About this item
An impassioned homage to the divas who shake up our world and transform it with their bold, dazzling artistry.What does it mean to be a "diva"? A shifting, increasingly loaded term, it has been used to both deride and celebrate charismatic and unapologetically fierce performers like Aretha Franklin, Divine, and the women of Labelle. In this brilliant, powerful blend of incisive criticism and electric memoir, Deborah Paredez -- scholar, cultural critic, and lifelong diva devotee -- unravels our enduring fascination with these icons and explores how divas have challenged American ideas about feminism, performance, and freedom.American Diva journeys into Tina Turner's scintillating performances, Celia Cruz's command of the male-dominated salsa world, the transcendent revival of Jomama Jones after a period of exile, and the unparalleled excellence of Venus and Serena Williams.
About the Author
Deborah Paredez is the author of the poetry collection, This Side of Skin (Wings Press 2002) , and the critical study, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Duke 2009) , winner of the 2011 Chicana/o Studies Association Book Award Honorable Mention and the 2010 Latin American Studies Association Latino Studies Book Award Honorable Mention. Her poetry and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetry, Callaloo, Latino Studies Journal, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder and director of CantoMundo, a national organization dedicated to Latina/o poets and poetry. She lives in New York City where she teaches poetry and ethnic studies at Columbia University.