Helga

Ethnomusicologist Fredara Hadley on Reckoning with the Past

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis, Fredara Hadley) — Tue, 2 Jul 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Fredara Hadley is an ethnomusicologist at The Juilliard School whose research focuses on the musical legacies of historically Black colleges and universities. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Billboard Magazine, the Journal of Popular Music Studies, and elsewhere.

In this episode, Hadley reflects on the unique contributions of musicians and music programs at HBCUs, the communal value of sacred spaces, and the need to reckon with culture when appreciating music.

Novelist Walter Mosley on Family and Forging His Own Path

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis, Walter Mosley) — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Acclaimed author Walter Mosley writes about the intricacies of Black livelihood by grounding science fiction and mystery in America’s turbulent social and racial climate. Decorated with the O. Henry Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Grammy, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Mosley is a testament to Black artistry. His works have been translated into 25 languages.

In this episode, Mosley discusses the release of his latest novel, “Farewell, Amethystine,” as well as the types of overlooked characters and stories he wants to celebrate in his novels. He also talks about the complicated relationship he had with his father, what it’s like to write about love, and shares the very first lines he wrote that made him realize he could be a writer.

Modern Love host Anna Martin on the Infinitude of Love

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis, Anna Martin) — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Anna Martin is the host of the New York Times’ immensely popular Modern Love podcast, where guests join to discuss the trials, triumphs, betrayals, and epiphanies of modern relationships.

In this episode, she joins Helga to discuss how love is perceived and expressed across cultures; the many different words for love across languages, and what it’s like to help others share their most important, formative, and vulnerable memories.

Author Letty Cottin Pogrebin on her Decades of Activism

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis, Letty Cottin Pogrebin) — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Author and activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin has been immersed for decades in the fight for gender equality and social justice. She co-founded Ms. Magazine, which played a pivotal role in the feminist movement of the 1970s, and served as president of the Authors Guild and as chair of Americans for Peace Now. She’s also authored a dozen books, co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus and the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, and earned an Emmy for her work on “Free To Be… You and Me,” a landmark early 1970s television special and album that encouraged social equality and acceptance between genders.

In this episode, Pogrebin discusses some of the pivotal moments that defined her political thinking, her feminism, and her understanding of Jewish tradition.

Journalist Jenna Flanagan on Local Politics and Seeking Truth

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis, Jenna Flanagan) — Tue, 4 Jun 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Journalist Jenna Flanagan has built a career championing the necessary conversations that drive community progress. She’s worked as a producer for the New York City-based AM radio news station 1010 WINS and WNYC’s All Things Considered, and as a co-host for the PBS show MetroFocus. Recently, she hosted the podcast “After Broad and Market,” which revisits the 2003 murder of 15-year-old Sakia Gunn — one of New Jersey’s first prosecuted queer hate crime homicides.

Here, Flanagan delves into the vital role of local news, the legacy of Black women in media, and her secrets to eliciting great stories from anyone.

Noliwe Rooks on Extending the Ethic of Care

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis, Noliwe Rooks) — Tue, 28 May 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Noliwe Rooks is a widely esteemed author and chair of Africana Studies at Brown University. A passionate advocate for education equality, Dr. Rooks has focused much of her work on the challenges that poor and African American communities face, particularly within the American public education system.

In this episode, Dr. Rooks talks about her family’s experiences with education inequality, its broader cultural context and impact, and the role that family and community play in fostering success at school.

Singer-songwriter Sampha on Fatherhood and Intuition

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis, Sampha) — Tue, 21 May 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Sampha is a leading British singer-songwriter and producer within the neo-soul and alternative R&B scenes, his music a seductive blend of meditative, confessional lyrics and intricate, genre-spanning production. Active since the mid-2000s, he’s well known for his collaborations with artists like Solange Knowles, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Drake, and many others; a songwriter in his own right, his debut solo album, “Process,” won England’s prestigious Mercury Prize for best album in 2017.

In this episode, Sampha discusses fatherhood, family dynamics, and the images that inspired his second album, “Lahai.” He also speaks openly about trusting his intuition in art and life.

Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks on Self-Worth and Loving the Grind

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Suzan-Lori Parks, Helga Davis) — Tue, 14 May 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Suzan-Lori Parks is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. Parks was the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Drama with her 2002 play, “Topdog/Underdog,” and in 2023, she was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.

In this episode, Parks discusses her bold idea to write a one-act play each day for an entire year. She shares her views on storytelling, resilience, and family, and she breaks out her guitar to give a sample of one of her original songs.

Scholar Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo on the Joys of Nerd Rap

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis) — Tue, 7 May 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo is a scholar and professor of music at Brown University who also performs as the dynamic rapper and producer Sammus. Sammus explores themes of anxiety, awkwardness, Afro-futurism, and activism in three full-length albums, three EPs, a beat tape, and several collaborations with notable artists.

As a Brown Practitioner Fellow, Lumumba-Kasongo’s research expands the bounds of Black feminist sound and hip-hop studies. In this episode, Lumumba-Kasongo talks about how she crafted “elsewhere spaces” in her childhood, where she dreamt up cartoons, video games, and music — which in turn helped her to navigate nervousness. She also shares how she learned to reconcile her love of being an unapologetic nerd with her drive to be an M.C., and what it means to show up as a socially conscious artist, both individually and as a member of her generation.

LANGUAGE ADVISORY: This episode of HELGA contains the use of a racial slur in the context of a conversation about using that word in a musical setting. Listener discretion is advised.

Designer Tremaine Emory on Validation in Consumer Culture

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis, Tremaine Emory) — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Tremaine Emory is a visionary fashion designer. Once the creative director at the streetwear brand Supreme, he co-founded his own brand, Denim Tears, which aims to tell the stories of the African Diaspora through fashion. His work has been recognized widely for its bold originality and counter-cultural drive. In this episode, Emory talks about the psychology of how we validate ourselves in consumer culture; the layers of history held in terms of Black self-identification; and what it means to reshape the world into a place visibly different and more aware than it was before.

LANGUAGE ADVISORY: This episode contains strong language, including the use of the n-word during the second half of the episode in the context of a conversation about the word and different perspectives on the appropriateness of its use. Listener discretion is advised.

Scroll below to learn more about the artists and references that came up in conversation:

Supreme: An American clothing and skateboarding lifestyle brand established in New York City in April 1994. Supreme is recognized for its influence on streetwear culture, with products that cater to skateboarding and urban fashion trends.

