and genre-based fiction (mystery, crime, fantasy, science fiction, historical) are welcome.
• Multiple entries are accepted but must be accompanied with an entry fee. Entry fees may be paid securely online via PayPal (you do not need a PayPal account) or via post. Postal payments should be made by cheque. Cheques must be from a UK bank and should be payable to ‘Spilling Ink Review’.
• Simultaneous submissions are accepted but please let us know as soon as possible if your entry has been accepted elsewhere or won/placed in another writing competition. Entry fees will not be refunded in this case.
• Entries may be submitted via email or post. Entries submitted via email must be attached in the form of a Word (doc) or Rich Text Format (rtf). Entries submitted via post must be printed on standard-size paper and double-spaced. Entries sent via post will not be returned (please don’t send your only copy). Send postal entries to: Spilling Ink Review /PO Box 16864 / Glasgow / Scotland / G11 9DJ
• Please be kind when formatting and adhere to general rules of courtesy (i.e. 12pt standard font, double-spaced, pages numbered).
• Submissions must be entrant’s own original work and must be previously unpublished (work that has appeared online, in print or has been broadcast is not eligible).
• International submissions are welcomed but all entries must be written in English.
• As a condition of submitting, the author agrees that SIR has permission to publish the material online and in print. Copyright remains with the author.
• Entries will be judged anonymously and all decisions are final.
• All submissions will be considered for publication in the SIR e-journal.

How to Enter

• You have two payment options. You may use the secure, pay-online PayPal option below or you may send a cheque (from a UK bank only) to the following address: Spilling Ink Review, PO Box 16864, Glasgow, Scotland G11 9DJ.

£5 Entry Fee use this PayPal Button:

• Once you have a receipt/transaction number submit your entry via email to: spillingink.email@gmail.com
• Be sure to cut and paste your PayPal receipt/transaction number into the body of the email (or let me know that payment has been sent via post)
• State the competition category in the subject line of your email
• In the body of the email please include the following:

Name

Postal Address

Title of Entry and Word Count

PayPal Receipt/Transaction Number

• Don’t forget to attach your story!

(Un)Lock It:

the Percussive People

in the Go-Go Pocket

by Thomas Sayers Ellis

 

Opening Reception August 5, 2011 from 6-8pm
Exhibition Dates August 5 - October 7

Go-Go is a non-stop, vernacular dance music unique to Washington, D.C. and the Pocket is the percussive conversation between or beneath Go-Go grooves and songs. This photography project takes its title from a term ”Lock It” used by the Go-Go community to describe a perfectly played (or locked) Go-Go Pocket. The goal of the Pocket is Home Rule and its anthem is “Bustin’ Loose,” Chuck Brown’s classic call for ‘The Bridge.” In a city as Capital as Washington, this work is a percussive attempt to reclaim the pictorial power of photography for D.C residents, the folk who (as Walt Whitman once wrote) “do the real living and dying in this land.”

The Gallery at Vivid Solutions
2208 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE
Washington DC 20020

 

 

Artist Wangechi Mutu:

'My lab is the female body'

July 19, 2011 6:45 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Wangechi Mutu is a Kenyan artist, famous for her powerful collages
• Her creations have been exhibited in major museums across the world
• Mutu was named Deutsche Bank's Artist of the Year in 2010

New York (CNN) -- Merging magazine cutouts, painted objects and even motorbike parts, Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu creates layered images of fantastical figures, transforming the female form into something both powerful and primal.

Famous for her collages, Mutu has had her work shown all over the world, including her most recent exhibition at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain.

Mutu's renderings challenge widespread depictions of the typical female form, creating a new kind of woman. Her creations have sometimes been described as grotesque, but she says it doesn't bother her at all.

Speaking to CNN's Isha Sesay, Mutu said: "It means that people are looking. It means their senses are on when they are in front of the work, which is important. Because for me, it's important to think about and understand what's in the work."

An edited version of the interview follows.

 

The art of Wangechi Mutu

 

An obsession for art

 

 

 

A life around art

I'm sort of fusing languages, which is actually a good way of talking about what Kenya is.
—Wangechi Mutu

CNN: I want to start by talking about your work and its content.

Wangechi Mutu: There are a lot of bodies in the work, there are a lot of animal bodies and organisms and women and men's bodies and they all come together. They mesh up into shapes that are often female-like, and in the end I do obsess over the female form because that is the place where I want to express some of these issues I have with the way women's bodies are written upon and women's bodies are talked about and women's bodies are depicted.

So that becomes my experiment. My lab is this female body that becomes this vessel where I place all of this stuff in.

