WORCESTER—Before the standards were standards, before the Great American Songbook hardened into something resembling scripture, Black women were writing the soundtrack.
Their names, too often, did not make the same journey.
On Saturday evening at the YWCA of Central Massachusetts, a group of Worcester musicians takes up that unfinished business.
The Black American Women Songwriters Concert, held in honor of Black History Month, highlights the work of 14 Black American women who wrote and composed music between 1920 and 1970—artists whose influence shaped blues, jazz and popular song, even when recognition did not follow.
The program blends history with live performance, with five local vocalists offering their own renditions of songs by trailblazing figures such as Irene Higginbotham, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith. Featured performers include Lydia Fortune, Charles Ketter, Sunta Jones and Fanta Vibes, with musical accompaniment from Luke Bass and Mike Rinker. The concert is hosted and accompanied by Worcester jazz pianist and vocalist Nat Needle.
For Needle, the idea began with a realization.
“In 2021, as we came out of the pandemic and it was again possible to perform live, I performed a solo concert of all songs by African-American songwriters of the first part of the last century,” Needle said. “At that time, I couldn’t help noticing how few of the songs on my list were by women.”
That absence lingered. What followed, he describes as both a justice project and a personal calling — a deliberate effort to center the women whose compositions helped define an era.
“These songs teach Black history,” he said. “Not only the lyrics, but the music itself, gives voice to suffering and abuse that Black women have been subjected to throughout American history. And it also expresses joy in sexuality and sexual independence in ways that were out of bounds for white women of the same period.”
The concert’s scope stretches from the early blues era through the civil rights movement, placing decades of songwriting into conversation across generations. Organizers describe the evening as a celebration of the music, the stories embedded within it and the messages that remain resonant today.
Needle hopes the event looks forward as much as it looks back.
“If this inspires any young person, especially a young woman, and double-especially a young Black woman, to blaze a trail for others to follow, in ANY arena, well, wow, right?” he said.
The concert runs from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, at the YWCA, 1 Salem Square. Admission is open to all; donations are encouraged to support The Village Worcester, an Afrocentric cultural learning and healing center that connects BIPOC individuals and groups working toward racial justice, but contributions are not required to attend.
For one evening, at least, the spotlight shifts—not just to the singers onstage, but to the women who wrote the songs in the first place.
Jenna Foley is a communication and multimedia journalism student at Worcester State University, focusing on telling impactful stories through different forms of media. She can be reached at jfoley17@worcester.edu
Caroline Lacy is an English student at Worcester State University, exploring journalism and storytelling, with a focus on culture and human-interest stories. She can be reached at clacy@worcester.edu
