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Mama she told me, my jellyroll wasn't right
Well I can jelly'n'jelly jelly, jelly makes my life
Well upside down, right side up,
Give it to me baby till I've had enough
jelly'n'jelly'n'jelly'n'jelly, jelly jelly jellyroll
-- Faith Nolan "Jellyroll" (1989)
FROM THE 1920S, WHEN VAUDEVILLE BLUES women stood in the public limelight en masse for the first time, the blues has been a vehicle for African American women to articulate their experiences and express their feelings. Through their powerful voices, engaging delivery, and bold self-presentation, vaudeville blues women empowered themselves and their audiences. "Telling it like it is," they challenged the status quo -- talking back to stereotypes, commanding sexual respect, and demanding an end to mistreatment -- while giving voice to the diversity of their experiences. Drawing upon the aesthetics of black performance style, blues women affirmed their humanity as their ancestors had done, through total involvement (giving 100 percent, engaging their audience), signifying (talking back, repeating with a difference), and personalization (remaking the tradition in their own image) (Burnim 1985; Gates 1988; Murray 1976).
Blues women today continue to utilize and creatively remake traditional means and materials to resonate their experiences and those of their audiences. Like their blues foremothers, contemporary blues women assert their identity by personalizing traditional material, giving, in Sherley Anne Williams's words, "a traditional statement about a traditional situation a new response" (1975, 37). Borrowing from Henry Louis Gates Jr., they signify on or "repeat with a difference" traditional material (1988, xxvii, xxii-xxiii). In using the traditional signifying processes of the blues to repeat and revise the tradition, contemporary African American women musicians create continuity and continuance in the tradition. The work of blues women past and present is a critical piece in the dialogue and process of reclaiming and affirming black female sexuality. As vaudeville blues singers before them, contemporary African American women musicians use the blues -- its processes, language and structures, along with the image the female blues singer projects -- to affirm their identity and reclaim their sexuality. Like the vaudeville blues singers, contemporary African American women musicians reclaim their sexuality both by speaking out about and against a history of sexual abuse and stereotyping, and by presenting self-defined images of themselves.
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