Words and Songs of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Nina Simone

This book explores the relationship between three African American women's dance-art-music sensibilities within the context of a Pan African aesthetic.

Melanie E. Bratcher is a native of Oklahoma and descendent of parents who experienced sharecropping, she is the first in her family to graduate college. As a singer, dancer and scholar, her most relevant publication entitled "Tribute" was performed at the University of Oklahoma where she is Assistant Professor of African & African American Studies.