“A queer black woman invented rock-and-roll”: Rosetta Tharpe, memes, and memory practices in the digital age

Abstract

In recent years, musician Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915–73) has gone from being a “forgotten” rock trailblazer to being a viral video sensation and the subject of the Internet meme “A queer black woman invented rock and roll.” This article traces the “meme-ing” of Tharpe, paying attention to how the meme constructs, circulates, and mobilizes knowledge about her in online and offline spaces. After briefly reviewing the challenges of writing about Tharpe’s sexuality in “Shout, Sister, Shout!,” my 2007 biography, I turn to the history of the meme, showing how it supports a radical politics of remembering by articulating Tharpe’s erasure from the annals of rock to the ongoing struggles of marginalized black and queer subjects. In particular, the boundary-pushing musicians Janelle Monáe and Lizzo and the visionary Haitian-American fashion designer Kerby Jean-Raymond illustrate how the meme has fueled engagements with the erasure, appropriation, and commodification of black queer creativity in the 21st century. These examples show how contests over rock-and-roll history and memory “vibrate,” or continue to resonate, across media in the post-rock moment.