Daphne A. Brooks: A Life in Sound and Scholarship
Born and raised in the vibrant cultural landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area, and currently based in New Haven, CT, Daphne A. Brooks is a scholar, author, and music critic whose work bridges the worlds of academia and pop culture. She earned her BA in English from UC Berkeley and her PhD in English from UCLA, all while immersing herself in the legendary aisles of Tower Records, Amoeba Records, Rasputin’s, and Rhino Records—a formative experience that shaped her deep understanding of music and culture.
A Prolific Author & Scholar
Brooks is the author of three critically acclaimed books:
Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910 (Duke UP), which earned the Errol Hill Award for Outstanding Scholarship on African American Performance.
Jeff Buckley’s Grace (Continuum, 2005), an incisive analysis of the singer’s legendary album.
Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound (Harvard UP, 2021), the first installment of her multi-volume study Subterranean Blues: Black Women Sound Modernity.
She is currently developing a Black feminist rereading of Porgy and Bess and expanding her research on Black women and popular music culture.
A Voice in Journalism & Criticism
Brooks’ thought-provoking essays and cultural critiques have been featured in The New York Times, The Nation, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Artforum, Slate, Oxford American Magazine, NPR.org, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and more.
She is also the editor of an upcoming anthology from Duke University Press, inspired by Blackstar Rising & The Purple Reign: Celebrating the Legacies of David Bowie and Prince, a three-day international conference and concert that she curated.
Exploring Race, Gender & Sound
Her scholarly articles delve into the intersections of race, gender, performance, and music culture, with notable works including:
“Sister, Can You Line It Out?: Zora Neale Hurston & the Sound of Angular Black Womanhood” (Amerikastudien/American Studies)
“Puzzling the Intervals: Blind Tom and the Poetics of the Sonic Slave Narrative” (The Oxford Handbook of the African American Slave Narrative)
“Nina Simone’s Triple Play” (Callaloo)
“All That You Can’t Leave Behind: Surrogation & Black Female Soul Singing in the Age of Catastrophe” (Meridians)
Award-Winning Liner Notes & Editorial Work
Brooks has penned award-winning liner notes for:
The Complete Tammi Terrell (Universal A&R, 2010)
Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia (Sony, 2011)
Prince’s Sign O’ The Times deluxe box set (2020)