Nonfiction

They were women whose artistry inspired generations of music, theater, film and television lovers. And they were women who joined the ancestors within a few days of each other this fall.

I’m talking about opera star Jessye Norman, 74  (September 15, 1945-September 20, 2019) and singer/actress Diahann Carroll, 84 (July 17, 1935- October 4, 2019)

Jessye Norman

I can’t remember the first time I heard Jessye Norman’s sing. But I know that her voice touched me deeply. While working on a radio feature as a newly minted Howard University faculty member during the early 1990s, I interviewed colleagues in the university’s music department who remembered Norman’s time as a Howard undergrad and the majestic nature of her voice.

Then In 1992 I served as a writer/producer on the NPR and Smithsonian Institution’s 26-part radio series, Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions.  The Wade production team knew that we wanted to include some of Norman’s sensitive renderings of the so-called Negro Spirituals in the series. We also wanted to ask Norman why she chose to sing and how she interpreted this enduring African American sacred music.

So we contacted Norman’s management company and set up an interview that I would conduct.  Norman’s manager placed a lot of conditions on the interview; specifically detailing where and when the interview could be held and carefully scrutinizing the questions we wanted to ask her.  The closer we got to the interview date, the more anxious I became.  I would soon interview a world-renowned, Grammy Award winning artist whom I highly admired, for a series that would be distributed nationally on NPR member stations in 1994 – and based on her manager’s directives, I might not be able to ask all the questions we had wanted her to address.

An NPR engineer and I arrived early to set up for the interview in the luxurious Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan.  When Norman and her manager swept into the hotel suite, I sought to put her (and myself) at ease by mentioning our joint Howard University connection.  Before long, our interview settled into a comfortable flow, and she opened up about her personal and musical background, the importance of the spirituals in her life and her approach to interpreting those songs.  It was an enlightening and wonderful afternoon!

Segments of that interview, along with Norman’s performance of the spiritual, There’s A Man Going Round, can be heard in the first episode I produced for the Wade series, Songs and Singing as Church.  You can also hear Jessye Norman perform and talk about the spirituals in the Wade episodes, Steal Away: Songs & Stories about Slavery, and I’m So Glad Trouble Don’t Last Always: The African American Spiritual and the Struggle for a New Classical Concert Tradition.

And in 2014,  Norman returned to her alma mater to dazzle an attentive Howard University audience as she talked about her memoir, Stand Up Straight and Sing!

Diahann Carroll

I never had the pleasure of meeting or interviewing Diahann Carroll.  But she was a fellow native of the Bronx, New York and she had graduated from the High School of Music of Art (M&A), then located in Harlem.  When I was admitted into M&A, I was excited about the opportunity to study music with fellow students who came from all ends of NYC’s five boroughs.  And this arts high school claimed such famous alumni as actor Billy Dee Williams, NPR producer Susan Stamberg, film/television writer/producer Steven Bochco, and jazz drummer Billy Cobham – just to name a few.

But as another M&A alum, Carroll particularly impressed my teenaged self because starting in 1968, she played the lead character in the sitcom, Julia – the first black woman to star in her own network TV series. She also was the first African American woman to win an Emmy as a lead actress in a comedy series.  And my parents had raved about Carroll’s starring role in the Broadway musical No Strings – a performance for which she would earn a Tony Award.  She would go on to shine in films like Claudine, The Five Heartbeats and Eve’s Bayou, and hit TV shows Dynasty and A Different World.

Here’s a link to an NPR tribute to Carroll on the day she died.

So Jessye Norman and Diahann Carroll – ever majestic and trailblazing – will be missed. But I hope that their soaring artistry will continue to be cherished.

We lost a giant of a writer this month when Toni Morrison joined the ancestors.  To say that her writing was inspiring  would be an understatement. Throughout the world, lovers of poignant, lyrical storytelling are mourning Morrison’s death. Many are also celebrating her life.

One such tribute was written by Todd Steven Burroughs, author of a book about Ida B. Wells, a comic book biography of Marvel’s Black Panther and an audiobook examination of Ras Baraka, a Howard University graduate, Newark, New Jersey mayor and son of writer/activist Amiri Baraka.

In the article, “That Time Morrison Edited Muhammad Ali’s Autobiography,” Burroughs takes a look at Morrison’s time as editor of Ali’s, The Greatest: My Own Story. The Greatest’s credited ghost writer was Richard Durham – that’s right, the man who is the subject of my biography, Word Warrior.

So relax in your favorite reading spot and click on the link below for Burroughs’ well written article – one that also explores Morrison’s relationships with African American leaders Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) and activist/scholar Angela Davis.

Enjoy!

That Time Toni Morrison Edited Muhammad Ali’s Autobiography

Sonja:  During our 2017 conference, BIO members Marc Leepson, Lisa Napoli and I thought that the Friday night readings by newly published authors were so interesting, that they should have been recorded and made available to people who hadn’t attended the conference.