CNN: When we look at the female form in your work what are we seeing?

WM: Often there's an emphasis in my work and it's sort of the celebrating of the body. I'm very much a person that believes that there's something that was introduced into Kenya and Africa as we know it that has made us despise our bodies.

So that's the first thing -- I try to introduce something celebratory and interesting about the body, that the body is important.

CNN: Despise is a strong word -- what do you mean with that?

WM: Being taught to despise your body is being taught to perhaps admire someone else's body more than yours -- being taught that your body is good for certain things and not for others. It's good for labor, but it's not ideal if someone were to sit in a political post or something. It belongs in a certain frame and not in others and I think that was something taught to us, given to us or forced upon us.

CNN: What's with the motorcycle parts? Because there seem to be motorcycle parts embedded in your work. What does that mean to you?

WM: A lot of motorbikes have been built to look like women, and to feel as if you were on a woman. So I think that's also what I've been trying to sort of do is take apart this machine and implant it into these bodies and sort of give the women a kind of strength that the machine supposedly represents for the man.

It's like they're taking it back and they become these cyborgs, these fierce female cyborgs. Who knows what they're going to do with that strength!

But for me it's my little way of giving back the women that power that's taken away, especially in the representations of women in these kinds of magazines because they really are the focal point and in a way that sexualizes the machines so men will buy more of them.

CNN: Your work has been described by some as both beautiful and grotesque, repulsive. Does it bother you?

WM: No it doesn't bother me. It means that people are looking. It means their senses are on when they are in front of the work, which is important.

For me, it's important to think about and understand what's in the work but I think visuals need to enter, they need to dissolve themselves into your psyche and if people start to get grossed out by something that's not overtly gross -- I mean it's a static image, it's not sort of throwing itself at you -- there must be some sort of wonderful process going on in their brain, which is good.

CNN: The collages, let's talk about the form. I'm fascinated by them because someone who does collages strikes me as someone who has to be slightly OCD. Are you obsessive?

WM: Very, yeah! I am very obsessive with this actual practice and technique because it calms me down. It's a meditative, calming obsession, believe it or not. It's like the monotony of when you knit, there's something about that rhythm that allows your mind to wander or at least allows for free association to happen.

For me collages manage to, it satisfies all of my madness, like I'm able to make these obsessive things but then I'm also able to make these very strong statements. I don't know what they mean to other people, but in my mind they have a very strong particular resonance; there's sort of a power.

I'm sort of fusing languages, which is actually a good way of talking about what Kenya is, in fact what Africa is, this fusion of people and this attempt to try and create commonality amongst people who don't come from the same place.

So I feel that's very alive in the work, this sort of intense desire to bring it all together.

One play at a time

 

Teesri Duniya Theatre challenges the status quo

 

by Ezra Winton on July 21, 2011 · Comments

Teesri Duniya Theatre was founded in 1981 as an alternative theatre in Montreal that set out to change the world, as Artistic Director Rahul Varma tells me, “one play at a time.” I ask Varma to describe the theatre in a few words and, pausing for a moment, he offers: “Powerful, personal and provocative.” Having experienced one of the non-profit’s plays, about the 1986 Filipino Revolution (People Power, written by the CBT Collective and directed by Nina Lee Aquino), I would have to agree entirely with Varma’s assessment.

Varma tells me that for 30 years the group of dedicated, inspired and politically-motivated artists have been telling untold histories and supporting multiculturalism and interculturalism that is committed to multiethnic casting and narratives. Decidedly socio-political and cultural, Teesri Duniya’s lineup over the years is a list of provocative titles: Miss Orient(ed), The Adventures of Ali and Ali and the Axis of Evil, Bhopal, My Name is Rachel Corrie and Truth and Treason.

 

Varma looks back at the germination of the project as a way of filling a void: “In terms of representation of minorities, nothing existed in cinema, theatre, music – barely any artistic representation anywhere. And when one could find it it was exoticized or stereotypical – we wanted to make it visible and move away from stereotype representations.”

Setting out to use art for social change instead of “reinforcing the status quo” Varma and friends created a theatre with strong roots in the South Asian community, and quickly branched out to the Anglo and Franco communities of Montreal. By his own description, Teesri Duniya’s plays have strong aesthetic values married with strong political values. Varma puts it like this: “It can look beautiful but without political substance, that beauty is lost.”

