Episode 450
with Kevin Young, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Clyde W. Ford, and Amthyst Kiah
This week Live Wire honors Black History Month with groundbreaking Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad; poetry editor of The New Yorker Kevin Young; on his love of Jack Johnson, Prince, and pork; writer Clyde W. Ford, whose book Think Black outlines his father's experience as the first black software engineer in America; and a powerhouse performance from Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Amythyst Kiah.
Kevin Young
Poet & Writer
Kevin Young is the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and poetry editor of the New Yorker, where he also hosts the poetry podcast. From 2016-2020 he served as the director of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, most recently Brown (Knopf, 2018), as featured on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah; Blue Laws: Selected & Uncollected Poems 1995-2015 (Knopf, 2016), longlisted for the National Book Award; and Book of Hours (Knopf, 2014), a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize for Poetry from the Academy of American Poets. Website • Twitter
Ibtihaj Muhammad
Olympic Fencer & Activist
Ibtihaj Muhammad is an entrepreneur, activist, speaker and Olympic medalist in fencing. A 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, 5-time Senior World medalist and World Champion, in 2016, Ibtihaj became the first American woman to compete in the Olympics in hijab. In 2014, Ibtihaj launched her own clothing company, Louella, which aims to bring modest, fashionable and affordable clothing to the United States market. In 2017, Mattel announced their first hijabi Barbie, modeled in Ibtihaj’s likeness, as part of Barbie’s “Shero” line of dolls. Ibtihaj also released her debut memoir, PROUD: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream. Website • Twitter
Clyde W. Ford
Writer & Psychotherapist
Clyde W. Ford is an author, psychotherapist, and mythologist who won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award in African American Literature in 2006. His most recent book, Think Black: A Memoir, tells the story of his father John Stanley Ford, the first black software engineer at IBM, revealing how racism insidiously affected his father's view of himself and their relationship. He lives in Bellingham, Washington where he writes aboard his 30-foot trawler, cruising the waters of the Inside Passage. Website • Twitter
Amthyst Kiah
Singer-Songwriter
Amthyst Kiah’s unforgettable voice is both unfettered and exquisitely controlled, and the Tennessee-bred singer/songwriter expands on the uncompromising artistry she most recently revealed as part of Our Native Daughters, an all-women-of-color supergroup whose Kiah-penned standout “Black Myself” earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best American Roots Song and won Song of the Year at the 2019 Folk Alliance International Awards. When met with the transcendent quality of her newly elevated sound, what emerges is an extraordinary vessel for Kiah’s songwriting: a raw yet nuanced examination of grief, alienation, and the hard-won triumph of total self-acceptance.
Listen • Twitter
