As if to be a successful woman before the the feminist revolution and a person of color before the civil rights movement weren’t hard enough in and of themselves, Margaret Bonds (March 3, 1913–April 26, 1972) was both. But despite the era’s cultural odds stacked against her success, she went on to become an exceptional pianist and composer and endures as a beacon in a creative field to this day dominated by white men. Born to a church-organist mother, Bonds began learning to play the pi...