Denim Tears: Founded in 2019 by designer and aesthete Tremaine Emory, each collection tells a story, revealing what the brand’s founder calls the African Diaspora. Denim Tears’ approach to heritage and design has earned its place in The Met Costume Institute in New York’s permanent collection.

Jim Crow: Name of the racial caste system that operated primarily, but not exclusively, in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. It was a series of rigid anti-black laws that relegated African Americans to the status of second-class citizens by legitimizing anti-black racism.

James Jebbia: An American-British businessman, fashion designer, and former child actor. He is the founder of Supreme ad UNION.

UNION LA: Jebbia (along with his then-partner Mary Ann Fusco) opened up UNION in 1989. It was far from the purveyor of sub-rosa Japanese brands, Marni, with influences from hip-hop.

The Sandlot: A 1993 American coming-of-age sports comedy film co-written, directed, and narrated by David Mickey Evans. It tells the story of a group of young baseball players during the summer of 1962.

Boyz n the Hood: A 1991 American coming-of-age hood crime drama film written and directed by John Singleton in his feature directorial debut. Follows the lives of three young males living in the Crenshaw ghetto of Los Angeles, dissecting questions of race, relationships, violence, and future prospects.

The Wire: An American crime drama television series created and primarily written by former police reporter David Simon. The show explores Baltimore, Maryland's drug scene, as seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement.

Jam Master Jay: An American rap musician and producer who was a member of Run-DMC, the first rap group to attract a worldwide audience. The group is credited with bringing hip-hop into the cultural mainstream.

George Floyd: A Black man whose videotaped death under the knee of a white police officer sparked protests in 2020, including some of the largest street demonstrations in U.S. history.

bell hooks: An American scholar, author, poet, feminist, cultural critic, and activist whose work examined the connections between race, gender, class, sexuality and geographic place.

Brexit: The withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Following Brexit, EU law and the Court of Justice of the European Union no longer have primacy over British laws.

Black Panthers: Founded in October 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. It was a revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality. The Panthers eventually developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that called for the arming of all African Americans, the exemption of African Americans from the draft and from all sanctions of so-called white America, the release of all African Americans from jail, and the payment of compensation to African Americans for centuries of exploitation by white Americans.

James Baldwin: An essayist, novelist, and playwright whose work distinguished him as a voice of human equality. Baldwin was a well-known public figure and orator, especially during the civil rights movement in the United States.

Warner Music Group: An American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the global music industry, after Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME).

Comtel Pro: Sells recording and film tools to film makers, music creators, data content technicians, and engineers of every imaginable media.

RICO Laws: The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a federal law passed in 1970 (codified at 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-68) targeting organized criminal activity and racketeering. RICO enhances existing criminal punishments and creates new causes of action for acts done as a part of an organized criminal enterprise.

Gordon Gekko: Gordon Gekko is a fictional character who appears as the villain in the popular 1987 Oliver Stone movie "Wall Street" and its 2010 sequel "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." The character, a ruthless and wildly wealthy investor and corporate raider, has become a cultural symbol for greed,

Francis Ford Coppola: An Italian American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood film movement of the 1960s and 1970s and is widely considered one of the greatest directors of all time.

Biggie Smalls (The Notorious B.I.G.): Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie, is a revered hip-hop artist and face of East Coast gangsta rap. He was shot and killed on March 9, 1997.

Virgil Abloh: An American designer, architect, and entrepreneur. Abloh founded Pyrex Vision and later became the chief executive officer of the Milan-based label Off-White, a fashion house he founded in 2013. In 2018, Abloh became the creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear.

Spike Lee: Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work explores race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary life, urban crime and poverty, and other political issues. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983.

Julie Dash: An American filmmaker, music video and commercial director, author, and website producer. Dash broke racial and gender boundaries with her Sundance award-winning film (Best Cinematography) Daughters of the Dust. She became the first African American woman to have a wide theatrical release of her feature film.

Mario Van Peebles: An American film director and actor best known for appearing in ‘Heartbreak Ridge’ in 1986 and known for directing and starring in ‘New Jack City’ in 1991 and ‘USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage’ in 2016.

Director Whitney White on Depth and the Magic of Theater

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis, Whitney White) — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Whitney White is an actor, singer, Obie Award winner, and winner of the Lilly Award, which recognizes extraordinary women in theater. White has directed productions of James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner; Aleshea Harris’ What to Send Up When It Goes Down, a work about the victims of racialized violence; and Jocelyn Bioh’s Broadway play Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. She also directed productions of Shakespeare’s Richard III and Othello. In this episode, White shares how powerful moments on stage often originate in the body, not the mind. She also talks about how she preserves her inner self amidst the demands of large-scale productions, and what it means to embrace and live in her full self.

Singer Brittany Howard on Creative Rebirth and Spirituality

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis, Brittany Howard) — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Singer-songwriter Brittany Howard, former lead singer and guitarist of the Grammy Award-winning Alabama Shakes, is now a spectacular and charismatic solo artist. Brittany joins Helga in the studio following the release of her second solo album, What Now, to offer a deep-dive into her personal and artistic life. She discusses her early experiences with grief and its impact on her creative awakening; her stages of self-discovery and the importance of therapy as a critical aspect of mental health; and how she balances her many musical forms with her understanding of authenticity, spirituality and passion.

Helga Returns For A Sixth Season!

wnycdigital@gmail.com (Helga Davis) — Tue, 9 Apr 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Get ready for a new season of fearless conversations that reveal the extraordinary in all of us.

Critically acclaimed actress, singer, writer and composer Helga Davis returns for a new season of soulful conversations with artists and thinkers from a variety of disciplines, including Brittany Howard, Whitney White, Tremaine Emory, Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, Suzan-Lori Parks, Noliwe Rooks and Sampha.

In each episode, Davis and her guest share stories of struggle and resilience, challenges and victories along their creative journeys, providing inspiration and hope to listeners. Unique in the audio landscape for the depth of inquiry and emotional vulnerability, HELGA’s thought-provoking conversations offer to expand our collective perspective on the human condition and the daily stressors of the world today. And each episode leaves listeners with something practical and practice-able: an idea for something they can do everyday to help them stay in touch with their own humanity and creativity, whatever form it may take.

Season six is the second season co-produced by WNYC Studios, WQXR and the Brown Arts Institute at Brown University.

