Podcast appearances and mentions of helga davis

Get ready for a new season of fearless conversations that reveal the extraordinary in all of us.Critically acclaimed actress, singer, writer and composer Helga Davis returns for a new season of soulful conversations with artists and thinkers from a variety of disciplines, including Brittany Howard, Whitney White, Tremaine Emory, Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, Suzan-Lori Parks, Noliwe Rooks and Sampha. In each episode, Davis and her guest share stories of struggle and resilience, challenges and victories along their creative journeys, providing inspiration and hope to listeners. Unique in the audio landscape for the depth of inquiry and emotional vulnerability, HELGA's thought-provoking conversations offer to expand our collective perspective on the human condition and the daily stressors of the world today. And each episode leaves listeners with something practical and practice-able: an idea for something they can do everyday to help them stay in touch with their own humanity and creativity, whatever form it may take. Season six is the second season co-produced by WNYC Studios, WQXR and the Brown Arts Institute at Brown University.

Shara Nova has released five albums under the moniker My Brightest Diamond and has composed works for The Crossing, Conspirare, Cantus Domus, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Roomful of Teeth, many community choirs, as well as yMusic, Brooklyn Rider, violist Nadia Sirota, Aarhus Symfoni, North Carolina Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, American Composers Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra, among others.In 2019, she composed for over 600 community musicians and the Cincinnati Symphony in celebration of their 125th season, a piece entitled "Look Around," with director Mark DeChiazza. Her baroque chamber p'opera “You Us We All” premiered in the US in October 2015 at BAM Next Wave Festival. With co-composer and performer Helga Davis, Nova created a four-screen film entitled “Ocean Body,” along with director Mark DeChiazza, which premiered at The Momentary in August 2021, shortly followed by the premiere of “Infinite Movement,” her baroque masque for 100 musicians, set to text by artist Matthew Ritchie, which premiered at The University of North Texas in November 2021.Ms. Nova is the featured singer on “The Blue Hour” with the string orchestra A Far Cry and co-composers Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Sarah Kirkland Snider and Caroline Shaw on Nonesuch Records (Sept ‘22). A collection of songs by Nico Muhly with Detroit's acclaimed wind ensemble Akropolis Quintet also features Ms. Nova's voice entitled Hymns for Private Use (Oct ‘22). A number of music composers, including Sarah Kirkland Snider, Bryce and Aaron Dessner, Steve Mackey and David Lang have created works specifically for her voice. She has collaborated with Matthew Barney, The Decemberists, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Sufjan Stevens, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, and many others.Shara has a couple different branches to her life:Singer and Composer Branch: https://shara-nova.com/Pop Music Branch: https://www.mybrightestdiamond.com/Instagram: @mybrightestdiamondTwitter: @MyBrightestDmndWriting on Substack: https://substack.com/profile/91251132-shara-nova

Artist, performer, and host Helga Davis brings a soulful curiosity and love of people to the podcast Helga, where she talks about the intimate lives of creative people as they share the steps they've taken along their path. She draws listeners into these discussions with cultural change-makers, whether already famous or rising talents, whose sensibilities expand our imaginations as we explore what we think we know about each other. The new season of Helga is a co-production of WNYC Studios and the Brown Arts Institute at Brown University. WNYC Studios is a listener-supported producer of other leading podcasts including Radiolab, On the Media, and Death, Sex & Money. The Brown Arts Institute at Brown University is a new university-wide research enterprise and catalyst for the arts at Brown that creates new work and supports, amplifies, and adds new dimensions to the creative practices of Brown's arts departments, faculty, students, and community.

"I love to hear humans just gathering and talking and being and making lots of noise. I like to do that too...just being, and making yourself known and present." Author and performing artist Karen Finley spoke with Helga Davis about the evolution of her early work and what she wants to give her audience now.  Karen Finley is an artist, performer, and author. She is an interdisciplinary artist working in performance, text, sound, music, poetics, film and video, installation, public and social practice art. Born in Chicago she received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her raw and transgressive performances have brought debate, censorship and controversy. Finley was the named plaintiff for the Supreme Court case Finley v. NEA that challenged the decency provision in government grants to artists through the National Endowment for the Arts. Her performances and visual art have been presented internationally such as the Barbican in London, Lincoln Center, New York City, MOMA, the Bobino in Paris, amongst others. Finley is interested in freedom of expression concerns, social justice, gender and sexuality, visual culture, art education, metaphysics and lectures, and gives workshops widely. She is the author of nine books, including her latest, Grabbing Pussy ( OR Books 2018) and the 25th anniversary edition of Shock Treatment by City Lights. Reality Shows Feminist Press 2010) A recipient of many awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, she is an arts professor in Art and Public Policy at New York University. Follow her on Instagram @the_yam_mam Karen Finley is a commissioned artist featured in the Armory's 100 Years |100 Women Project.

