Great Grief

In this final episode of Season 3, I reflect on endings, beginnings, and the mystery of what it means to let go. Through story, song, and remembrance, I share the journey behind Last Dream Home — a song born from love, fear, grief, and the quiet unfolding of acceptance. Together, we sit with the unknown, with the tenderness of goodbye, and with the hope that peace may meet us on the other side of...

In this episode, I share a reflection from my book Beneath the Skin of Sorrow —a poetic “recipe” for caring for ourselves in the midst of grief. Loving Kindness Tea invites us to slow down, breathe deeply, and return to gratitude, silence, and love. Through story, meditation, and a touch of ritual, we explore how healing can live in small, intentional moments—and how we can begin to live greatly t...

After my husband’s passing, I found myself searching for language that could hold both my grief and my continued capacity to love. Then, a stranger offered me a new way of seeing.

In this episode, I reflect on the idea of an encore—that unexpected moment when you are called back to the stage. As a young jazz singer on my first European tour, I experienced my first encore and discovered something powerful: the space between what we plan and what we are asked to give in the moment is where the real magic lives. Through story, music, and reflection, I explore how that lesson r...

Valentine’s Day can stir many things — joy, memory, longing, even sorrow. Not everyone greets it with candy and flowers. So instead of wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day, I offer you something else: a love bouquet from my heart to yours. Recorded live at Moorhead Manor on Valentine’s Day, this episode reflects on love through the lens of loss. What is this thing called love? What happens when gri...

Welcome to Season 3 of Great Grief . In this episode, I sit with the word “loss.” What does it mean to lose something? A bag. A job. A sense of direction. A beloved. What does it mean to feel lost yourself? Through meditation, storytelling, and song, I explore the difference between something being gone and something being changed. I reflect on grief as a landscape—where the map no longer matches...

Welcome to Season 3 of Great Grief! This season I’m listening closely—to stories, songs, and the quiet places where grief lives beneath the surface. In this opening episode, I share ancestral stories of my grandmother and great-grandmother, reflecting on grief, memory, and lineage. Through music, storytelling, and poetry, I explore grief not as something to fix, but as a journey—one that can be ho...

December has been calling all year long. This holiday offering from Great Grief is an invitation to pause, to listen, and to remember what the heart craves — belonging, rest, and communion with spirit. Featuring a summer moment of joy and reverence with Paperhand Puppet Intervention, this piece honors our oldest ancestors and calls to our beloveds on both sides of the veil. Every goodbye ain’t gon...

Grief comes to live with us all eventually, and she needs no invitation. In this bonus holiday episode of  Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon appreciates the quiet moments shared in the kitchen with her late father and wonders aloud how to curate her space for the holidays now that grief has made a home in her home. In this previously-recorded live edition of Great Grief, Nnenna Freelon shares her memor...

Grief cannot tell time. She comes and goes as she pleases. In this bonus holiday episode of  Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon remembers the lessons of her grandmother, honors those we've lost, and holds space for our holiday grief with poetry and song. In this previously-recorded live edition of Great Grief, Nnenna Freelon shares her memories of the lessons her grandma's wooden spoon and wisdom gave h...

The festive season carries such a high expectation of joy that can feel inaccessible for so many grievers. In this previously-recorded live edition of Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon gathers with community to create a warm space for us to sit with our loves and our losses in the company of those who also know suffering.  Join Scalawag and Nnenna Freelon in Durham, North Carolina, on Sunday, December...

How do we communicate with those who have “gone?” Is it even possible? In this episode of Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon sets about asking the moon, the sun, and even the leaves how she might get in touch with her beloved Phil. If grief shows us that time isn’t linear, maybe sorrow is more than a season. Maybe it’s a portal.  Join Scalawag and Nnenna Freelon in Durham, North Carolina, on Sunday, Dec...

Grief can take us to our knees—right back to the dirt, dust, and the earth, from which all things grow. In this episode of  Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon consults Mother Nature—and a Black woman hemp farmer—to lean into how we might grow on even in harsh environments and bitter seasons. Join Scalawag and Nnenna Freelon in Durham, North Carolina, on Sunday, December 10 for " Great Grief—Live! Home f...

In this episode of Great Grief , we follow Nnenna Freelon on a walk through the woods, where she contemplates autumn, the changing of the seasons, and the possibility of renewal after everything dies. Read a transcript of this episode. Join Scalawag and Nnenna Freelon in Durham, North Carolina, on Sunday, December 10 for " Great Grief—Live! Home for the Holidays ," a live music performance and upl...

Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon , season 2: "Seasons of Change," launches November 28, 2023. The seasons are changing, an apt metaphor to talk about the shedding, withering, and falling away that accompanies the most painful parts of grief. In the latest series of  Great Grief , Nnenna looks to nature and the cyclical movement of time to delve deeper into loss, creating rituals and making discover...

The podcast Great Grief takes shape around Nnenna’s own great grief, which she experienced after the death of her husband, Philip Freelon, in 2019. A wife for nearly 40 years, Nnenna wonders in this episode what to make of the term "widow."Perhaps loss does not make her into a widow. Perhaps it is turning her into something else altogether. Read a transcript of this episode. This is episode four i...

Our relationship with our hair is a complicated entanglement. It holds our history, personality, and identity. It also holds our grief. In this episode, "Hairstory," Nnenna sits us down in the chair at her mother’s beauty salon, where for generations, Black women have celebrated one another and have gathered to discuss hair—the grief over it, and the grief under it.  Read a transcript of this epis...

No woman makes it through life without a sister. In grieving the death of her baby sister, Nnenna alights on all the ways Black women experience sisterhood. Through faith, family, and struggle, we inhabit a deep solidarity that allows us to hold one another close, even at the very end. Read a transcript of this episode. This is episode two in our four-part season of Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon...

Grief is a woman with plenty to say. This shape-shifting step-sister of ours wasn’t originally a part of the plan, but now she is coming with—no choice there. But did you know you also have the ability to shape your grief? It's true, but first, you must be willing to meet her where she lives. In this episode of  Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon asks us to consider what happens if we stop running from...

Grief is your shape-shifting step-sister. While she wasn't originally part of the plan, now she is coming with—no choice there. In order to shape your grief, you must first be willing to meet her where she lives. With "Wailing Women," the first four-part installment of Great Grief , Nnenna Freelon uses story and song to explore the profound beauty and irreparable losses we experience as Black wome...