CLR Fellow Profile: Francesca Royster

Francesca Royster, PhD

P R O F E S S O R | E N G L I S H C R I T I C A L E T H N I C S T U D I E S

C O L L E G E O F L I B E R A L A R T S A N D S C I E N C E S

So, you’re currently on sabbatical. Would you care to talk about what some of your current research interests are? And what does your research entail?

So during this sabbatical, I’m working on a new book project, called “Listening for my Mother: Travels in Music from Chicago to Bahia. " This book will explore the theme of historic erasure, grief and resistance through music by women of the African Diaspora. The book will be one-part critical analysis, one-part memoir. It will begin with a journey—my mother’s, who traveled twenty years ago to Salvador, Bahia for a music conference and, at age 57, unexpectedly died there. Music will connect my story of personal loss to the grieving and healing of other women artists in the Black Diaspora. I will write about the voice of feminist protest in current Brazilian Black women’s music, who sing about Brazil’s continuing racism, domestic violence and sexual pleasure, and then songs about history, grief and collective healing, from Angelique Kidjo to Rhiannon Giddens. The project situates itself historically in the aftermath of the transatlantic slave trade, as well as the grief of the present, in light of racial violence and loss of lives during the covid19 pandemic.

So far this year, I’m spending time doing background reading about Black Brazilian history and culture, especially in terms of music—and also teaching myself some elementary Portuguese (Duo Lingo is great!). I hope to travel to Bahia as soon as some of the challenges of the pandemic ease up a bit. And I’ve been listening to a lot of music, from Brazilian Tropicale music from the 1970’s to new Black Country Music to Silk Sonic! I love getting lost in Youtube wormholes to think about performance and echoes across histories and traditions.

Over the sabbatical, I’ve also been finishing up two other book projects, which are now forthcoming: Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions (University of Texas Press, expected in Fall 2022) and a memoir, Choosing Family: A Memoir of Black Resistance and Queer Motherhood (Abrams Books, also expected in Fall of 2022). This past Fall and the first weeks of Winter 2022, I’ve been revising, copyediting and getting those books ready for publication as I also work on the new project.

What do you find most interesting about your research subject?

I am especially excited about thinking about the role of music in healing, and in helping people tell difficult stories about their lives and histories. I’m super-excited to think about the ways that specific histories and musical histories in different regions in the African Diaspora are both particular and connected. So right now, reading about Black freedom movements in Brazil and the U.S. and the importance of music to protest and bring communities together has been super exciting.

And what have been some of your biggest influences in this project?

One of my biggest influences has been my mother, Sandy Royster, who had a great hunger and appreciation for learning about the African Diaspora, and our connections through music. She worked at the Chicago Cultural Center, and spent her career bringing performers from all over the world to Chicago for their free concerts. She was really energized by her work, and that energy really rubbed off on me. I am so excited to learn more about the musical traditions of Brazil, and have found the ways that musicians like Milton Nascimento and Caetano Veloso were bringing their own spin to African influenced sound to talk about their own experiences. And then I’m super inspired by the work of musician and historian Rhiannon Giddens, who is always thinking about our entangled roots through music. My favorite critical thinker for bringing these things together has really been Queer theorist Jose Esteban Munoz, who in his writing was always thinking about Queer World Making, and the ways that we turn to music and other forms of expression and pleasure to change the world, and make the future that we want.

How do you think your research will influence the classroom?

I hope to bring my research to a class I often teach in English, ENG 309: Writing About Music, which explores creative strategies for writing about music, from mix tape memoirs to reviews to poetry. I am also hoping to teach a course on Global Black Women’s Writing once my sabbatical is over, which I hope will help me bring this research to the class room. What comes next for you following your sabbatical?

What comes next for you following your sabbatical?

After my sabbatical, I’ll be back in the classroom! And I hope to share some of the research on music and grief and the African Diaspora at conferences like the American Studies Association. I will also be giving a lot of talks and presentations for my two forthcoming books, which will be published in the fall. And I plan to keep researching, listening, travelling and writing, working on Listening for My Mother.

What’s something you're currently reading and enjoying ? (This could also be a book that you’ve finished recently if you’re not currently reading anything)

Without necessarily doing it on purpose, the books that I’ve been reading for fun have also given me new lenses to think about my research. I have just finished Louise Erdrich’s new novel, "The Sentence" and I recommend it highly! Throughout the novel, Erdrich is exploring this question, “What do we owe the dead?” . Her main character, Tookie, is exploring some of the issues I’m also thinking about for my research, including grief and historic erasure, from the perspective of Indigenous folks in the U.S. and also the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our social networks. It’s a ghost story and it is really suspenseful and engaging, with Erdrich’s typical lush and beautiful language. And at the passing of bell hooks, I just read her book, "Belonging: A Culture of Place. " hooks writes in a way that feels very intimate while also being analytical, something that I really admire. In it, she’s thinking about her roots in Appalachia, and she’s navigated academic and other intellectual circles that devalue country roots, perspectives and ways of knowing. I am currently reading Dionne Brand’s book, "A Map to the Door of No Return, " which is both a book of prose poetry and a cultural history about belonging and identity and Black Canadian history. It’s a revelation!

Interview conducted by Graduate Editorial Assistant Amanda Matthews