“How did this get forgotten?” asks Jessica Hopper during a recent Grantland podcast, talking with Rembert Browne about the feature she did on R. Kelly’s sexual assault accusations in 2013, a now famous interview with Chicago reporter Jim DeRogatis who spent years reporting on the story. “It doesn’t leave much room for questions.” The exchange speaks to the urgency of the piece, one of many included in Hopper’s forthcoming anthology of reviews, interviews and features, literally titled The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic. It also speaks to Hopper’s tendency towards shining a light on forgotten and overlooked stories and voices as a feminist cultural critic, music writer, and editor over the past two decades, writing first for Punk Planet and eventually for Rolling Stone, GQ, and The Chicago Tribune. Hopper, whose now the Senior Editor at Pitchfork and was previously the Music Editor at Rookie, will be on tour this spring supporting of the book’s May 12 release on Chicago’s Featherproof Books. All dates are below.
Jessica Hopper book tour dates:
Tuesday, March 31 – Mission Creek Festival / Iowa City, IA
Monday, May 11 – WORD / Brooklyn, NY
Tuesday, May 12 – Flyleaf Books / Chapel Hill, NC
Wednesday, May 13 – Politics & Prose / Washington, DC (Brookland location) (w/ Washington Post’s Chris Richards)
Thursday, May 14 – Atomic Books / Baltimore, MD
Friday, May 15 – Book People / Austin, TX (w/ Amy Gentry)
Sunday, May 17 – Beacon Sound / Portland, OR
Monday, May 18 – Elliott Bay Book Company / Seattle, WA (w/ Sean Nelson)
Tuesday, May 19 – Skylight Books / Los Angeles, CA (w/ Grantland’s Molly Lambert)
Friday, May 29 – Quimby’s / Chicago, IL
