Helga

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 val...

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...

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,...

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 I...

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 —...

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 br...

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, hi...

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 storyte...

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...

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 consume...

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...

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...

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. ...

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...

"I don't want to be the prisoner in a box, even if it's a box I made." 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 this masterclass in Black thought — the first episode in a two-part series — Jafa shares a free-from impr...

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 co...

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...

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...

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 Cent...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...