Clinton Walker
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DEADLY WOMAN BLUES: HISTORY + ART = NOW!

1/2/2018

4 Comments

 
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Today is the official release date of Deadly Woman Blues. It’s only now that I put it that way I realize it’s my first all-new book for five years, since The Wizard of Oz in 2013, which seems like an absolute age ago. The new Buried Country came out in 2015, but as much as its great amount of expansion entailed a great amount of work, it was still built on an existing foundation. And then the latest edition of Highway to Hell came out in 2016. But Deadly Woman Blues – it’s something I’ve been nurturing, on and off, since, well, Buried Country first came out nearly twenty years ago, and so for it to be coming out now, in a form that’s pretty much exactly the way I always envisaged it (credit for which and with great thanks for goes to NewSouth), it’s just such a pleasure, to hold the finished product in my hands, to see it in bookshops, as you can see here, today, at my local Gleeboox at Dulwich Hill:
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Deadly Woman Blues is my tenth book, a graphic history of black women in Australian music, the sort of sister-sequel to Buried Country, and I’m even more than usually excited about it because it’s a graphic history, a book I’ve illustrated as well as written, and as such marks my return to the art where I actually started in the first place. I dropped out of art school in Brisbane in the mid-1970s to follow my nose and start writing about music, and it’s really via Deadly Woman Blues that I’ve gotten back to art, and so immensely satisfyingly so that my standard line now is, I hope to end my days painting, picking up where I left off over forty years ago…
 
For more information on the book itself you can check my page on it here, or - and to buy as well - go to NewSouth Books’ page here. That it’s a book about a fairly secret history that will hopefully reveal that history to a broad audience is something else I’m very excited to be doing.
 
The book has gotten out of the blocks with a first nice little notice in Books + Publishing, which is reproduced below.
 
It will be launched with a clutch of events in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne with thanks due, again, to the lovely folks at NewSouth. Those events are:
  • On February 21 in Sydney, I’ll be ‘In Conversation’ with the lovely Natalie Ahmat at Gleeboox in Glebe, for bookings go here
  • On March 9 in Brisbane, I’ll be ‘In Conversation’ with the lovely Alathea Beetson at the Avid Reader in the West End, for bookings go here
  • And on March 19 in Melbourne, though it’s not quite as yet confirmed, I’ll probably be at Readings in St.Kilda, but stay tuned for final details on that one
  • And for people in Sydney, tomorrow, February 2, you can tune into ABC Radio Sydney at 11am to hear me chatting on Focus with the lovely Cassie McCullagh; you can stream it live on-line here
Stay tuned for more to come.
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4 Comments
Laura King
3/3/2018 05:22:38 pm

This book is a disgrace..... You are one seriously lazy, entitled bloke! How dare you think you have the right to write, very inaccurately, about outstanding women of our Indigenous community. I speak specially about your "opera Snob" - Deborah Cheetham AO. The insulting title ‘Opera Snob’, and gross inaccuracies of Deborah and her families story, and that of the Yorta Yorta people in this book written with out consultation or permission - along with many other aboriginal woman’s stories are an insult. Typical of a stupid white man, to think he can just ride on the back strong black women and reap the rewards!

This book should be removed immediately from publication and sale before any further emotional damage is done, and you find the only PR you get for this book is very negative for everyone involved in its distribution.

Reply
Megan Casey
3/3/2018 05:47:43 pm

I have to agree with Laura, Clinton. Normally I'm a big fan of your work, but writing about marginalized people without consulting them is at best paternalistic, at worst exploitative. I'm sure your intentions were good in trying to document performers that don't get much attention, but these women need to be allowed to speak for themselves. The lack of consultation and inaccuracies in the book are causing distress to the women you have written about. I know you've worked hard to document Australian music over the years, but on this occasion you have screwed up. I think at the very least an admission of this and an apology to these women are warranted, and withdrawal of the book from sale until the misinformation is corrected.

Reply
Kaeleen Hunter
3/3/2018 05:52:15 pm

You have no right to these stories and it is astounding you considered it to be your place to publish a book with such abandon to facts.
So many printed untruths is unacceptable.
Lack of connection, consideration, contact and honesty shown clearly by your actions.
Minimal interaction with the women means you couldnt even invest the energy into knowing their story.
I am so angry that your white male priveledge brain couldnt see the red flags and you actually went to print.
Shame on you.......
#itstime
May the the backlash wake you from your ignorance
May the storm coming at you be felt deeply
Please find the humble response and own your work as reflected by the words of the women you have offended,
Wake up #itsourtime

Reply
Jane Hunter
4/3/2018 05:13:52 am

Wow. The level of entitlement you've displayed through writing this book and your choice to not even engage with or seek permission from the various women whose stories you're profiting off is next-level racist and sexist. Some women featured in this questionable book have spoken up and pointed out your multiple inaccuracies with their stories. Where are your journalistic standards, Clinton - and ethics? Would you be this careless with living artists, their stories and their creativity if they were white women? I don't know how you can fix this, but best believe you need to make amends. Your lack of integrity with this book will haunt you from hereon. May you actually learn the necessity and importance of handling people's stories with care. Because your story from this point onwards is in tatters. Shame on you for actively partaking as a white man in a racist, misogynistic system of colonisation that actively silences black women from telling their own stories. You've made the conscious choice to unapologetically reap the benefits and profit from black womanhood and creativity. As Kaeleen said, may your storm be felt deeply. Good riddance to rubbish "journalism".

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    CLINTON WALKER

    clintonwalker.com.au

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