Episode Notes

The work of Donna Summer sits at the heart of Disco’s brief and influential time at the center of American pop culture. In this episode, we look beyond the title “Queen of Disco,” to understand Donna’s ride to the top of the charts and the work that made her an icon. 

Find more information at s.si.edu/collected. 

Guests

Daphne Brooks, Ph.D., is professor of African American Studies and Music at Yale University. Dr. Brooks most recent books is Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound (Harvard University, February 2021). https://afamstudies.yale.edu/people/daphne-brooks  

Fredara Hadley, Ph.D., is an ethnomusicology professor in the Music History Department at The Juilliard School.  Her research focuses on the influence of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in music history. Dr. Hadley’s work has been published in academic and popular journals. https://www.juilliard.edu/faculty/hadley-fredara  

Crystal M.  Moten, Ph.D., is a historian who specializes in twentieth century African American Women’s History. In 2023 she published Continually Working: Black Women, Community Intellectualism, and Economic Justice in Postwar Milwaukee. Dr. Moten is the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Obama Presidential Center Museum in Chicago, Illinois and was previously curator at Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History  https://www.crystalmoten.com/  

Dwandalyn R. Reece, Ph.D., is curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Dr. Reece curated the museum’s permanent exhibition, Musical Crossroads, for which she received the Secretary’s Research Prize in 2017.   https://music.si.edu/dr-dwandalyn-reece    

Fath Davis Ruffins was a curator of African American History at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH). She began working at the museum in 1981, and between 1988 and 2005, she was the head of the Collection of Advertising History at the NMAH Archives Center. Ruffins was the original project director of Many Voices, One Nation, an exhibition that opened at NMAH in June 2017. She was leading a museum project on the history and culture of the Low Country region of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.   https://profiles.si.edu/display/nruffinsf1102006  

Craig Seymour, Ph.D. is a photographer and author, whose work has been published in The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Vibe, Paste, Spin, and other publications. Dr. Seymour’s most recent book is a biography of Luther Vandross, Luther: The Life and Longing of Luther Vandross (2004). The Archives of African American Music and Culture at Indiana University hold the materials Seymour collected when he was researching his book on Vandross.  https://randbeing.com/