The National Endowment for the Arts podcast that goes behind the scenes with some of the nation’s great artists to explore how art works.
We’re celebrating the announcement of the 2023 NEA Jazz Masters by revisiting my interview with 2021 NEA Jazz Master and 2016 Pulitzer-Prize winner Henry Threadgill. Threadgill remains one of music’s great innovators—as a composer and as a musician. In this podcast, Threadgill reflects on the vast musical legacy he found in his hometown of Chicago and the early influence of Muhal Richard Abrams and The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He looks back at his ensembles and the various musical languages he’s expressed with each as well as his overall philosophy of composing and making music—explaining why he believes the true test of music is in the live performance. Henry Threadgill is not just a musical seeker, he’s also a deeply thoughtful and very funny storyteller. Follow us on Apple Podcasts!
The 2022 National Heritage Fellows have been recently named and we’re celebrating that and kicking off our “Artful Lives” series by revisiting my interview with songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Louie Pérez whose music with Los Lobos has deep roots in his neighborhood of East LA. The interview is a wonderful snapshot of Los Lobos’ fifty year journey as well as the beauty and strength of culture grown in community, a core principle of the concept of Artful Lives and of the National Heritage Award*.* Louie Pérez is a great story-teller and in this podcast he discusses the creation of Los Lobos, the band’s love for and admiration of traditional Mexican music, their half- century commitment to bring that music and culture to the world, the extraordinary journey of “La Bamba,” the influence of East Los Angeles on the music, and the brotherhood the band shares. The 2022 National Heritage Fellows are: Michael Cleveland, Bluegrass Fiddler from Charlestown, Indiana Eva Enciñias, Flamenco Artist, Albuquerque, New Mexico Excelsior Band, Brass Band Musicians, Mobile, Alabama Stanley Jacobs, Quelbe Flutist and Bandleader, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands The Legendary Ingramettes, Gospel Musicians, Richmond, Virginia TahNibaa Naataanii, Navajo/Diné Textile Artist and Weaver from Shiprock, New Mexico Francis “Palani” Sinenci, Hawaiian Hale Builder, Hana, Hawaiʻi Tsering Wangmo Satho, Tibetan Opera Singer and Dancer, Richmond, California C. Brian Williams, Step Artist and Producer, Washington, District of Columbia Shaka Zulu, Black Masking Craftsman, Stilt Dancer, and Musician, New Orleans, Louisiana
Chief Artistic Officer of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) Shanta Thake talks about programming at the intersection of art that speaks to the needs of New York City at this pivotal moment, including bringing blood drives, food donations and health and wellness programs to the Lincoln Center’s campus—with live musical accompaniment. She also discusses the Summer for the City festival with its 300 plus free or “pay what you will” ticketed events from a Second Line to Mozart’s Requiem, from social dancing to an orchestral tribute to Biggie Smalls. We also talk about the complex scope of her job, expanding on Lincoln Center’s commitment to diversity and innovation as central to all decisions, and her centering the artists themselves in conversations about ways for LCPA to move forward. Finally, we discuss the continuing influence of her two decades at The Public Theater with its determination to create theater with staff, actors, and audience as diverse as the people who ride New York’s subways.
Dr. Lisa Donovan discusses her work at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) to increase access to arts education equitably in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Donovan talks about the success of the collective impact approach-- working across sectors to create lasting change--, the support of the Arts Endowment through its Collective Impact Grant Program, the unique assets of Berkshire County, the challenges it shares with other rural areas, and the networks and programs created to meet those challenges and make the arts and arts education easily accessible to all its students across the region. Links to programs and topics discussed in the podcast: MCLA Institute for theArts and Humanities Berkshire Regional Arts Integration Network Integrating the Arts Across the Curriculum The C4 Initiative Thinking Like a Region
Saheem Ali is Associate Artistic Director of The Public Theater as well as the director of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Fat Ham.” In this podcast, Ali talks about working with Fat Ham playwright James Ijames, his ongoing work with plays that contemporize and expand Shakespeare (like Fat Ham which sets Hamlet in a Black Southern backyard barbeque with a Queer Hamlet figure at its center or Merry Wives which sets Shakespeare’s play in Washington Heights in the midst of a community of West African immigrants). Ali also discusses his role as Associate Artistic Director of The Public, the mission of the theater—particularly of its Free Shakespeare in the Park Program--, The Public’s continuing work in interrogating power structures in theater, and its commitment to ensuring diverse voices in leadership, staff, performers, and audience.
