Gertrude "Ma" Rainey

Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was a prolific black blues artist whose work centered around the intersection of her identity, being an openly Bisexual black woman. Born in 1886, she began performing Vaudeville as a teenager. After a brief marriage with “Pa” Rainey, where they formed a double act, she would go on to create her own singing act. She signed with Paramount Record in 1923, making her one of the earliest signed Blues musicians. Her songs tackled raw and real subject matter, like depression and betrayal, but what is so subversive about her work is the fact that the women she sings about never submit to men or conform to society at large. Her subjects are an exercise in freedom and autonomy in a place outside typical societal notions, and she is remembered for this even to this day. Her music styling synthesized vaudeville with Southern Blues, giving her the contemporary title of “The Mother of Blues”.

Additional Reading:
www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/singing-the-lesbian-blues-in-1920s-harlem
www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-queer-black-woman-who-reinvented-the-blues