Helga

Latest Episodes:

Choreographer Bill T. Jones on the violence within seduction Dec 20, 2022

Show notes

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:

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Jazz vocalist Somi on finding your voice Dec 13, 2022

Show notes

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

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Musician Bartees Strange on indie music’s overlooked audiences Dec 06, 2022

Show notes

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

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Painter Glenn Ligon on the value of difference Nov 29, 2022

Show notes

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

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Poet Claudia Rankine on power and democracy Nov 22, 2022

Show notes

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”

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Playwright Michael R. Jackson on risk and fearlessness Nov 15, 2022

Show notes

'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"

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Helga Season 5 Trailer Nov 10, 2022

Show notes

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.

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The Armory Youth Corps Sep 29, 2021

Show notes

"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.

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K. Anthony Jones Sep 22, 2021

Show notes

"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)

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Antwaun Sargent Sep 15, 2021

Show notes

“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.”

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