Lisa and I are experienced radio announcers/producers, so the path seemed clear. We decided to get permission to record BIO’s May 2018 conference readings, interview the authors and edit those elements into a podcast.

On March 1, 2019, the podcast took flight on BIO’s website and iTunes.  A new episode appears each Friday.

Lisa and I cherish the opportunities we’ve had to interact with authors we might never have met. Also, I love the exposure to books I might not have voluntarily selected, and I’m doing what I love; reading, learning from others and, with Lisa, creating aural snapshots of authors and their biographies.

Karin: You published your acclaimed biography of Richard Durham in 2015 after 30 years experience as a radio producer.  Can you talk about the relationship between your work in radio and the experience of writing a biography about this iconic radio dramatist and writer?

Sonja:  My book, Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio, and Freedom, exists because of my experience as a radio documentarian. In the early 1990s, I worked for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History on our Peabody Award winning series, Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was.

In 13 episodes on public radio, Black Radio examined the history of African Americans and radio.  I found out about Durham while conducting research for one of the shows on my writing and producing plate. The more I looked into Durham’s accomplishments as a pioneering radio and TV scriptwriter, print journalist and activist, the more his story intrigued me.

Other than his work as a radio dramatist, little had been written about the totality of Durham’s life and writing. Several of my mentors encouraged me to write his biography, and It took a while for me to adjust my writing-for-the-ear sensibilities to writing for the eye/page.  But it eventually clicked and Word Warrior, now in print and audiobookform, is the result.

Karin:  There has been an explosion of podcasts in the last few years and an increasing recognition of what a powerful medium for telling stories it is, something you seemed to have recognized very early on and helped to popularize.  How did you first become in interested in the narrative possibilities of radio?  And do you have a favorite story from your large body of work?

Sonja:  New York City is my hometown and I soaked up as much culture as I could in that media capital. When I wasn’t exploring the city or engrossed in a book, you’d probably find me listening to the radio. As a music lover, the popular songs of the day were a big draw. But so was what the DJs and other announcers had to say.

In college, I found my way to our campus radio station and discovered the power of aural storytelling using language, music and other appropriate sounds.I was hooked.

I switched my major from music to mass communications, and in my senior year I produced a short radio documentary about Chicago’s black arts movement. It’s a painful listen now. The narrative arch (if there was one) was choppy, I sound like a chipmunk, and I had much to learn about how to properly use a microphone outside of a studio. Yet I’ve been honing my audio storytelling skills ever since.

With 50-plus radio documentaries (many biographical) in my producing wheelbarrow, it’s difficult to choose a favorite.  But one past and now present joy is the series through which I earned the first of three Peabody Awards. NPR and the Smithsonian’s Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions was one of the most difficult yet rewarding writing and producing projects I’ve tackled.

For its 25th anniversary this year, NPR has re-released Wade’s 26 episodes that explore more than 200 years of black sacred music in all its forms.

I’m ecstatic that this series is once again available.

Karin:  Do you think that audiences are becoming more sophisticated as listeners?  Have you noticed a change among your students at Howard University?Sonja:  Yes, audiences are more sophisticated.  Via podcasts, listeners can be exposed to and more discerning about a wide range of storytelling styles and information.  However, in this fast-paced world we inhabit, attention spans are short. When I require my students to listen to long-form productions like Wade, almost uniformly they complain about the length.

Still, I’m encouraged.

Well produced and engagingly narrated longer pieces do capture their attention. Such pieces also inspire students to think more critically about the pieces they have to produce, albeit in more concise forms, and which reflect their developing storytelling sophistication. I’ll continue to enjoy watching and hearing the evolution.

Karin:  What’s next for you?

Sonja:  A group biography is in my future. I’m just not sure of the group yet. I’ve started conducting research about black students in higher education; another possibility is black women jazz singers. For now, I’m unclear about which path to take.

In the meantime, please enjoy Bio’s podcast, and perhaps I’ll get to interview you at some point!

Did you know that June is both Black Music Month and Audiobook Month?

Yep…it is.

So you’ll have the rest of the month (and beyond, of course) to celebrate the artistry of African American music in all its forms.  In honor of Black Music Month, I’ll provide a link to a special music series later this month.

Till then, please visit AudioFileMagazine (click below)

for more details about the magical draw of audiobooks.  And you’re invited to sample my Word Warrior audiobook, narrated by the multi-award-winning “Golden Voice” of Robin Miles.

The Word Warrior audiobook is available at www.downpour.com/word-warrior

So enjoy exploring the world of audiobooks and their ability to aurally take you to lands near and far or introduce you to fascinating known and unknown personalities.

Oh…but if you still only love books in paperback form, click here       to snag a copy Word Warrior and all University of Illinois Press publications at 40% discount sale – now through June 14^th.