We’re celebrating Black Music Appreciation Month by revisiting my 2021 interview with MacArthur Fellow and artistic director of Silkroad Rhiannon Giddens. A classically-trained singer, banjo and fiddle-player, and composer, Rhiannon excavates the past to bring forgotten stories and music, particularly of African-Americans, into the present. Giddens is a co-founder of the Grammy Award winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, which insisted reclaiming for Black musicians a central and historically-accurate place in old-time music. She then went on to create solo albums of haunting beauty and power born of African-American struggles past and present. Giddens is, first and foremost, an artist determined to be of service which drives her commitment to unearth musical roots and put that knowledge of different musical traditions to good use. In this podcast, Rhiannon talks about uncovering the Black roots in old-time music, the importance of National Heritage Fellow fiddler Joe Thompson to her musical lineage, the path to creating her opera Omar, the centrality of history on the margins to her music, and her plans to have Silkroad explore the multiplicity of musical worlds within the US. Keywords: Rhiannon Giddens, Silkroad, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Joe Thompson, Omar
Stella Abrera and Sonja Kostich share a background in dance, are Asian-American and now lead an important artistic center in the Hudson Valley Kaatsbaan Cultural Park. In this podcast, they talk about Kaatsbaan Cultural Park and its 30 year history, Kaatsbaan’s singular role as both an artistic incubator and an arts presenter, its unique position during Covid in having the space to create and present work safely for both performers and audience, Stella’s and Sonja’s careers as dancers and their transition to arts administration, their commitment to diversity in programming, performers, staff and audience, Kaatbaan’s upcoming festivals, and the organization’s first grant from the Arts Endowment. https://www.instagram.com/kaatsbaan/ https://twitter.com/kaatsbaandance Keywords: Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, Stella Abrera, Sonja Kostich, Hudson Valley, National Endowment for the Arts
We’re celebrating Pride Month and the Tony Awards by revisiting my 2020 interview with playwright, composer, lyricist Michael R. Jackson. A Strange Loop,his playabout a Black queer musical theater writer who is writing a play about a Black queer musical theater writer who is writing a play about a Black queer theater writer…, has wowed audiences and critics. Capturing some of 2020's most prestigious awards, including the Lambda Literary Award for Drama and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, A Strange Loopbecame the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama without a Broadway run, and Michael R. Jackson is the first Black artist to win a Pulitzer for a musical. (The NEA funded the world premiere of A Strange Loop, which was produced by Playwrights Horizons in 2019.) The show emerged from the pandemic with a production in Washington DC at the Woolly Mammoth theater in December 2021 which then transferred to Broadway-- opening in April 2022. Along with glowing reviews and cheering audiences, the play has also received 11 Tony Award nominations including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Score. A Strange Loopis bawdy, joyous, disturbing, funny, and heartbreaking. The songs are often bouncy tunes that stay in your head while the lyrics can tear at your heart. In this podcast, Jackson talks about the years spent creating A Strange Loop, sharing that because he never thought the play would ever be produced, he just wrote what he wanted. He also discusses the possibilities that theater offers, his determination "to make works that are as challenging as they are entertaining," and the importance of soap operas in his early career. It was a pleasure to revisit this podcast, listen to Michael, and lose myself in the fabulous score. When you’re done with the podcast, check out this [Tiny Desk](Tiny%20Desk) concert with Jackson and the Broadway cast of A Strange Loop. Follow us on Apple Podcasts! Keywords: Michael R. Jackson, A Strange Loop. Pride Month, Tony Awards, Woolly Mammoth Theatre
Modern Warrior LIVE is a unique and moving theatrical experience that mixes first-person narrative with music and multimedia to chronicle U.S. Army veteran Jaymes Poling’s story of his three deployments to Afghanistan and subsequent transition back home. In today’s podcast, I speak with its co-creators, Poling and jazz trumpeter Dominick Farinacci, about the conception of Modern Warrior LIVE andtheir process of working together—both in creating the show and performing in it. Poling discusses his own challenges when transitioning to civilian life and the importance of writing to his healing process. They also talk about the sense of responsibility they feel to the audience, their outreach to veteran communities, the centrality of talk-backs as part of the show, and their making local mental health and veteran resources available to the audience. Follow us on Apple Podcasts!
You may know Daniel K. Isaac as Ben Kim from the television series “Billions,” but he’s also a committed and talented actor in theater and an accomplished playwright. In fact, his play “ONCE UPON A (korean) TIME”-- which was supported in part by the Arts Endowment-- is opening in New York in August. In this podcast, Daniel K. Isaac discusses his great love of theater, his new play “ONCE UPON A (korean) TIME”- his commitment to bring Asian and Asian-American voices and stories to the stage, his work with the Ma-Yi Theater Company, his series-in-development, “According to My Mother” which explores his challenging relationship with his mother after he came out to her, and, of course, his role as Ben Kim on the television series “Billions.” Here are the actors discussed in the podcast that Daniel K. Isaac wants us to know more about: Shannon Tyo, Jon Norman Schneider, and Jeena Yi. Follow us on Apple Podcasts!