It’s a theatre that achieves a technical prowess while avoiding too much agit-prop, as some political theatre is prone to do. Varma believes that entertainment should never be sacrificed at the cost of politics, and the reverse is also true: “If it is left only for visual consumption it would be meaningless and you are not an artist but an entertainer.” Fiercely political, the plays communicate urgent socio-political messages turning on themes of justice, equality, anti-oppression and free expression. Varma adds: “Every play is propaganda. But just because it is political doesn’t mean it has to lack high aesthetic values.”

Indeed, Teesri Duniya achieves this delicate balancing act – the politics seep from the stage in a professionally practiced artistic context where you (the audience member) do not feel lectured at, but rather part of something deeply important, meaningful and even transformative.

In the context of feel-good government-mandated Euro-centric Multiculturalism, this small but prolific group of thespians is a breath of fresh (intercultural) air. Varma sees it as a larger project indeed: “Our work represents what Canada is – the political and cultural complexities that Canada represents. Every play we’ve done has challenged existing notions of belonging and nationhood.” He tells me that behind the work there is a philosophy that “our stage must reflect the streets of the country.” And those streets—the many diverse streets of Canada—look nothing like what we hear and see on the CBC. Canada is full of stories but most of the ones that end up being told are about the dominant White class. In this regard Teesri Duniya is a multiculturalism corrective.

One group in particular gets little to no representation (along with First Nations) and that is Asians. Varma maintains that part of the group’s mandate is to offer a space for this invisibility to be reversed. “Asians get so little representation, we aggressively work to get the attention of the non-Asian audiences to show them that there are more than two groups in Canada.”

 

Promotional still from "Hello My Name is Rachel Corrie"

With their own interpretation of Canadian multiculturalism, Teesri Duniya powerfully diversifies the arts with not only robust representation of under-represented actors, but challenges Euro-centric narratives that dominate the performing arts in Canada. Varma does not like the government’s application of multiculturalism. “Multiculturalism is in opposition to biculturalism. While Multiculturalism has achieved some things like the legal framework around anti-racism, it still lacks the structure that recognizes the various cultures inside Canada as distinct and equal.” He adds that their work must always support diversity and difference and a sense of community.

 

“How do we have a sense of belonging” – Varma asks rhetorically, noting that belonging does not have to be equated to assimilation or even reconciliation, but is rather about “standing side by side in respect and negotiation.” Creating a sense of belonging through their plays involves a tremendous amount of work that goes beyond scripts and stage tape – it is the work of outreaching, and connecting with, the various communities that make up the Canadian mosaic.

Varma is passionate about this point. “Plays are dialogue. The play may not lead into tangible social action, but into dialogue with various communities. If we have achieved dialogic action, we have done something right.” He feels that there needs to be stronger links between the professional theatre world, the academic world, and communities of all stripes and sorts. The stories told through the plays of Teesri Duniya are intensely political, but as Varma says, “They are also very personal, and through the personal we transcend boundaries and link to communities.”

Theirs are strong relationships to be sure. Plays are often connected to campaigns, audiences are often invited to participate in various ways, and theatre members wear multiple community hats, from actor to activist to citizen. The plays are fierce but under-appreciated as is often the case with art that dares to be overtly political, and especially when those politics challenge the status quo.

And despite funding difficulties that are made up for by an intense volunteer commitment Teesri Duniya soldiers on – an important, outspoken and vibrant member of the arts community and the activist community in Montreal, Canada, and the world at large. As digital natives shy further away from the “traditional arts” and a Conservative majority dangles a large and looming butcher’s knife over the Canadian arts sector, collectives like Teesri Duniya need support more than ever.

Canada is a country bursting at the seems with culture, but historically the most visible articulations of culture have suspiciously reflected White settler sensibilities, tastes and values. Teesri Duniya Theatre challenges this hegemony with a creative and cultural ferocity that, if given the support to grow and prosper, just might change the world – one play at a time.

For more information on Teesri Duniya, including upcoming productions, visit their site or their Facebook page. The same folks also run Canada’s only professional theatre journal, alt.theatre: cultural diversity and the stage. Image at top: Truth and Treason by Rahul Varma and directed by Arianna Bardesono.

Chile:

Police and Students Clash in

Unauthorized

Education Protest

Posted 5 August 2011 1:03 GMT

Written byKatie Manning

Hundreds of Chilean students, fighting to overhaul their education system, clashed with an intensified police force as they protested without permission on Thursday through the center of Santiago.

The Student Confederation of Chile (CONFECH) called students across Chile to protest in April, a month after school began. Students were fed up with the growing privatization trend in Chile that began under Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in the 1980s.

So far, every protest for education reform ended with marchers drenched by water cannon jets and clouds of tear gas. Thursday morning’s protest was no different, except some politicians said, this time the violence against students crossed the line.

