This chapter traces black womanhood in Ellison’s writing to posit that he deploys a distinctly sonic figural aesthetic in his depictions black women that resounds with yet understudied meaning. Given Ellison’s stylistic attention to sound and music, interrogating the roles of black women as producers, performers, interpreters and instructors of sound and music reveals novel insights about the complex gendered dynamics of Ellison’s oeuvre. Oscillating between Invisible Man, “The Little Man at Chehaw Station” and “As the Spirit Moves Mahalia,” this chapter charts the soundings of black women to theorize about their pivotal role in structuring Ellison’s most well-known works