Episode 499
with Hanif Abdurraqib, Clint Smith, and Melanie Charles
In celebration of Black History Month, host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello share conversations with some of Live Wire's most remarkable guests: MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellow Hanif Abdurraqib discusses his highly acclaimed collection of essays, A Little Devil in America, which poetically praises the cultural and historical significance of Black performance of all kinds; writer Clint Smith takes us on a journey of his best-selling book How the Word is Passed, which examines the legacy of slavery through various sites across the country, from Angola prison all the way to Wall Street; and genre-bending powerhouse Melanie Charles soars with a "reimagining" of Marlena Shaw's "Woman of the Ghetto."
Hanif Abdurraqib
Writer and Poet
Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His writing has appeared in Vinyl, PEN America, The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was released in 2017 and named a “Book of the Year” by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune, among others. Hanif’s second collection of poems, A Fortune For Your Disaster (Tin House), won the 2020 Lenore Marshall Prize. He was a 2021 MacArthur Fellow, and his latest book, A Little Devil In America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance (Random House), won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Website • Twitter
Clint Smith
Author
Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Counting Descent, which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. His narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, was a #1 New York Times bestseller and was named one of the 10 best books of 2021 by the New York Times Book Review. Clint has received fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. He received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and his Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University. Website • Twitter
Melanie Charles
Brooklyn Soloist
Born and raised in Brooklyn, musical artist Melanie Charles has made a name for herself through dynamic engagements with jazz, soul, and R&B. Her genre-bending style has been embraced by artists such as Wynton Marsalis, SZA, Mach-Hommy, Gorillaz, and The Roots. In 2021, her NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert stunned audiences with its bold, eclectic sound. Throughout her career, she has made music that pushes listeners to consider new possibilities—both sonically and politically. “Make Jazz Trill Again,” a project Melanie launched in 2016, demonstrates her allegiance to everyday people, and is focused on taking jazz out of the museum and into the streets. Her major-label debut, 2021’s Y’all Don’t (Really) Care About Black Women, reflects both her tremendous versatility and her deep care for community. Listen • Website