“Everything I know about gender politics or gender identity as it's changed and continues to change and shift and be named in all these glorious and intricate ways, have come from 16 year-olds. Thank God for them.” Youth author Jason Reynolds joined Helga Davis to talk about what it means to make work during the pandemic and how important it is to make space for the next generation.  Jason Reynolds is an award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author. Jason's many books include Miles Morales: Spider Man, the Track series (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu), Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Correta Scott King Honor, and Look Both Ways, which was a National Book Award Finalist. His latest book, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, is a collaboration with Ibram X. Kendi. Jason is the 2020-2021 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and CBS This Morning. He is on faculty at Lesley University, for the Writing for Young People MFA Program and lives in Washington, DC. You can find his ramblings at JasonWritesBooks.com.

"How exactly do we listen to images? We listen by feeling. We listen by attending to what I call 'felt sound'." Helga Davis invites Scholar and Author Tina Campt to explore her relationship to her practice and her family, centering the conversation on the power and pleasure of listening to images. Tina L. Campt is Owen F. Walker Professor of Humanities and Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. Campt is a black feminist theorist of visual culture and contemporary art. She leads the Black Visualities Initiative at the Cogut Institute for Humanities and is the founding convenor of the Practicing Refusal Collective. Campt is the author of three books: Other Germans: Black Germans and the Politics of Race, Gender and Memory in the Third Reich(University Michigan Press, 2004), Image Matters: Archive, Photography and the African Diaspora in Europe (Duke University Press, 2012), Listening to Images (Duke University Press, 2017), and most recently, A Black Gaze (MIT Press, 2021). She has held faculty positions at the Technical University of Berlin, the University of California, Santa Cruz, Duke University, and Barnard College, and currently serves as a Research Associate at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre at the University of Johannesburg. Professor Tina Campt has provided scholarly advice and inspiration for many Park Avenue Armory Public Programs over the past six years, most recently as a Keynote Speaker for Theaster Gates's Black Artist Retreat and advisor to the collaborative project 100 Years | 100 Women. 

"I'm curious about how we work. Why we're here. What we're doing to each other, with each other. And I know on a fundamental level that I am so much more capable than I can imagine." Actress & Disability Advocate Marilee Talkington sat down with Helga Davis to talk about her journey towards a life in theater, how she continues to innovate in that space as a low vision actress, and how important it is to be a resource and voice for her community.  Marilee Talkington is a professional actor, writer, director, and filmmaker.  She is also an activist and thought leader in the Disability Justice and Arts movement and is the Founder and Executive Director of Access Acting Academy, which is a 1st-of-its-kind professional actor training studio for blind and low vision actors. She is one of the 1st legally blind women in the United States to earn an M.F.A. in Acting (American Conservatory Theater) and has originated over 80 characters on stage and screen with leading roles at Tony Award winning theaters under the direction of Broadway directors.  She has also recurred and guest starred on multiple television shows on NBC, CBS, CW, and Apple TV+.   Marilee is a MacDowell Fellow, California Center for Cultural Innovation Grantee, Winner of the A.C.T. Carol Channing Trouper Award for dedication and excellence,  a recipient of the 2020 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award, one of Park Armory's Artist/Activist 100 years / 100 women, and most recently the voice at the Guggenheim museum that describes the approach to the architectural masterpiece.  www.marileetalkington.com | www.accessacting.com | imdb.me/marileetalkington | @anartistwarrior Marilee Talkington is a commissioned artist of Park Avenue Armory's collaborative project 100 Years |100 Women.

"When I look outside, when I go to the front door. That is my new canvas. Today. It's not really what happens in the studio. It's what happens outside of the studio." Visual Artist Nick Cave joins Helga Davis to talk about the evolution of his sculptural work, his community collaborations, and how to move from Black sorrow to Black excellence.  Nick Cave (b. 1959, Fulton, MO; lives and works in Chicago, IL) is an artist, educator and foremost a messenger, working between the visual and performing arts through a wide range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video, sound and performance.  Cave is well known for his Soundsuits, sculptural forms based on the scale of his body, initially created in direct response to the police beating of Rodney King in 1991. Soundsuits camouflage the body, masking and creating a second skin that conceals race, gender and class, forcing the viewer to look without judgment. They serve as a visual embodiment of social justice that represent both brutality and empowerment. The Let Go, Cave's Park Avenue Armory Commission, premiered in June 2018. 

Artist, performer and host Helga Davis brings a soulful curiosity and love of people to the podcast Helga: The Armory Conversations. This season, in partnership with Park Avenue Armory, she continues to draw the listener into her profound and intimate conversations with creative people, famous and lesser known.  Artists, scholars, and cultural change-makers join her to share the steps they've taken along their paths. Where they started, where they are and where they're going next.   These inspiring conversations expand our world and our imaginations as we explore what we think we know about each other. 

On June 19 at 7 PM, Lincoln Center will present I Dream a Dream That Dreams Back at Me: A Juneteenth Celebration, curated by artist and poet Carl Hancock Rux and featuring a variety of performances from Nona Hendryx, Vernon Reid, and Toshi Reagon & BIGLovely, as well as WQXR host and singer Helga Davis, who will present “a musical recitation of a deconstructed National Anthem.” Rux and Davis join us to preview the event.