Video artist Arthur Jafa on actualizing Black potential, part 2

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 7 Feb 2023 15:38:09 +0000

Black people know this: There’s a difference between what you say and what you mean. It’s been a matter of survival for us.

For over 30 years, American visual artist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa has captured the histories and experiences of Black Americans with projects that exemplify both the universal and particular facets of Black life.

In the second part of this masterclass in Black thought, Jafa continues his free-from improvisation through his breadth of knowledge and understanding of visual culture — embedded with all the references, rhetorics, and personal reflections of someone who has spent a lifetime dedicated to centralizing the varied experiences of Black Being.

Video artist Arthur Jafa on actualizing Black potential, part 1

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 17:00:00 +0000

"I don't want to be the prisoner in a box, even if it's a box I made."

In this masterclass in Black thought — the first episode in a two-part series — Jafa shares a free-from improvisation through his breadth of knowledge and understanding of visual culture — embedded with all the references, rhetorics, and personal reflections of someone who has spent a lifetime dedicated to centralizing the varied experiences of Black Being.

LANGUAGE ADVISORY: This episode contains some strong language, including the use of a racial slur in the context of summarizing what the speakers have heard, felt, and experienced in their lives. Listener discretion is advised.

If you'd like to learn more about the artists and references in this episode, please see below:

Ultralight Beam - Kanye West

Love is the Message, The Message is Death - Arthur Jafa

Writer Macarena Gómez-Barris on finding beauty in ambiguity

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 17:00:00 +0000

This [term] 'femme' becomes more possible to me as a figure for not just embodiment, but for thought, action, engagement, connection.

Macarena Goméz-Barris is Professor and Chair of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, founder of the Global South Center at Pratt Institute, an organization which supports artists, activists, and scholars in their efforts to decolonialize local and global communities.

In this episode, Goméz-Barris talks about how one can and must find beauty in the most ambiguous of places, how she uses the word “femme” to escape the embattled histories of the word “female," and how she has—and hasn’t—moved on from a traumatic early swimming lesson with her father.

References:

Constantine Petrou Cavafy

Waiting for the Barbarians

Audre Lorde

Uses of the Erotic, The Erotic is Power

Saidiya Hartman

Octavia E. Butler

Parable of the Talents

Silhouettist Kara Walker on early fame and symbols of Black servitude

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 14:37:36 +0000

There are whole histories of African American artists wrestling with stereotypical depictions and minstrelsy - and it seemed worthy anyway to me as an artist to consider them as some kind of artwork.

American painter and silhouettist Kara Walker rose to international acclaim at the age of 28 as one of the youngest-ever recipients of a MacArthur Genius grant. Appearing in exhibitions, museums, and public collections worldwide, Walker’s work wrestles with the ongoing psychological injury caused by the legacy of slavery.

In this episode, Walker shares how she navigates her own inner conflicts, how a curiosity for history led her to the silhouette, and what happens when making use of symbols of Black servitude brings one acclaim.

References:

Buster Browns

RISD - Rhode Island School of Design

My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love

University of the Pacific

Robert Wilson

Einstein on the Beach

Stanley Whitney

Glen Ligon

Kehinde Wiley

Smithsonian director Kevin Young on the power of unexpected transformations

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 17:00:00 +0000

I like to say we're living in a precedent time, not an unprecedented one. How do we understand that? Being at the museum or writing histories both in poetry and in non-fiction are ways of trying to understand that.

“Gatekeepers” hold an essential role in our culture as those in positions of power who determine what we see and hear — and therefore how we understand our world. The poet Kevin Young holds dual gatekeeping roles as both director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture as well as the poetry editor for The New Yorker magazine.

In this episode, Young talks about how he holds these responsibilities and likens reading a poem to entering into a museum. He also shares his belief in the power of unexpected transformations, which songs have brought him comfort, and how it’s always easiest to write about the place you’ve just left.

References:

Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture

Public Enemy

Chuck D

Parliament Funkadelic

African American Vernacular English

Sister Sonya Sanchez

Langston Hughes

Gwendolyn Brooks

Harriet Tubman's shawl

David Hammonds’ African American Flag

Willie Nelson

Earth, Wind and Fire

John Coltrane's Love Supreme

I Want You - Marvin Gay

Mary Lou Williams

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Make Good the Promises

Ida B. Wells

Book of Hours - Kevin Young

Stones - Kevin Young

Sociologist Tricia Rose on hip-hop as a global profit powerhouse

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 3 Jan 2023 17:00:00 +0000

It’s hard when you try to talk across racial groups about race ... I do believe that there's a better chance of them getting further if we can create spaces of both accountability and connection.

Tricia Rose is a pioneering scholar in the field of hip-hop, Chancellor's Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, co-host with Cornel West of “The Tight Rope” podcast, and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America.

In this episode, Rose discusses how she balances her love of the early days of hip-hop with the global profit powerhouse it has become, the beauty of chaos, and how essential it is to build safe, stable communities at a time when everything is being done to isolate and separate.

References:

Fannie Lou Hamer

Clarence Thomas

Tightrope with Cornell West

Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America

Visual artist Carrie Mae Weems on grace and inclusion

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000

Within seriousness, there's little room for play, but within play there's tremendous room for seriousness. It's through the act of serious play that wonderful ideas are born.

Carrie Mae Weems is one of today’s most influential and generous contemporary American artists, as devoted to her own craft as she is to introducing other artists into the world. Her photography and diverse visual media has won her numerous awards including the Rome Prize, a MacArthur genius grant, and four honorary doctorates, and she was even named one of the 100 most influential women of all time by Ebony magazine.

In this episode, Weems explores the struggles artists must maintain to find balance and reach an audience, how the field cannot advance without the deep and profound inclusion of Black artists, and what the concept of “grace” means to her and her mother.

References:

Dawoud Bey

The Black Photographers Annual

Langston Hughes's ‘Black Nativity’

Cassandra Myth

Choreographer Bill T. Jones on the violence within seduction

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000

I knew that there was a power I had when I stripped off my shirt and looked you in the eye as I moved my hips. But I also knew the other side of that attraction to me was the impulse to kill me.

Legendary dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones has made a career of engaging his audience with brutal, unapologetic honesty. His seductive work has grappled with provocative political issues ranging from sexuality, race, and censorship to power and the AIDS epidemic — while also innovating in the expressive possibilities of movement itself.

In this episode, Jones talks about what it meant to grow up as a “Black Yankee” in the 1950s and 1960s and as one of 12 children. He also reflects on the adjacency of violence to the power of seduction, and how, after decades as a performing artist, the body may retire but the mind never will.

References:

Jazz vocalist Somi on finding your voice

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000

Once I could feel grounded in an East African context and value who I am in an American context - suddenly it was so apparent that music was where I was supposed to be.

The dynamic, ascendant jazz singer Somi has been celebrated for her artistry as much as her activism. She became the first African woman ever nominated in any of the Grammy’s Jazz categories last year, and she has performed at the United Nations’ General Assembly by invitation from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

Somi describes herself as a “East African Midwestern girl who loves family, poetry, and freedom” and yet hers is a story of survival, adversity, and transformation. In this episode, she discusses what happens when a teacher steals your joy, the power of a meditative practice that connects her to her ancestors, and how she is still finding her voice.

References:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

Miriam Makeba

The Babiito and Bunyoro-Batooro people

Curtis Institute of Music

‘Dreaming Zenzile:’ Somi Kakoma and Miriam Makeba

Zap Mama

Musician Bartees Strange on indie music’s overlooked audiences

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 6 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000

Even with his surging popularity in indie and rock scenes, Bartees Strange strives to bring his music to unexpected audiences and to tease apart the racial boundaries between them. He reckons with the concept of what it means to write music for the kids who are not seen, heard, or cared about.

In this episode, Strange talks about growing up on a military base in England, working in the labor and climate movements in D.C., and how seeing an appearance by TV on the Radio on the Late Show with David Letterman was the cheat code for writing his own music.

LANGUAGE ADVISORY: This episode of HELGA contains the use of a racial slur in the context of a conversation about using that word in a musical setting. Listener discretion is advised.

See below for more information on the artists and other references in this episode:

NSYNC

Backstreet Boys

Cleopatra (Group)

"Cleopatra Comin At Ya"

50 Cent

Get Rich Or Die Tryin

”Super Spirit” by Junie Morrison and George Clinton

Painter Glenn Ligon on the value of difference

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 17:00:00 +0000

Usually the things that are the farthest out — that look the least like art to me — are the things that become the most important.

American painter Glenn Ligon is one of the most recognizable figures in the contemporary art scene. His distinctive, political work uses repetition and transformation to abstract the texts of 20th-century writers.

In this episode, Ligon talks about childhood and what it means to have a parent who fiercely and playfully supports you. He also discusses the essential lesson that there’s value in the things you do differently, and why he won’t take an afternoon nap in his own studio.

References:

Mike D - Beastie Boys

Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner

Davóne Tines

Chris Ofili

Henry Threadgill

Frédéric Bruly Bouabré

“How It Feels to Be Colored Me”

Saidiya Hartman

Fred Moten

Jason Moran

Poet Claudia Rankine on power and democracy

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 17:00:00 +0000

There are times in life when you need to be able to live in the vision, where you are making a leap of faith into something unknowable.

Claudia Rankine is a professor of the Creative Writing Program at New York University, a recipient of fellowships from the MacArthur, Guggenheim, and National Endowment of the Arts, and one of the most celebrated writers of our time.

In this episode, Rankine talks about who holds the power in our democracy and what it means to earn a mother’s understanding of your work. She also reveals her superpower and the advice she would offer everyone who looks for fresh inspiration.

References

“Ain't Nobody Got Time For That”

“Animal Joy” by Nuar Alsadir

Robert Wilson and Bernice Johnson Reagon's “The Temptation of St. Anthony”

Playwright Michael R. Jackson on risk and fearlessness

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 17:00:00 +0000

'Safe' also has another connotation of being not willing to take risks or to push a boundary.

Michael R. Jackson is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Strange Loop, a play into which he poured almost 20 years of self-investigation. He’s also fresh from a Tony Award for Best New Musical as well as being named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022.

In this episode, Jackson talks about what it means to be fearless as an artist, the lies of our “if this, then that” culture, and how the illusion of identity is a powerful means to foster understanding.

References:

"A Strange Loop"

Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People of 2022"

"When We All Get to Heaven"

Helga Season 5 Trailer

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 17:00:00 +0000

Artist, performer, and host Helga Davis brings a soulful curiosity and love of people to the podcast Helga, where she talks about the intimate lives of creative people as they share the steps they’ve taken along their path. She draws listeners into these discussions with cultural change-makers, whether already famous or rising talents, whose sensibilities expand our imaginations as we explore what we think we know about each other.

The new season of Helga is a co-production of WNYC Studios and the Brown Arts Institute at Brown University. WNYC Studios is a listener-supported producer of other leading podcasts including Radiolab, On the Media, and Death, Sex & Money. The Brown Arts Institute at Brown University is a new university-wide research enterprise and catalyst for the arts at Brown that creates new work and supports, amplifies, and adds new dimensions to the creative practices of Brown’s arts departments, faculty, students, and community.

The Armory Youth Corps

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 16:00:00 +0000

"We’re struggling. Our generation is trying to cope. Life is crazy."

On this final episode of Helga: The Armory Conversations, I look to this next generation of artists. Three participants in Park Avenue Armory’s Youth Corps program, playwright Wilson Castro, visual artist Raven Garcia, and photographer Biviana Sanchez, sat down with me and as we made a space together, we experienced what it means to be vulnerable with oneself and with each other.

The Youth Corps Program immerses students in the art and creative processes of the Armory’s artists through paid, mentored, project-oriented internships. Starting in high school, the Youth Corps provides a test audience to the Armory Artist Corps during the lesson design process, offering feedback from a student perspective, serves as Front of House staff for all Armory events, assists in administrative projects in all departments, and completes and presents a term project. Building on this foundation and responding directly to student needs, the program also includes a post-secondary phase, including strategies to promote college persistence, professional development, and student leadership.

K. Anthony Jones

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 16:00:00 +0000

"I want to push those limitations. Push them."

Researcher, writer and critic K. Anthony Jones discusses what it means to make your own way and how to carve a path where one does not exist.

K. Anthony Jones researches and writes on the history, theory, and criticism of late modern art and architecture. His research interests include the media cultures of the Cold War; modernism and war; art and globalization; science and technology studies; visual culture; critical race theory; political anthropology; imperialism; postcolonial studies; art and technology; methods of historiography; and archival science.

Jones received a Master in Design Studies degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2020; and a Bachelor of Art degree from Morehouse College in Sociology in 2010.

