There is something about Angela Y. Davis’s Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday that I have been unable to shake. Seven years ago, it introduced me to the performers Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, and provided me with a deeper appreciation of the cultural and political critiques of Billie Holiday. Davis’s text examines the ways in which the lyrics, performances, appearances, and actions of these performers articulated and shaped a working-class consciousness that embodied a complex tradition of Black feminist theorizing. The book provides a rich history and philosophical reflections on the social, political, and economic contexts of the artists and the communities that they emerged from and served. It also positions Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday as philosophical, political, and cultural agents who challenged the epistemologies and structures that Black women encountered when seeking bodily autonomy, socio-political freedom, and affirmation of their lived experiences in contexts that were shaped by patriarchal, classist, racist, and homophobic norms and structures. RETRIEVED FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE.