Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Why Labelle Matters

Why Labelle Matters

Bertei, Adele

Paperback

Series: Music Matters

Biographies GeneralPop/Rock

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1477320407
ISBN13: 9781477320402
Publisher: Univ Of Texas Pr
Published: Mar 23 2021
Pages: 208
Weight: 0.45
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.00 Depth: 6.90
Language: English

Finalist, 2022 Lesbian Memoir/Biography, Lambda Literary Award for Arts and Culture

Crafting a legacy all their own, the reinvented Labelle subverted the girl group aesthetic to invoke the act's Afrofuturist spirit and make manifest their vision of Black womanhood.

Performing as the Bluebelles in the 1960s, Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash wore bouffant wigs and chiffon dresses, and they harmonized vocals like many other girl groups of the era. After a decade on the Chitlin Circuit, however, they were ready to write their own material, change their name, and deliver--as Labelle--an electrifyingly celestial sound and styling that reached a crescendo with a legendary performance at the Metropolitan Opera House to celebrate the release of Nightbirds and its most well-known track, Lady Marmalade. In Why Labelle Matters, Adele Bertei tells the story of the group that sang the opening aria of Afrofuturism and proclaimed a new theology of musical liberation for women, people of color, and LGBTQ people across the globe.

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