Writer | Professor | Vocalist | Vinyl DJ

I am currently under contract with The Feminist Press to write a biography about Betty Davis (forthcoming in 2027). Literary representation by United Talent Agency.

I am the liner notes author for Light In The Attic Record’s 2023 re-releases of Betty Davis’s albums: 1973’s Betty Davis, 1974’s They Say I’m Different, and 1979’s Crashin’ From Passion.

In 2016, I became the Associate Producer of Betty - They Say I'm Different (Native Voice Films, 2017), a documentary about Pittsburgh’s own Betty Davis. The film premiered in Amsterdam at IDFA in November of 2017 and had its US premier in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2018. It is currently available on Amazon Prime.

I received my PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Pittsburgh in 2020. My dissertation, “‘SoundProjector’: Reissuing, Representing, and Reclaiming the Music of Betty Davis,” used exclusive, in-depth ethnography to produce the first scholarly study of pioneering feminist funk musician Betty Davis.

My research interests include Black popular music, women in music history, the music industry, and both the cultures and practices associated with music collecting, curating and archiving. 

I am currently an Adjunct Professor at Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh where I teache Global Pop Music and World Music.

I am an avid vinyl enthusiast and enjoy DJing from my personal collection under the moniker Sauce Queen. I am also a vocalist who has performed with Truth and Rites, Brittney Chantele, and the Afro Yaqui Music Collective. Most recently, I sang lead vocals on the first new song written and produced by Betty Davis in forty years. As a creative team, Davis and I released “A Little Bit Hot Tonight” - a sultry pop-hybrid of soul, blues, Latin and jazz - on July 22nd, 2019.