The 2022-2023 academic year has been busy for Professor Francesca Royster.
When thinking about who from the Honors community to highlight, I remembered attending Dr. Royster’s speaking event earlier this year about her 2022 book, Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions. I recalled, too, the even more recent release of her 2023 book Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance. With the release of two books in addition to teaching at DePaul, and in addition to her local volunteer work, I decided to reach out to Francesca Royster to hear more about what the past year has been like for her. I wanted to specifically talk about both of her most recent books and her writing process.
Francesca Royster is entering her 24th year of teaching at DePaul University in the English department, with some of her classes cross-listed with LGBTQ Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and African and Black Diaspora Studies. Her work looks at issues of cultural histories, often analyzing the intersection of performance with African American and queer identities, and connects cultural histories to her personal history and teaching practice.
“I started out actually as a Shakespeare scholar looking at performance, especially the performance of blackness and Black characters in Shakespeare,” she told me in our interview, “And I just kind of got frustrated, looking at representations of blackness. I really wanted to know more about our own art making and resilience and resistance.”
From her background as a Shakespeare scholar, Dr. Royster decided to explore the history of music and performance as a fundamental part of Black history. Her research led her to write Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions, which delves into the legacy of current and past Black country artists and how these artists have not always been included in discussions of the genre, but have historically used their music to call out racism.
In speaking about the book and some of the artists that inspired her, Francesca Royster specifically mentioned Lil Nas X and Tina Turner, examples of artists whose work might not solely exist within the genre of country music but which does draw influence from an artistic tradition.
“I would say the first artist I wrote about and who I keep writing about is Tina Turner and I was thinking about her, of course, a lot in the last few days since she just passed away as an artist who isn’t known for her country music but definitely came from the South and has made some songs about that. And then as I was just kind of exploring and kind of thinking, looking into other artists to explore, Lil Nas X came out with ‘Old Town Road’ and, I love Lil Nas X so much, but the rejection of him in country music was so weirdly passionate.”
Image: Lil Nas X/ Youtube
In thinking about the reception of Black artists in country music, she also examined Black fandom in country music, questioning why so many people feel divorced from the genre.
“I started thinking about fans and I started asking friends who were African American who were fans of country– or who kind of hinted that they might be–and I was really exploring sort of the sense of discomfort, even shame, around claiming country music.
“Country music has usually not really been part of the trajectory of what Black American performance is about. Country is usually never mentioned, or it might be a blip–it’s not there. So I was using histories and analysis and really trying to think, okay, why? Why is this genre of music not included or just thought of as not what black people do?”
For Professor Royster, who spent part of her childhood in Nashville and whose father was a musician, there’s a deeply personal connection to country music and the other genres often intersecting it. She grew up witnessing the evolution of country music and the experiments artists were making with the genre. County music was “in the water,” as she told me–there was no escaping it.
In talking about personal histories as they relate to her work, she also discussed with me her most recent book, Choosing Family: A Memoir of Queer Motherhood and Black Resistance. The book explores her own story as a mother in communication with other stories of motherhood within her family’s history and throughout the city of Chicago. With her memoir, she wanted to highlight the often-underrepresented experiences of people of color, especially queer women of color, in the adoption process. Something she noticed in her writing process was that there were not many resources aimed at women of color seeking to adopt, nor was there a lot of representation of adopted children with two mothers.
“All those particularities were things that shaped our experience as adoptive parents,” she said about her and her partner, “And then as I was writing the book, I really wanted to tease out the history of why those tensions are there.”
On top of being a published author and scholar, Francesca Royster is of course also an Honors professor. One of the classses she teaches, and one of the most popular offerings in all of Honors, is HON 301: LGBTQ+ Writers of Color. I asked her about the class, which she will be teaching next quarter, and what students can expect.
The class will cover writers from several different experiences and identities–poets and authors like Billy-Ray Belcourt, Gabby Rivera, and Janet Mock–and will incorporate personal creative writing, as well.
“I think it’s really great to create a space as we’re reading these writers for everyone’s story to be included and for students to really imagine themselves in conversation with these writers, and not just to think about the writers as distanced.”
In speaking about her work in Honors and her experience as a professor, I also wanted to ask Francesca Royster about how education, specifically an Honors education, can help students become better citizens. The Vincentian Mission is something DePaul and the Honors Program talk about frequently in terms of our own structure and practice, something that Dr. Royster certainly demonstrates in her own work.
“An education can give you a chance to really understand and connect on a much deeper level,” she told me.
“I love art because it can be a tool of like expression and healing and just connecting to each other. And so in a class, you can make art, you can learn about art, you can understand the role of art and history. It’s a way to really feel belonging and to have kind of just a more in depth sense of how history is lived every day.”
She said that she’s hopeful for DePaul’s Honors students because they’re developing the tools to tell their own stories and connect with others.
It was a pleasure meeting with Francesca Royster and hearing about her work and passions. Thank you, Professor, for everything you do for our community!
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