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 Washingt…

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 …

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 ep…

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 m…

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 W…

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…

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…

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 202…

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-futuri…

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 Dia…

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 soulf…

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 h…

"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 Ame…

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 an…

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.

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 u…

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. 

Tr…

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…