The jazz singer
Dianne Reeves talked to the
Christian Science Monitor about what she's been watching and listening to. And reading:
Lately, I've found myself reading a lot of biographies and autobiographies. I read the book on Marian Anderson [Marian Anderson: A Singer's Journey, by Allan Keiler]. She broke the color barrier in a lot of ways. It inspires me more than anything, because it was through something that she loved and absolutely devoted her life to. She made changes and made an awareness of not only who she was, but who African-Americans at that time were as a people. Through her music and her excellence, she could not be denied – not even by Eleanor Roosevelt, who came to her aid later on. She ended up singing in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It's a story of a life as a great opera singer when people didn't think opera was something that African-Americans could do or should pursue.
Read more about
what Reeves has been listening to and watching.
--Marshal Zeringue
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