Police use a "guanaco" to disperse students. Image by Flickr user FabsY_ (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Over a thousand officers driving armored vehicles, forging ahead on foot in bullet-proof “Carabineros” (police) uniforms, and riding teams of horses herded the students away from the presidential palace. Metal gates sealed off several metro stations.

The protest sky-rocketed to the top of the city's trending topics on Twitter as students vented their growing frustrations using hashtags like #4deagosto, #laalamedaesnuestra and #camilasomostodos.

Online news site El Dínamo put together two Storify posts with citizen reactions and reports, one focusing on events taking place in Santiago [es], and another one on protests across the country [es].

Eder Rivas (@ederivas), tweeted at 1:08 p.m.:

En las protestas hay toda clase de animales: guanacos y carabineros. Sólo faltan militares y armamos un zoológico.

In these protests, there are all types of of animals: guanacos and police. We’re only missing the military, then we’d have a zoo

Students often compare guanacos, an infamous spitting Chilean camel, to the police vehicle that fires water from its roof.

Many demonstrators remained calm, but some - covered by hooded sweatshirts, gloves and masks - pelted police vehicles with rocks. Two officers were wounded. Police detained 235 of the about 800 protesting students.

Students actually requested permission to have this two-part march on Thursday starting at 10:30 a.m. for high school students. CONFECH organized a second march at 6:30 p.m.. But the students were told to scram.

Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said on Wednesday that he won’t authorize any new student marches on the street leading to the presidential office, calle Alameda. He cited millions of dollars in damages, business-owner complaints, and lost class-time as the reasons behind his decision.

Unfazed by Hinzpeter’s disapproval, students exercised their constitutional right to protest. Chile's Constitution in Article 19, No. 13, guarantees the “right to peaceful assembly without prior permission and without arms. “

A contradictory regulation, issued in 1983 during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, allows the dissolution of demonstrations that do not have the appropriate permission from authorities, i.e. Hinzpeter’s approval. The rule also gives authorities the power to dissolve a demonstration. The Equality Institute took a closer look at this conflict and deemed it unconstitutional [es].

Nevertheless, Hinzpeter still envoked the decree's power to ban the students from protesting.

Camila Vallejo (@camila_vallejo), leader of CONFECH, tweeted:

Lo que hoy pasa en nuestro pais, desnuda a la derecha en su verdadera forma de gobernar, nosotros no tenemos miedo, ellos si.

Today in our country, the government was exposed for what it really is, we are not afraid, they are.

Hinzpeter’s decision proved to be a political misstep for the minister. Immediately following 10:30 a.m. demonstration, a group of deputies and senators called for his resignation due to him authorizing a “brutal crackdown on students.” [es]

Image by Flickr user FabsY_ (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

On Monday, President Sebastián Piñera presented a series of 21 reforms that would install new government agencies to handle educational concerns. His plan called for an increase in educational funding to help pay teachers and take care of unpaid student loans. It would also offer more scholarships to universities.

CONFECH said they’ll respond to the president’s plan on Friday. If the escalating violence and continued demonstrations in Santiago and across Chile today are an indication, Piñera’s plan hasn’t placated the protesters.

Sergio Canales, (@sergiocanalesv), tweeted:

Esto hace rato dejó de ser tema de derecha o izquierda, es gente normal que quiere las cosas más justas #4deagosto.

This long ago stopped being a left or right issue, it is just ordinary people who want things more fair. #4deagosto.

Sentidos Comunes posted live streaming video of the protests, as did @VotaInteligente. Furthermore, students inside the Universidad de Concepción in southern Chile streamed throughout the day via twitcam.

A ‘cacerolazo‘ was planned for Thursday night, as Global Voices author Felipe Cordero (@felipe_cordero) reports on Twitter:

Impressive number of people banging pots throughout Santiago. It hasn't stopped. This is not a struggle of a minority of students #4deagosto

#cacerolazo became a worldwide trending topic on the night of Thursday, August 4.

Written by Katie Manning
Posted 5 August 2011

10 Soul Songs

That Let The Light In

by Ann Powers

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Labelle in the early 1970s. From left to right, Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash and Patti Labelle.

 

An inky blue cloud has descended on the pop world since Amy Winehouse was discovered dead in her London home Saturday. Mourning her raw and delicate gifts, the singer-songwriter's friends and admirers — myself included — celebrated the way she uncovered every corner of heartache. The outpouring has made for some of this year's most moving music writing, the best of which has extolled Winehouse as a multi-dimensional artist, not just a tragedy.

