Professor Emily Lordi releases Whitney Houston biography
Professor Emily Lordi will release her critical biography of Whitney Houston on September 29.
In Holding Lightning: The Life, Loves, and Art of Whitney Houston, leading cultural critic and professor Emily Lordi has gained unique access to Houston’s innermost circle to show us the Whitney we’ve been unwilling to see—her fluid sexuality, her unapologetic love of her own talent, her insistence that she be the architect of her own career. And, crucially, Lordi positions Houston’s pivotal life in the long history of Black celebrity. Before “rooting for everybody Black” became the norm, Whitney worked as a relentless advocate for Black female talent across the entertainment industry.
Professor Lordi’s upcoming public appearances include a conversation with Ann Powers and book-signing on October 10 at the National Museum of African American Music and a panel with Jamie Fisher on October 18 at the Southern Festival of Books.
“Lordi builds for us a Whitney who exemplifies Black excellence, yet she respects Whitney’s humanity by seamlessly including the truth of her complexes and complexities. Whitney has agency. She has creative control. She has passion. She has details and demons. Rather than giving her her flowers, Lordi lavishly gives Whitney Houston her layers and wings. This is a rendering all Black girl geniuses deserve.” –Michaela angela Davis, author of Tenderheaded and co-author of The Meaning of Mariah Carey