And here are 5 books that offer a glimpse into his world:

1. The House That Race Built: Original Essays by Toni Morrison, Angela Y. Davis, Cornel West, and Others on Black Americans and Politics in America Today by Wahneema Lubiano

2. Home by Toni Morrison

3. The Middle Passage: White Ships / Black Cargo by Tom Feelings

4. Taryn Simon: The Color of a Flea’s Eye: The Picture Collection by Taryn Simon (Author, Photographer), Joshua Chuang (Author), Tim Griffin (Author)

5. The People Could Fly: Black American Folktales by Virginia Hamilton (Author) Leo Dillon (Illustrator), Diane Dillon Ph.D. (Illustrator)

Antwaun Sargent

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 16:00:00 +0000

“There’s a real potential in art making to have someone reassess everything that they had thought about a history.”

Curator, critic and writer, Antwaun Sargent engages Helga in a discussion around the motivations behind his work as a curator and the circuitous path that led him to a life in and around art.

Antwaun Sargent is writer, editor and curator living in New York City. Sargent is the author of “The New BlackVanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion” (Aperture) and the editor of “Young, Gifted andBlack: A New Generation of Artists” (DAP). Recently, he was hired as a director at Gagosian Gallery.

The Coda includes a reading from "Notes On Social Works" by Antwaun Sargent.”

Deborah Archer

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 8 Sep 2021 16:00:00 +0000

“It was so important to be apart of community. To find strength in each other. To know that on the days when I can’t move forward, someone is going to take up the baton and move forward for me. “

Professor, Lawyer and ACLU President Deborah Archer sat down to speak with me about some of her earliest moments and how they shaped her desire to fight for equality.

Deborah N. Archer is a Professor of Clinical Law and Co-Faculty Director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU School of Law. Deborah is also the President of the ACLU and a leading expert in civil rights, civil liberties, and racial justice. She is an award-winning teacher and legal scholar whose articles have appeared in leading law reviews. Deborah has also offered commentary for numerous media outlets, including MSNBC, National Public Radio, CBS, Monocle, The Atlantic, and The New York Times.

Deborah previously worked as an attorney with the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., where she litigated in the areas of voting rights, employment discrimination, and school desegregation. Deborah is also a former chair of the American Association of Law School's Section on Civil Rights and the Section on Minority Groups. She previously served as Chair of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, the nation’s oldest and largest police oversight agency.

Liliana Maria Percy Ruíz

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 1 Sep 2021 16:00:00 +0000

“That's been one of the hardest things to really heal from. Has been the grief of knowing that my choices and the way that I live my life, which I love means that I am isolated from my community.”

Liliana Maria Percy Ruíz, radio producer and founding member of On Being with Krista Tippett sat down to talk about identity, her definition of faith and the complexities of family.

Born in Cali, Colombia, Liliana Maria Percy Ruíz immigrated to Miami with her family at the age of four. She studied English Literature and Film Studies at Florida International University.

Liliana Maria has worked as an associate editor at MovieMaker magazine, and as a producer for StoryCorps and NPR’s “All Things Considered” on the weekends, where she produced the series “Movies I’ve Seen A Million Times.” In 2012, she received the Religion Newswriters Association Radio/Podcast Religion Report of the Year Award for her profile of four Roman Catholic Womenpriests.

Liliana Maria was one of the founding team of four of the On Being Project. During her time at the OBP, she was the Executive Producer of On Being Studios, where she produced the national public radio show and podcast, On Being with Krista Tippett, as well as created the podcasts Poetry Unbound and This Movie Changed Me, which she also hosted.

Liliana Maria proudly serves on the board of Centro Tyrone Guzman, the oldest and largest multi-service Latino organization in Minneapolis.

Jad Abumrad

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 16:00:00 +0000

"The positioning of being kind of on the edge of the room looking in? That's the position of a journalist."

Jad Abumrad, co-Host and creator of Radiolab, joined Helga to talk about the beginnings of his career, the impact of family and how he works with doubt.

The son of a scientist and a doctor, Jad Abumrad did most of his growing up in Tennessee, before studying creative writing and music composition at Oberlin College in Ohio. Following graduation, Abumrad wrote music for films, and reported and produced documentaries for a variety of local and national public radio programs, including On The Media, Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen, Morning Edition, All Things Considered and WNYC's "24 Hours at the Edge of Ground Zero."

While working on staff at WNYC, Abumrad began tinkering with an idea for a new kind of radio program. That idea evolved into one of public radio’s most popular shows today – Radiolab. Abumrad hosts the program with Robert Krulwich and also serves as one of its producers. The program won the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and explores big questions in science, philosophy and mankind. Under Abumrad’s direction, the show uses a combination of deep-dive journalism, narrative storytelling, dialogue and music to craft compositions of exploration and discovery. Radiolab podcasts are downloaded over 10 million times each month and the program is carried on more than 500 stations across the nation and internationally.

Abumrad is also the Executive Producer and creator of Radiolab's More Perfect, a podcast that explores how cases deliberated inside the rarefied world of the Supreme Court affect our lives far away from the bench.

Abumrad was honored as a 2011 MacArthur Fellow (also known as the Genius Grant). The MacArthur Foundation website says: “Abumrad is inspiring boundless curiosity within a new generation of listeners and experimenting with sound to find ever more effective and entertaining ways to explain ideas and tell a story.”

Abumrad also produced and hosted The Ring & I, an insightful, funny, and lyrical look at the enduring power of Wagner's Ring Cycle. It aired nationally and internationally and earned ten awards, including the prestigious 2005 National Headliner Grand Award in Radio.

Davóne Tines

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 16:00:00 +0000

"It split me. In one instance it split me in two. Because I had never thought of using my different voices to do different things."

Opera singer Davóne Tines joined Helga to talk about his path towards a career in classical music, how he's tried to bring his whole self to his work and the impact of feeling like he can't.

Davóne Tines is a pathbreaking artist whose work not only encompasses a diverse repertoire, from early music to new commissions by leading composers, but also explores today’s pressing social issues through work that blends opera, art song, contemporary classical, spirituals, gospel, and songs of protest, as a means to tell a deeply personal story of perseverance that connects to all of humanity. Mr. Tines is the recipient of the 2020 Sphinx Medal of Excellence in recognition of extraordinary classical musicians of color and one of Lincoln Center’s 2018 Emerging Artists.

