We Be Griots

Silver Hollow Audio

A "griot" is a West African storyteller who preserves the genealogies, historical narratives, and oral traditions of their people. Host Esi Lewis created the Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis Center for Black History and Culture, in New Paltz, NY, to share local Black history. Dr. Wade-Lewis loved people, education, and language. Join us to hear personal narratives of the Black community. We Be Griots is made in collaboration with Episcopal Campus Ministries, and the SUNY New Paltz Department of Digital Media and Journalism. Audio Producer: Brett Barry; Consulting Producer: Allison Moore

Épisodes

  1. -2 J

    Heriberto Dixon

    In this episode, host Esi Lewis sits down with Heriberto Dixon, a scholar, educator, and longtime friend, for a wide-ranging conversation about identity, ancestry, and spiritual belonging. Dixon shares the story of his lifelong connection to Native American culture — rooted in a request from his mother decades ago to uncover their Native American ancestry — and recounts deeply personal experiences visiting the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, where he felt an inexplicable sense of home despite never having been there before. Drawing on Lakota tradition, Black Elk's vision, and the philosophy of "mitákuye oyásʼiŋ" (all my relations), Dixon reflects on what it means to live in a state of gratitude and to see all of life as interconnected. Dixon also explores the emerging field of African Native American identity — what anthropologists call ethnogenesis — tracing his own family's connections to the Muskogee Creek, the Nanticoke of Maryland, and possibly the Chickamauga Cherokee. He discusses how Indian slavery, largely erased from popular history, helps explain the deep intertwining of African and Native American ancestry, and pushes back against the idea that claiming Native heritage means denying African roots, arguing instead that identity is about addition, not subtraction. The conversation also touches on Dixon's distinguished academic career, including his time teaching strategic management at SUNY New Paltz, his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, and his belief in experiential, adult-centered education inspired by Paulo Freire. He shares warm memories of the late Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis, in whose honor this podcast is produced, and closes with a reflection on legacy, storytelling, and the power of finally seeing one's own vision realized.

    49 min

  2. 17 FÉVR.

    Pearl Lee

    In this rich and memory‑filled episode of We Be Griots, host Esi Lewis — executive director of the Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis Center for Black History and Culture — sits down with Pearl Lee, a beloved elder, educator, and longtime member of the New Paltz community whose life story spans the rural South, the early years of school desegregation, and more than half a century of local history. "Nana Pearl" traces her journey from her childhood in Georgia — a world of segregated schools, well water, wood‑fired stoves, and tight‑knit family Sundays — to the moment she answered a newspaper ad that brought her north in 1964, just as the Civil Rights Act was reshaping the country. She recounts arriving in New Paltz as the district’s first Black teacher, navigating a new landscape with openness and humor, and finding a community that accepted her "as an individual." Across the conversation, she reflects on teaching health and physical education, coaching three sports every year, raising her children in the district, and witnessing the evolution of New Paltz from a small farm town to a more diverse — and sometimes more complicated — place. She shares vivid stories of early Main Street, apple pickers from the South, and the deep neighborliness that defined the town in the 1960s and ’70s. Nana Pearl also reflects on the legacy of Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis, their years as neighbors and “sisters in everything,” and the intertwined lives of their families — from bowling leagues and gymnastics lessons to shared celebrations and shared exhaustion. The episode moves gently between personal history and collective memory, touching on military service, motherhood, community care, and the generational distance between those who lived segregation and those who can hardly imagine it. What emerges is a portrait of a woman whose life bridges eras: from the segregated South to integrated classrooms, from potbelly stoves to modern New Paltz, from oral tradition to recorded history. Through her stories, Nana Pearl reminds us why preserving local Black history matters — and why these conversations must continue.

    40 min

  3. 3 FÉVR.

    Ciesta Little-Quinn

    In this intimate and wide‑ranging conversation, host Esi Lewis, executive director of the Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis Center for Black History and Culture, sits down with her beloved “Ciesta,” Professor Ciesta Little-Quinn — educator, musician, choir director, and longtime pillar of Black cultural life in the Hudson Valley. Professor Quinn reflects on her journey from Detroit to New England to Poughkeepsie, tracing the experiences that shaped her as a teacher, performer, and advocate for Black music and Black history. From integrating a New Hampshire school district to teaching generations of students in Poughkeepsie and SUNY New Paltz, she shares stories filled with humor, resilience, and deep purpose. Together, Esi and Professor Little-Quinn explore the legacy of Dr. Margaret Wade Lewis, the evolution of the Black Studies Department at SUNY New Paltz, and the power of music — spirituals, Motown, gospel, and the sounds of the 1960s — as a vessel of memory, identity, and liberation.

    43 min
  • 3 épisodes

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À propos

A "griot" is a West African storyteller who preserves the genealogies, historical narratives, and oral traditions of their people. Host Esi Lewis created the Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis Center for Black History and Culture, in New Paltz, NY, to share local Black history. Dr. Wade-Lewis loved people, education, and language. Join us to hear personal narratives of the Black community. We Be Griots is made in collaboration with Episcopal Campus Ministries, and the SUNY New Paltz Department of Digital Media and Journalism. Audio Producer: Brett Barry; Consulting Producer: Allison Moore

Informations

  • Création
    Silver Hollow Audio
  • Années d’activité
    2 k
  • Épisodes
    3
  • Classification
    Tous publics
  • Copyright
    © Silver Hollow Audio
  • Site web de l’émission
    We Be Griots

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