Author Night at Hubbell Library: Alison Fensterstock

How Women Made Music

This definitive history of women’s vital role in music features archival interviews, essays, photographs, and illustrations from over fifty years of NPR's coverage of musical heroes and creators.

The NPR series Turning the Tables, launched in 2017, revolutionized recognition of female artists, whether it be in best album lists or in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music brings this impressive reshaping to the page and includes material from more than fifty years of NPR’s coverage plus newly commissioned work. A must-have for music fans, songwriters, feminist historians, and those interested in how artists think and work. Featured artists include the following: 

• Joan Baez talking about nonviolence as a musical principle in 1971
• Dolly Parton’s favorite song and the story behind it 
• Patti Smith describing art as her “jealous mistress” in 1974
• Nina Simone, in 2001, explaining how she developed the edge in her voice as a tool against racism
• Taylor Swift talking about when she had no idea if her musical career might work
• Odetta on how shifting from classical music to folk allowed her to express her fury over Jim Crow

Alison Fensterstock is a New Orleans-based writer and editor. An alumna of Newcomb College, she has served as music critic for the Gambit and the Times-Picayune and as founding program director for the Ponderosa Stomp roots-music festival, working on educational and archival efforts with partners including the Louisiana State Museum, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. A contributor to NPR Music since 2016, she’s written and edited for Turning the Tables and appeared on NPR programs including All Things Considered, World Café, and Word of Mouth. Her writing about popular music and culture has appeared in Rolling Stone, the New York Times, the Oxford American, and MOJO, among others.

Sponsored by Friends of Hubbell Library

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