Karen Finley

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 16:00:00 +0000

"I love to hear humans just gathering and talking and being and making lots of noise. I like to do that too...just being, and making yourself known and present."

Author and performing artist Karen Finley spoke with Helga Davis about the evolution of her early work and what she wants to give her audience now.

Karen Finley is an artist, performer, and author. She is an interdisciplinary artist working in performance, text, sound, music, poetics, film and video, installation, public and social practice art. Born in Chicago she received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her raw and transgressive performances have brought debate, censorship and controversy.

Finley was the named plaintiff for the Supreme Court case Finley v. NEA that challenged the decency provision in government grants to artists through the National Endowment for the Arts. Her performances and visual art have been presented internationally such as the Barbican in London, Lincoln Center, New York City, MOMA, the Bobino in Paris, amongst others. Finley is interested in freedom of expression concerns, social justice, gender and sexuality, visual culture, art education, metaphysics and lectures, and gives workshops widely.

She is the author of nine books, including her latest, Grabbing Pussy ( OR Books 2018) and the 25th anniversary edition of Shock Treatment by City Lights. Reality Shows Feminist Press 2010) A recipient of many awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, she is an arts professor in Art and Public Policy at New York University.

Follow her on Instagram @the_yam_mam

Karen Finley is a commissioned artist featured in the Armory’s 100 Years |100 Women Project.

The Coda includes a reading of "Pussy Speak Out" from Grabbing Pussy by Karen Finley.

Jason Reynolds

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 4 Aug 2021 16:00:00 +0000

“Everything I know about gender politics or gender identity as it's changed and continues to change and shift and be named in all these glorious and intricate ways, have come from 16 year-olds. Thank God for them.”

Youth author Jason Reynolds joined Helga Davis to talk about what it means to make work during the pandemic and how important it is to make space for the next generation.

Jason Reynolds is an award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author. Jason’s many books include Miles Morales: Spider Man, the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu), Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Correta Scott King Honor, and Look Both Ways, which was a National Book Award Finalist. His latest book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, is a collaboration with Ibram X. Kendi. Jason is the 2020-2021 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and CBS This Morning. He is on faculty at Lesley University, for the Writing for Young People MFA Program and lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.

Tina Campt

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 16:00:00 +0000

"How exactly do we listen to images? We listen by feeling. We listen by attending to what I call 'felt sound'."

Helga Davis invites Scholar and Author Tina Campt to explore her relationship to her practice and her family, centering the conversation on the power and pleasure of listening to images.

Tina L. Campt is Owen F. Walker Professor of Humanities and Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. Campt is a black feminist theorist of visual culture and contemporary art. She leads the Black Visualities Initiative at the Cogut Institute for Humanities and is the founding convenor of the Practicing Refusal Collective. Campt is the author of three books: Other Germans: Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender and Memory in the Third Reich(University Michigan Press, 2004), Image Matters: Archive, Photography and the African Diaspora in Europe (Duke University Press, 2012), Listening to Images (Duke University Press, 2017), and most recently, A Black Gaze (MIT Press, 2021). She has held faculty positions at the Technical University of Berlin, the University of California, Santa Cruz, Duke University, and Barnard College, and currently serves as a Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre at the University of Johannesburg.

Professor Tina Campt has provided scholarly advice and inspiration for many Park Avenue Armory Public Programs over the past six years, most recently as a Keynote Speaker for Theaster Gates’s Black Artist Retreat and advisor to the collaborative project 100 Years | 100 Women.

"The Coda" includes a reading from A Black Gaze by Tina Campt.

Marilee Talkington

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 16:00:00 +0000

"I’m curious about how we work. Why we’re here. What we’re doing to each other, with each other. And I know on a fundamental level that I am so much more capable than I can imagine."

Actress & Disability Advocate Marilee Talkington sat down with Helga Davis to talk about her journey towards a life in theater, how she continues to innovate in that space as a low vision actress, and how important it is to be a resource and voice for her community.

Marilee Talkington is a professional actor, writer, director, and filmmaker. She is also an activist and thought leader in the Disability Justice and Arts movement and is the Founder and Executive Director of Access Acting Academy, which is a 1st-of-its-kind professional actor training studio for blind and low vision actors. She is one of the 1st legally blind women in the United States to earn an M.F.A. in Acting (American Conservatory Theater) and has originated over 80 characters on stage and screen with leading roles at Tony Award winning theaters under the direction of Broadway directors. She has also recurred and guest starred on multiple television shows on NBC, CBS, CW, and Apple TV+.

Marilee is a MacDowell Fellow, California Center for Cultural Innovation Grantee, Winner of the A.C.T. Carol Channing Trouper Award for dedication and excellence, a recipient of the 2020 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award, one of Park Armory's Artist/Activist 100 years / 100 women, and most recently the voice at the Guggenheim museum that describes the approach to the architectural masterpiece.

www.marileetalkington.com | www.accessacting.com | imdb.me/marileetalkington | @anartistwarrior

Marilee Talkington is a commissioned artist of Park Avenue Armory’s collaborative project 100 Years |100 Women.

The Coda features a new work titled, "The Experiment" in collaboration with Marilee Talkington and Helga Davis.

Nick Cave

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 16:00:00 +0000

"When I look outside, when I go to the front door. That is my new canvas. Today. It's not really what happens in the studio. It's what happens outside of the studio."

Visual Artist Nick Cave joins Helga Davis to talk about the evolution of his sculptural work, his community collaborations, and how to move from Black sorrow to Black excellence.

Nick Cave (b. 1959, Fulton, MO; lives and works in Chicago, IL) is an artist, educator and foremost a messenger, working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video, sound and performance.

Cave is well known for his Soundsuits, sculptural forms based on the scale of his body, initially created in direct response to the police beating of Rodney King in 1991.

Soundsuits camouflage the body, masking and creating a second skin that conceals race, gender and class, forcing the viewer to look without judgment. They serve as a visual embodiment of social justice that represent both brutality and empowerment.

The Let Go, Cave’s Park Avenue Armory Commission, premiered in June 2018.

Helga: The Armory Conversations Season 4 Trailer

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 7 Jul 2021 16:00:00 +0000

Artist, performer and host Helga Davis brings a soulful curiosity and love of people to the podcast Helga: The Armory Conversations. This season, in partnership with Park Avenue Armory, she continues to draw the listener into her profound and intimate conversations with creative people, famous and lesser known.

Artists, scholars, and cultural change-makers join her to share the steps they’ve taken along their paths. Where they started, where they are and where they’re going next.

