with Kathleen Abromeit, Head, Oberlin Conservatory Library
Performing Racial Uplift
E. Azalia Hackley and African American Activism in the Post-Bellum to Pre-Harlem Era By Juanita Karpf
rediscovers the career of Black activist E. Azalia Hackley (1867–1922), a concert artist, nationally famous music teacher, and charismatic lecturer. Growing up in Black Detroit, she began touring as a pianist and soprano soloist while only in her teens. By the late 1910s, she had toured coast-to-coast, earning glowing reviews. Her concert repertoire consisted of an innovative blend of spirituals, popular ballads, virtuosic showstoppers, and classical pieces. She also taught music while on tour and visited several hundred Black schools, churches, and communities during her career. She traveled overseas and, in London and Paris, studied singing with William Shakespeare and Jean de Reszke—two of the classical music world’s most renowned teachers. Read more
![Read more](http://<!-- wp:image {"align":"right","id":640,"sizeSlug":"large","linkDestination":"none"} --> <div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img src="https://www.spiritualsresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Image-front-cover_rb_modalcover-683x1024.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-640"/><figcaption><a href="https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/P/Performing-Racial-Uplift">https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/P/Performing-Racial-Uplift</a>rediscovers the career of Black activist E. Azalia Hackley (1867–1922), a concert artist, nationally famous music teacher, and charismatic lecturer. Growing up in Black Detroit, she began touring as a pianist and soprano soloist while only in her teens. By the late 1910s, she had toured coast-to-coast, earning glowing reviews. Her concert repertoire consisted of an innovative blend of spirituals, popular ballads, virtuosic showstoppers, and classical pieces. She also taught music while on tour and visited several hundred Black schools, churches, and communities during her career. She traveled overseas and, in London and Paris, studied singing with William Shakespeare and Jean de Reszke—two of the classical music world’s most renowned teachers.<br>Read more</figcaption></figure></div> <!-- /wp:image -->){kind=link}