"Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie Sing the Stumps Down Good" by LaShawn M. Wanak is extremely relevant to my interests in every way, and I thought it kicked ass. It's got everything: subversive artists, alternate history, creepy government agencies, disappointing white men, empathy as a superpower, black women whose fancy heels dent the hoods of cop cars. Music, everywhere.
It does start a little slow, and I wish there was maybe a little tiny bit more Chicago flavor in the early parts of the story in order to make that slow start feel a little more worth it. That's my only criticism though, and honestly I love a long-short story and am not really even complaining about the pacing.
Some things I loved: the delightful contrast between Rosetta and Minnie; the blues clubs full of smoke and assholes; the love of music and the way I felt the urge to sing in my mouth as I read; the setting in a segregated America at war in late WWII; the weirdly identifiable government-agency-ness of the creepy government agency; the unique and horrific magical elements; the shout outs (and maybe a little subtle shade) for a whole host of 30s era musicians; the extremely subtle, maybe-I'm-imagining-it moment where a young butch mixed-race lesbian has a very Captain America scene; church music and the queer-ass blues as two sides of the same coin!
I mean, damn. I'm not even going to make a list of things I didn't like, because there is no such list. Someone should make this story into a movie. Here's a video of Sister Rosetta Tharpe:
At about 15,000 words, SRTAMMSTSDG a nice length for a novelette. I read it on Apex, but it originally appeared in FIYAH, so like, hurray for getting paid twice and also for demographic-specific literary magazines. This story is quite good, so I don't mean to say that it would never have seen the light of day were it not for FIYAH, but it's an awkward length and a lot of the emotional hook comes from being invested in the music, so. You know. I'm glad FIYAH exists.
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