The same is true, of course, for the music that inspired her. Jazz, soul and the blues are built from blood and tears, but also from laughter, sexiness and the energy rush of freedom. As we sit shiva for Winehouse, let's let a little light in, too.

This collection of songs features soulful women who stood up and shouted their happiness, their refusal to stay down or their sassy self-love. I've left off some obvious choices in favor of ones less familiar or possibly forgotten — you already know you'll grab delight from listening to Aretha Franklin or Annie Lennox, or new stars like Adele and Janelle Monae, so try something else here. My choices include the woman for whom we're now grieving — who, in addition to being a lady of sorrow, had a wicked sense of humor and a beautiful smile.

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Source: YouTube

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - "Up Above My Head"

Rosetta Tharpe was a towering figure in 20^th century music: a guitar goddess and soul shouter working within the gospel mode, whose flamboyant performances influenced Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Cash and many others. This TV clip from the 1960s shows her rocking her Gibson on a song she made popular in the 1940s. This is what "shouting to high heaven" really means.

 

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Source: YouTube

Ruth Brown - "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean"

Little Richard had the wildest style and Elvis foreshadowed Shakira with those hips, but nobody in rock's early days had more chutzpah than Ruth Brown. In this 1953 single she turns the tables on an abusive lover, using her famous killer yelp to transform her sadness into righteous and snappy indignation.

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Source: YouTube

Nina Simone - "Backlash Blues"

Few artists have spoken truth to power with the vigor and clarity of Nina Simone. This song from her 1967 RCA Records debut features lyrics by her friend, the great poet Langston Hughes. Simone snarls out their protest and then follows the energy of rebellion toward a triumphant climax.

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Source: YouTube

Labelle - "It Took a Long Time"

There's so much more to Labelle than "Lady Marmalade." The trio of Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash began as a spunky girl-group but evolved into one of the most daring groups of the early-to-mid 1970s, fusing rock to funk to soul and arguably inventing glam rock. This lovely story of a soul's exodus comes from the group's most beloved album, 1975's Nightbirds, but you might know if from the soundtrack to the film Precious.

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Source: YouTube

Allison Moyet - "All Cried Out"

Amy Winehouse had many sets of vintage heels to fill when she stepped onto the stage of British soul music. One of the shiniest belongs to Allison Moyet — a pioneer of electronic pop as half of the 1980s duo Yaz, and later a solo artist who taught George Michael and Madonna a thing or two. 1984's "All Cried Out" is one of her early solo hits, a torch song that turns into a brushfire.

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Source: YouTube

En Vogue - "Free Your Mind"

In the early 1990s, Oakland's fearsome foursome En Vogue defined funky glamor, laying down the blueprint Beyonce took up a decade later. This song was the group's foray into hot and vicious rock and roll based around a line borrowed from funk's lord and master, George Clinton. Simply put, it slays.

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Source: YouTube

Erykah Badu - "Tyrone"

Amy Winehouse reached back to the 1960s for her signature look, but vocally, she's as indebted to the singular Ms. Badu as she is to any girl group. This show-stopper from 1997 illustrates the syrupy sense of timing the younger signer learned from the older one, a way of singing with an eyebrow skeptically raised. It's also one of the funniest takedowns of a deadbeat boyfriend ever written.

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Source: YouTube

Jill Scott - "Golden"

Jill Scott's talent continues to flower — she's not just the queen mama of American retro-soul, she's also a movie star and a real-life mother, too. This summer she released The Light of the Sun, one of her earthiest and most enjoyable efforts. This finger-snapping anthem from 2004 features her in her sweet spot: a little jazzy, proud and upbeat, a positive force moving forward on a mellow groove.

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Source: YouTube

Chrisette Michele - "Porcelain Doll"

A classy retort to a judgemental lover from Long Island's finest neo-soul stylist, this song from 2009 is one I'd like to play for every teen-age girl thinking she'd better go on a diet.

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Source: YouTube

Corinne Bailey Rae - "I Would Like To Call It Beauty"

The knotty gorgeousness of this track was inspired by tragedy: Bailey, a contemporary of Winehouse, lost her husband Jason to an overdose of drugs and alcohol in 2008. Instead of letting her sorrow pull her under, she rode it, taking the album she'd already started to a new level of profundity. This song reflects a conversation she had with Jason's brother after his death.

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Source: YouTube

Amy Winehouse - "Stronger Than Me"

Playing some sweet guitar and having fun with her vocal runs, Winehouse laments her man's dissolution into wimpiness in this song from her 2004 debut, Frank. "Get a grip!" she tells him. But she knows she doesn't really need him to do that. Hers is firm enough.