Black Country Music Stars on Diversifying The Genre

02/23/24 • 51 min

On this episode of Our Body Politic, guest host Mara S. Campo looks at the foundational role of Black Americans in country music, and the barriers to entry that still exist. First we hear Mara’s conversation with professor Francesca Royster, author of “Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions.” Then Mara talks with country music singer Brittney Spencer who was one of Rolling Stone’s 25 artists to watch in 2023. We round out the show hearing grammy-nominated Mickey Guyton speak with Mara about paving the way for other Black women in country music.

Previous Episode

How Native Women Are Working to End the MMIW Crisis

On this special episode of Our Body Politic produced in partnership with Level Forward, we highlight the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women’s (MMIW) crisis. Guest-host Andrea Ambam, an Artist and Host of Level Forward’s More to Talk About, speaks with Lorna Cuny, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe from South Dakota and Co-Chair and Co-Founder of the Medicine Wheel Ride and Darlene Gomez, attorney at her law firm Darlene Law, who serves on the MMIW-R Task Force for New Mexico and is General Counsel for Medicine Wheel Ride, about The Medicine Wheel Riders, a national group raising awareness about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s crisis. Then Andrea Ambam speaks with Alecia Onzahwah, about her efforts to arm Indigenous women with information (through The Skye Woman Project) and tools to defend themselves (through Skye Woman Beauty). We round out the show with Andrea speaking with Prairie Rose Seminole, co-director of the documentary We Ride for Her about owning the Native narrative through community filmmaking.