Introduction: Black resonance -- Vivid lyricism: Richard Wright and Bessie Smith's blues -- The timbre of sincerity: Mahalia Jackson's gospel sound and Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man -- Understatement: James Baldwin, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday -- Haunting: Gayl Jones's Corregidora and Billie Holiday's "strange Fruit" -- Signature voices: Nikki Giovanni, Aretha Franklin, and the Black Arts movement -- Epilogue: "At Last": Etta James, poetry, hip hop.
