DeRay Mckesson on ‘trying to tell a story about a world that we haven’t seen but that we know is possible’

  On this episode, Lissa sits down with DeRay Mckesson – civil rights activist, community organizer, and now author of the book On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope. In 2014 he left his job with the Minneapolis Public Schools to join and document the protests in Ferguson Missouri, and has since …

Live Episode: Sonya Renee Taylor in Minneapolis

*Originally released March 2018 In this episode, recorded at a live event at Jefferson Community School in Minneapolis, MN, Lissa Jones hosts a fascinating conversation with Sonya Renee Taylor the activist and author at the center of the global movement The Body Is Not an Apology, which advocates radical self-love as tool for political resistance …

Musician, educator, and historian Dr. Damani Phillips on Black culture and jazz education

* Originally released January 2018 Host Lissa Jones sits down with Dr. Damani Phillips. Dr. Phillips is an active performer, educator and composer. He currently serves as associate professor of jazz Studies and African-American studies at the University of Iowa, where he teaches applied jazz saxophone, directs jazz combos and teaches courses in African-American music, …

Author Erica Armstrong Dunbar: ‘I don’t think there’s a better moment to have a story about a 22 year old black woman defying the President of the United States’

  *Originally released July 2017 Listen: http://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/5580944 In this episode, host Lissa Jones speaks with Erica Armstrong Dunbar about her recent work, Never Caught: The Washington's Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave Ona Judge. We reached her by phone in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dunbar is an author and historian focusing on the experiences of African American women in the context …

Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA with Dr. Duchess Harris, JD, PhD

*Originally released February 2017 In her debut as host of Black Market Reads, Lissa Jones sits down with Macalester College professor and author Duchess Harris to discuss her new book Hidden Human Computers: The Black Women of NASA. This might sound familiar to listeners - the stories told in Harris's book, and stories like them, inspired the …