These inspiring conversations expand our world and our imaginations as we explore what we think we know about each other.

Esperanza Spalding

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Fri, 8 May 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Musician, teacher, community member, and caster of musical spells, Esperanza Spalding joins Helga mere weeks before her most recent Grammy win to talk about what it means to truly be a part of a community and how to find the “the yum” in things.

Subscribe to Helga, wherever you get your podcasts.

Elizabeth Alexander

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 5 May 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Poet and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation President, Elizabeth Alexander joins Helga to talk about what it means to live a life alongside words, how we maintain relationships with one another, and what the world looks like after loss.

Subscribe to Helga, wherever you get your podcasts.

Ranky Tanky

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Fri, 1 May 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Guitarist Clay Ross and Charlton Singleton are 2/5th of the Gullah band, Ranky Tanky. As they bring that music and its history forward into the present day, most recently on the Grammy stage, they wrestle with what it means to the communities they come from and what the art form can be in the future.

Subscribe to Helga, wherever you get your podcasts.

Maury Rubin

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Pastry Chef, Maury Rubin, is the owner of well-known New York establishment City Bakery. He joins us just a few months after it shuttered to talk about his unexpected foray into pastry, how he made a place for himself in New York and what this next season of life might bring.

Subscribe to Helga, wherever you get your podcasts.

Judy Collins

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Musician and activist Judy Collins shares the story of her decades long career in music. Alongside loss and addiction she maintains a clarity of voice, of passion and of vision as a conduit for the music.

Subscribe to Helga, wherever you get your podcasts.

Bethann Hardison

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Activist, entrepreneur, and former model Bethann Hardison recounts moments from her unconventional life. She shares personal stories from the past 60 years in the fashion industry and how she sought to hold the powers that be accountable for their actions.

Subscribe to Helga, wherever you get your podcasts.

Stanley Whitney

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Visual artist and colorist, Stanley Whitney talks about his life as an artist and as a person. He uncovers what it means to be a black abstract painter, firmly rooted in the United States.

Subscribe to Helga, wherever you get your podcasts.

Krista Tippett

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Krista Tippett talks about her life as a mother, daughter, lover and leader and the ways that all of those roles converge in her work as host of the podcast, On Being.

Subscribe to Helga, wherever you get your podcasts.

Helga Season III Trailer

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Thu, 9 Apr 2020 16:00:00 +0000

Artist, performer and host Helga Davis brings a soulful curiosity and love of people to the podcast Helga. In Season 3, she continues to draw the listener into her profound and intimate conversations with creative people, famous and lesser known. Musicians, visual artists, writers, and chefs join her to share the steps they’ve taken along their paths. Where they started, where they are and where they’re going next. These inspiring conversations expand our world and our imaginations as we explore what we think we know about each other.

Season III kicks off on April 14th with broadcaster and bestselling author Krista Tippett.

Art Maven Kimberly Drew

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Wed, 13 Jun 2018 16:00:00 +0000

Kimberly Drew, also known online as @museummammy, is a unrelenting, taste-making purveyor of art, fashion and culture.

Her work has appeared in Glamour and W magazines, as well as Teen Vogue and The Fader. Across her varied platforms, from social media manager at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to her powerful blog, Black Contemporary Art, to her influencer Instagram account, Drew strives to shape a brighter future through inspiring art and advocacy. She joins host Helga Davis in this episode to discuss the importance of mental health, what it really means to work in the art world, and how drinking water helps her keep the beat.

"You're inundated with so much information. But when given the privilege of time, it can be an opportunity for intense, expansive interaction." -Kimberly Drew

Learn more about New Sounds at newsounds.org.

David Kyuman Kim

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 21 May 2018 16:00:00 +0000

Teacher, author and speaker, David Kyuman Kim shares the concept of "radical love" in halls and on college campuses across the country as well as on his former podcast, Love-Driven Politics. In 2015, David presented a TEDx Talk on the topic at Connecticut College where he is also a Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies and the Peace and Conflict Coordinator. In this episode, David joins host Helga Davis to discuss the role of community and love in this nation during a critical time in our history.

"People are eating a lot of things, but I think those things are eating them alive. Like anger, like enmity, like vitriol, like contempt. You eat those things and they eat you. You consume those things and they consume you. And to go to your neighbors, to as you say make an argument, you're not really making an argument. You're actually inviting them into a different way of life. And that's a powerful thing." -David Kyuman Kim

Learn more about New Sounds at newsounds.org.

Jacqueline Woodson

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 7 May 2018 16:00:00 +0000

Author Jacqueline Woodson won the 2014 National Book Award for Brown Girl Dreaming, and this past January began her two-year tenure as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature; her latest book Another Brooklyn was a New York Times best-seller. In this conversation, host Helga Davis sits down to talk with Woodson about family – the alternative one she was born into and the one she made for herself. Finding the ones with whom she can connect has been invaluable for her; here she shares how she made her community and how they have influenced her process.

"For me the extended family is about having more parenting tools. [...] And then we have to make other decisions, we're a biracial family, right? We're a two-mom family, we're not going to send our kid to a school where they're the only kid of color, or the only kid in the class with two moms or two dads. So we had to, from a very early age, start investigating which schools are going to see my kid as wholly human." –Jacqueline Woodson

Learn more about New Sounds at newsounds.org.

Kenneth Lonergan

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 9 Apr 2018 16:00:00 +0000

Director, playwright and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan is widely known for winning the Oscar for best original screenplay at the 89th Academy Awards for his film Manchester By the Sea, and as a co-writer on Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. In this episode, host Helga Davis and Lonergan work through their shared upbringing at the Walden School in New York – exploring memories both charged and powerfully formative – while also exploring daily rituals and what it means to fuel one's creativity.

"Without cultural appropriation there is no culture. Especially in this country. I know what it means, but I know that it's misapplied when it's taken to that [extreme] degree and it becomes meaningless. You can't name an artist, a writer, or anybody who puts anything out in any kind of creative capacity, who doesn't appropriate left and right from all kinds of cultures and influences." -Kenneth Lonergan

Learn more about New Sounds at newsounds.org.

Studio Museum in Harlem's Thelma Golden

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 16:00:00 +0000

Thelma Golden is the director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, an appointee to then President Obama's Committee for the Preservation of the White House, and the recipient of the 2016 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. In this conversation, Golden discusses being taught canon revision with her father growing up, her first memories of seeing the world through art, and the rituals she need to get through the day.

