We kick off Black History Month with this powerful one from Queen Esther, who was raised in Atlanta and Charleston. Blackbirding is a reclamation-driven Black country soul album that roams the Gettysburg battlefield to create songs that dismantle myths and assumptions about what happened there -- and to explore the reasons why, like slavery, the Civil War has never really ended. Blackbirding -- the lucrative 19th century practice of kidnapping free Black folk to enslave them – can be seen continuing in assorted ways today. This album centers Queen Esther's Black feminist perspective as it encompasses different aspects of the conflict, churning lost history into music that blends country, jazz, soul, R&B and pop, reflecting the unbridled chaotic melange of the battlefield – with women in and out of uniform on both sides of the conflict.
Monday 2/2: Queen Esther – Blackbirding
