Writer | Professor | Vocalist | Vinyl DJ

I am currently under contract with The Feminist Press to write a biography about Betty Davis that will be published 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 to rent on Amazon Prime.

I am currently an Adjunct Professor at Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh where I teach Global Pop Music and World Music. I received my PhD in Ethnomusicology from 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 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 jazz fusion acts (Afro Yaqui Music Collective), reggae bands (Truth and Rites), hip hop artists (Brittney Chantele), neo-funk musicians (Matthew Alemore), and accomplished stage directors (Nathan Brewer). In 2019, I sang lead vocals on the first new song written and produced by Betty Davis in forty years - a sultry pop-hybrid of soul, blues, Latin, and jazz - called “A Little Bit Hot Tonight.”