February 20, 2002 Gerri Hirshey Discusses Her Book We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women in Rock at the Library of Congress March 13

As part of the Library of Congress's major initiative I Hear America Singing, the Music Division of the Library of Congress presents author, columnist, and contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine Gerri Hirshey, who will discuss and sign her book, We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women in Rock (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001). The discussion will take place in the Mumford Room, located on the sixth floor of the Library's James Madison Building, at 7 p.m., on Wednesday, March 13. The event is free, and no tickets are required.

I Hear America Singing celebrates the American musical heritage in a new Web site project that will provide free Internet access to the Library's unsurpassed musical treasures, through a database of recordings, reproductions of manuscripts and printed music, moving and still images, and discussions by scholars and performers. Lectures, master classes, symposia and other educational programs examine a national musical legacy that embraces a vast range of American musical expression -- from gospel, rhythm and blues and Celtic music to bluegrass, country, klezmer and rock and roll.

Rock and roll has traditionally been dominated by men. No matter the obstacles, however, some women were still drawn to life on the road, to the glamour of the stage, and to the need to make a joyful noise. Beginning in the early days with Bessie Smith, Mahalia Jackson, and Maybelle Carter, Gerri Hirshey takes readers on a wild ride through a century of popular music and the women who made it. Among her subjects are Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, the Ronettes, Joni Mitchell, Madonna, Whitney Houston and Lauren Hill.

Gerri Hirshey has written about the arts, fashion and popular culture as a columnist for The Washington Post and GQ, and as a feature writer for Vanity Fair and The New York Times Magazine. For nearly 20 years, she has been a contributing editor to Rolling Stone. She is also the author of Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music (1994, Da Capo Press; New York).