Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Lordi.
Hi Emily, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I’m a writer and professor whose work focuses on Black women artists, though I write about a variety of stars, forms, and trends. I’m obsessed with expressive details—the contours of a particularly virtuosic melisma; a slip-up onstage from which an artist recovers without missing a beat. My signature move as a critic is to take these sparky moments and link them up with others to create a story about an artist’s craft and vision. This method challenges the tendency to reduce the work of artists of color, especially, to generalities about biography and identity. It drives my reported profiles of icons like Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton; reviews of memoirs and rock documentaries; and my books about Black music, soul politics, and, most recently, Whitney Houston’s complex artistry and personality.
I grew up in New England in the 80s, the era of blockbuster pop when shows like *Star Search* encouraged performing kids like me to feel we were destined, if not for the big time, then an exciting turn on network TV. I sang in church choirs, jazz ensembles, a rock band. But I really wanted to be a dancer. I trained in New Hampshire, Boston, and New York. But I didn’t have quite the talent or the wherewithal to make a life of it. I did also love to write, so I parlayed my English major into a PhD program at Columbia, where my mentor Robert O’Meally showed me and a generation of scholars in the field of Black Studies how to interweave the study of music, literature, performance, culture, and history. That’s where I learned to translate my love of performance into an effort to create sensitive, insightful responses to the work of Black American artists. That effort—as well as the impulse to complicate basic or reductive interpretations—informs pretty much everything I do as a writer and teacher.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think if you’re putting yourself out there and taking risks, you’re probably getting your ass kicked at least as much as you win. Even on a career path that appeared to be “safer” than that of a performing artist, I’ve faced lots of rejection and critique—from hiring committees, editors, publishers, potential interview subjects. I don’t know that it’s made me resilient, though I am relentlessly optimistic and possibly overconfident. At the same time, as a white scholar in the field of Black Studies, I’m always working to be worthy of my mentors, platforms, subjects. That’s as it should be: you work with a mixture of audacity (if you’re going to do this, really do it) and humility (do it right, and pass the mic as needed).
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I teach African American literature and pop music at Vanderbilt University. I write books about Black music and culture, and essays and profiles for a number of outlets, especially *T: The New York Times Style Magazine.* I also help organize the epic gathering of music writers and scholars known as Pop Con, held annually at USC, in LA. I am most proud of my efforts to change cultural narratives around marginalized artists by *listening to them*—to what they create and what they say about it. This doesn’t mean taking it all at face value, but reading it rigorously, compassionately, and creatively.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
People can buy my books! Especially my latest, *Holding Lightning: The Life, Loves, and Art of Whitney Houston,* which is out September 29. I also narrated the audiobook (very earnestly!), if that’s more your thing. The book release will be held at the National Museum of African American Music on 10/10. Finally, please tune in to the podcast I’ll be launching in 2027, in which I enlist the most brilliant artists and scholars I know to delve into Whitney’s most iconic songs and illuminate her genius.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://emilylordi.com
- Instagram: emilylordi1
- Other: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/holding-lightning-emily-lordi?variant=44726161211426
