Helga

'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...

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 wh...

"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 wha...

"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;...

“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 autho...

“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...

“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, Colomb...

"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 compo...

"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 encompass...

"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 a...

“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 Reynold...

"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 Bro...

"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 im...

"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 Ch...

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 take...

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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection an...

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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of persona...

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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. Se...

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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for info...

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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our co...

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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 wh...

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 t...