"I exist perpetually, but also for me, very beautifully, constantly in motion. And I love that and it's how I think of myself and see myself. So in order to be with myself, I need to find some stillness." -Thelma Golden

Learn more about New Sounds at newsounds.org.

Hilton Als

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 17:00:00 +0000

Hilton Als is an intellectual omnivore who roots his art and criticism in reality and a search for the truth. A writer, New Yorker theater critic, curator, photographer, director and professor, Als’s work gracefully slips between genres to comment on contemporary American politics, pop culture and the African-American experience and to place the current condition in a longer history. In this tenth and final episode of the first season of Helga, Als and Davis talk about what he learned living next to Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, and how to get comfortable owning your anger and art-making.

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About the podcast:

HELGA with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with artists across the creative and performing arts that have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org

Q2 Music is WQXR, New York's multi-platform home for dynamic and inspiring contemporary music. Discover countless new artists via our 24/7 music stream – hand-crafted daily to reward your curiosity – and surprise your imagination with a world of new sounds.

Sarah Jones

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 9 Jan 2017 17:00:00 +0000

Playwright and stage actress Sarah Jones dexterously hops from one character to the next. In her one-woman shows, she seamlessly slips into characters of different class, race and gender backgrounds. Her award-winning multi-character performances cover topics such as sex work, post-9/11 America and racism in the healthcare system and illuminate the differences and strengths between one another. Sarah and Helga talk self-worth and self-love in a culture that teaches self-alienation.

About the podcast:

HELGA with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with artists across the creative and performing arts that have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org

Julia Bullock

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 2 Jan 2017 17:00:00 +0000

When soprano Julia Bullock took the stage recently to sing the legacy and history of Josephine Baker, the groundbreaking African-American singer and performer who fought in the civil rights movement, she didn’t dress it up. There was no marcelled hair, no banana skirt. Just a woman using her voice to speak truth to power and telling the story of a woman who paved the way. Her star ascending, the Juilliard-trained singer and Helga talk about what can and can’t be processed through performance and what it means to find your voice and your place in the world.

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About the podcast:

HELGA with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with artists across the creative and performing arts that have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org

Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 17:00:00 +0000

For conductor Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, an attentive and hungry audience is one of the essential parts of creating a transcendent musical experience. That’s why he scatters his Musica Viva choir at All Souls Church on the Upper East Side throughout the church. So the audience is in the middle of the action.

In this conversation, Helga and Alejandro talk about the challenges of managing both choirs and audience, the meditative qualities of live choral music, and the capability of music to transcend daily life to a spiritual plane.

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About the podcast:

HELGA with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with artists across the creative and performing arts that have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org

Alan Gilbert

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 17:00:00 +0000

Alan Gilbert believes that conducting an orchestra is a process of “letting go together.” When the energy between a conductor and an orchestra is right, he says, it’s almost impossible to tell who’s leading who. Alan and Helga sat down in the New York Philharmonic music director's office to talk about what he means by serving a community, the moments in performance he lives for, and how maybe he could've benefited from showing his stress more.

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About the podcast:

HELGA with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with artists across the creative and performing arts that have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org

Solange

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 5 Dec 2016 17:00:00 +0000

Solange is determined to express herself fully and with integrity. The musician, singer and songwriter has been writing music since she was in the fourth grade. In this episode, Solange and Helga retrace the pop-star’s journey from being a young mother in Idaho with a major-record publishing deal, to self-autonomy and accountability in the music business. The two also discuss the themes behind her recent album, "A Seat at the Table," of living authentically and of owning your voice, body and art while being black and beautiful in contemporary America.

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About the podcast:

HELGA with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with artists across the creative and performing arts that have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org

Jennifer Koh

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 17:00:00 +0000

Violin soloist Jennifer Koh has never cancelled a gig. Even when she had pneumonia, bronchitis and strep throat... at the same time. That drive comes through in the intensity of her live performances and the fierceness of her determination. Davis speaks with her former colleague in Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's epic opera Einstein on the Beach about the toll her exacting performances take on the body, the empathy required for a truly transcendent live show, and trusting that your personal perspective and experiences will resonate for others.

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About the podcast:

Helga with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with creative and performing artists who have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org

Henry Threadgill

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 17:00:00 +0000

Henry Threadgill wants to know how to build the house. Whether it Moby Dick or jazz composition, the 72-year-old jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist has spent his life figuring out what goes into building the greatest works of arts. Recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Threadgill talks with Helga about giving license to your imagination in order to create, the life energy that connects a performer to his creations, and pushing yourself to go beyond excellence to greatness.

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About the podcast:

HELGA with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with artists across the creative and performing arts that have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org

Shara Nova

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 17:00:00 +0000

After moving to Detroit from New York and separating from her husband, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden decided to change her last name to Nova. The frontwoman for the indie-rock band, singer and composer talks to Helga about about her upcoming album and Southern roots, about leaning into vulnerability, and why being uncomfortable is crucial in art-making. She also talks about why it was important for her to escape the art scene and to rub shoulders with construction workers, and what it means that her new name translates to "new song."

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About the podcast:

HELGA with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with artists across the creative and performing arts that have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org

Peter Sellars

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 17:00:00 +0000

Peter Sellars is one of the most all-around inspiring people you'll ever come across. The acclaimed, unconventional opera and theater director invites himself and audiences to embrace challenge and push their emotional and spiritual boundaries. “Let go and fall forward” is his credo. Helga and Peter talk about his work with the Flexn dancers and Bach's St. Matthew Passion, his sister who runs a dance machine arcade for teenagers in Las Vegas, and how he still isn't sure what he's been put here for.

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About the podcast:

HELGA with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with creative and performing artists who have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org

Sneak Peek: New Podcast 'Helga'

wnycdigital@gmail.com (wnycdigital@gmail.com) — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 17:00:00 +0000

Get an advance listen today to Q2 Music's newest podcast, Helga, a show featuring conversations with diverse, uncompromising and socially conscious artists across the creative spectrum. Hear excerpts of upcoming conversations with opera director Peter Sellars, My Brighest Diamond's Shara Nova and jazz composer Henry Threadgill.

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About the podcast:

HELGA with host Helga Davis features probing conversations with artists across the creative and performing arts that have a unique, uncompromising voice and a stake in the matter of social change.

Produced by Q2 Music www.q2music.org