大象传媒

Bessie joins a travelling show with the 'Mother of the Blues' and faces violence in her second marriage.....

Poet Jackie Kay charts the rise and fall of Bessie Smith as she brings to life the dramatic story of the greatest blues singer who ever lived.

Orphaned by the age of nine, Bessie Smith sang on the street to support her siblings and was swept into travelling shows as a young woman. Facing extreme racial prejudice, she frequently brawled under the influence of bathtub gin and had tumultuous love affairs with men and women. She also sold hundreds of thousands of records and became a genuine superstar.

Mixing biography, fiction, music and memoir, Jackie remembers the electric thrill of identification when, as a young black girl growing up in Glasgow, she was first gifted the music of the Empress.

Abridged by Rosemary Goring

Read by Jackie Kay

From 2016 to 2021, Jackie Kay was the Makar - Scotland's poet laureate.

Producer: Eilidh McCreadie

First broadcast on 大象传媒 Radio 4 in February 2021.