Unerased | Black Women Speak Unerased | Black Women Speak

Summertime and the reading is easy. As work slows and we flock to the beach, lakes, and pools, a great beach read should be right beside sunscreen and a cool drink. Our season finale episode brings together editors, authors, and bookstore lovers to talk about Summer escape, reading lists and the delicious ease of getting lost in characters and stories across all genres. 
 

Mary J, joint, reefer, jah, pot, herb, weed…No matter what you call it, cannabis is enjoying a make-over, decriminalized coast to coast and legalized in 38 states for medical use. In the recreational space, big profits are also being reaped. But Black folks have paid the heaviest price in the government’s racialized war on drugs that exacted marijuana possession as the entry level for mass incarceration. This episode wades into the weeds with Black women exploring stigma, culture, health and business opportunities.

Surely, Black people began dreaming beyond the American shoreline soon after their arrival. Centuries later, spurred by racist policies, a need for political and professional affirmation, and an expanded worldview following World War 1, Black people began an exodus to build lives in other countries, with different languages, and new possibilities. In this episode, we center the Black woman expatriate—growing in numbers in recent years—and the experiences that led her elsewhere.

The Blues have been memorialized in books, films, and music. But feeling the blues, or depression, has been a taboo topic for centuries. Even as the stigma is lifted in some corners, millions of people worldwide fail to identify the symptoms, suffer in silence, or are unable to find a good, sustainable solution to the problem. In this episode, we explore the blues and introduce three powerful and accomplished women who have battled depression. 

Birthed between Bourbon and beignets, jazz is, as Nina Simone once said, Black classical music. An art formed from sporadic instrumentation, bodies moving freely, and soul. It is the mother of pop, Hip Hop, funk, R&B, and more. As we bid farewell to National Jazz Month we celebrate it with the voices of the women who are preserving and shaping the music today. What does it take to archive America’s classical music and who are the unknown women who built it and will carry it forward?

Valerie Boyd entered life’s stage as an old soul with Zen-like calm and pointed yet quiet grace. Her commitment to raise the voices of Black women pierced through the silence of history, demanding that the world listen closer to us all. She was a researcher, writer, documentarian and the definitive biographical voice on Zora Neale Hurston. In this week’s episode, we pay tribute to her life, her legacy, and her love.