| International Standard Book Number |
9780063280311 (hbk.)
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| International Standard Book Number |
0063280310 (hbk.)
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| Personal Name |
Lordi, Emily J., 1979- author.
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| Title Statement |
Holding lightning : the life, loves, and art of Whitney Houston / Emily Lordi.
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| Edition Statement |
First edition.
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| Production, Publication, Distribution, Manufacture, and Copyright Notice |
New York: Mariner Books, 2026.
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| Physical Description |
x, 315 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm.
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| Bibliography, Etc. Note |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [251]-295) and index.
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| Summary, Etc. |
"We remember Whitney Houston for her soaring voice on songs that defined a generation and kicked open the door to Black women in pop music. Her trademark stance was a picture of elegance and power: head thrown back, arms flung straight out. Then there was her sound. One producer recalled Whitney's otherworldly ability to hold notes, comparing it to "holding lightning in your hand, holding lightning in your throat." She tried to hold the lightning as she bathed us all in the glow. But since her death in 2012, the woman known as "The Voice" has been reduced to just that. Whitney's critics have slotted her memory into a tired genre of famous doomed women whose success owed more to their labels and their producers than to any agency of their own. Yet a closer look reveals a serious artist and woman of conviction striving to be who she was. She said it best: "There would beno 'Whitney Houston' without Whitney Houston." In Holding Lightning, leading cultural critic and professor Emily Lordi has gained unique access to Houston's innermost circle to show us the Whitney we've been unwilling to see -- her fluid sexuality, her unapologetic love ofher own talent, her insistence that she be the architect of her owncareer. And, crucially, Lordi positions Houston's pivotal life in the long history of Black celebrity. Before "rooting for everybody Black" became the norm, Whitney worked as a relentless advocate for Black female talent across the entertainment industry. Now, finally, in Holding Lightning, we have the essential, up-close portrait of theicon we thought we knew."-- Publisher description.
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| Summary, Etc. |
Holding Lightning is a biography of singer Whitney Houston that reexamines her life and career through her own agency and artistic vision. Drawing on access to Houston's close associates, Emily Lordi explores Houston's talent, career decisions, sexuality, and advocacy for Black women in entertainment, while situating her experiences within the broader history of Black celebrity culture. The book challenges narratives that portray Houston primarily as a victim of fame and instead presents her as a determined artist who shaped her own legacy.
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| Subject-Personal Name |
Houston, Whitney.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Singers United States Biography.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
African American women singers Biography.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Singers United States.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
African American women singers.
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| Index Term-Genre/Form |
Biographies.
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