Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters

Finalist, 2024 Lesbian Memoir/Biography, Lambda Literary Award for Arts and Culture Winner - Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award, 45th Annual American Book Awards, Before Columbus Foundation A queer, Black "e;biography in essays"e; about the performer who gave us "e;Hound Dog,"e; "e;Ball and Chain,"e; and other songs that changed the course of American music. Born in Alabama in 1926, raised in the church, appropriated by white performers, buried in an indigent's grave-Willie Mae "e;Big Mama"e; Thornton's life events epitomize the blues-but Lynnee Denise pushes past the stereotypes to read Thornton's life through a Black, queer, feminist lens and reveal an artist who was an innovator across her four-decade-long career. Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters "e;samples"e; elements of Thornton's art-and, occasionally, the author's own story-to create "e;a biography in essays"e; that explores the life of its subject as a DJ might dig through a crate of records. Denise connects Thornton's vaudevillesque performances in Sammy Green's Hot Harlem Revue to the vocal improvisations that made "e;Hound Dog"e; a hit for Peacock Records (and later for Elvis Presley), injecting music criticism into what's often framed as a cautionary tale of record-industry racism. She interprets Thornton's performing in men's suits as both a sly, Little Richard-like queering of the Chitlin Circuit and a simple preference for pants over dresses that didn't have a pocket for her harmonica. Most radical of all, she refers to her subject by her given name rather than "e;Big Mama,"e; a nickname bestowed upon her by a white man. It's a deliberate and crucial act of reclamation, because in the name of Willie Mae Thornton is the sound of Black musical resilience.