Helga Davis, musician, artist, Carolina Performing Arts artist in residence speaks with us on the life of an interdisciplinary artist!

Join us in the studio as we talk to a few of the people very involved in the making of this tribute ..I also want to thank BMG for there help in making this interview happen along with the Special guests who also played a HUGE role in helping to bring this to the airwaves .. “AngelHeaded Hipster,” a long-percolating tribute album to Marc Bolan and T. Rex — featuring U2, Elton John, Nick Cave, Joan Jett, Lucinda Williams and Father John Misty, and which is a companion to a forthcoming documentary film on the legendary rocker The project features Nick Cave, Marc Almond, Helga Davis, Jesse Harris, Joan Jett, Kesha, BØRNS, Gavin Friday, Maria McKee, Father John Misty, Devendra Banhart, Perry Farrell, Beth Orton, U2 with Elton John, Todd Rundgren, John Cameron Mitchell, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Nena, Gaby Moreno, Emily Haines, King Khan, Lucinda Williams and Victoria Williams with Julian Lennon and more.

Genre-bending, re-imaginings of masters past and present, and eclectic alliances of musicians from different scenes and background are at the heart of this week's roll-call of new and upcoming releases, with the latest albums by Jyoti (a.k.a. Georgia Anne Muldrow), and Hal Willner, deserving special attention. We wrap things up with Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah infusing electric-era Miles' "Guinnevere" with the spirit of "Sketches of Spain". The playlist also features Butcher Brown, Ezra Collective, Yaya Bey, Gil Scott-Heron, Makaya McCraven, Helga Davis, Lakecia Benjamin, Roy Ayers, Josh Johnson, Sean Khan and Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. Detailed playlist at https://spinitron.com/RFB/pl/11596865/Mondo-Jazz (up to Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah). Happy listening!

While In Conversations is on summer break, James Bennett sat down with Davóne Tines for a special episode as part of the Mostly Mozart on WQXR Festival to talk about his chamber Opera "The Black Clown", the relationship between Bach's music and R&B, and how sometimes just being in the room (or on stage) is already a form of protest.  Listen to exclusive selections from Black Clown on Friday, August 14 at 11 pm for a Little Night Music, hosted by Helga Davis, and read more about The Black Clown here. James Bennett, HostMax Fine, ProducerGeorge Wellington, Technical ProducerLukas Krohn-Grimberghe, Executive Producer      

In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, we here at the New York Neo-Futurists are taking a moment of pause – to deeply pay attention to the voices of our community that are asking us to listen, and to activate our roles in refusing to tune out.   Instead of this week’s regular episodes of Hit Play, we're featuring an episode of Helga from WNYC Studios and WQXR. Take a listen, subscribe to, and share their work.   On this show, Helga Davis brings a soulful curiosity and love of people to her "Everyday Conversations with Extraordinary People”. Her guest on this episode is Elizabeth Alexander, poet, educator, memoirist, and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation President.   Helga is produced by Krystal Hawes, technical direction by Curtis MacDonald, executive produced by Lukas Krohn-Grimberghe.   Hit Play's logo was designed by Shelton Lindsay Hit Play is produced by Anthony Sertel Dean, Julia Melfi, and Léah Miller Take care

Artist, performer and host Helga Davis brings a soulful curiosity and love of people to the podcast Helga. In Season 3, she continues to draw the listener into her profound and intimate conversations with creative people, famous and lesser known. Musicians, visual artists, writers, and chefs join her to share the steps they’ve taken along their paths. Where they started, where they are and where they’re going next. These inspiring conversations expand our world and our imaginations as we explore what we think we know about each other. Season III kicks off on April 14th with broadcaster and bestselling author Krista Tippett.

Courtney Bryan’s remarkable As Yet Unheard, a work for orchestra and chorus, commemorates Sandra Bland’s tragic death in police custody in 2013. Using the text of Sharan Strange’s poem, soprano Helga Davis speaks to us in Bland’s voice, prodding us to relive the circumstances of her death and to seek answers to painful questions too long unasked. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33856]

Courtney Bryan’s remarkable "Yet Unheard," a work for orchestra and chorus, commemorates Sandra Bland’s tragic death in police custody in 2013. Using the text of Sharan Strange’s poem, soprano Helga Davis speaks to us in Bland’s voice, prodding us to relive the circumstances of her death and to seek answers to painful questions too long unasked. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33856]

Courtney Bryan’s remarkable As Yet Unheard, a work for orchestra and chorus, commemorates Sandra Bland’s tragic death in police custody in 2013. Using the text of Sharan Strange’s poem, soprano Helga Davis speaks to us in Bland’s voice, prodding us to relive the circumstances of her death and to seek answers to painful questions too long unasked. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33856]

Courtney Bryan’s remarkable As Yet Unheard, a work for orchestra and chorus, commemorates Sandra Bland’s tragic death in police custody in 2013. Using the text of Sharan Strange’s poem, soprano Helga Davis speaks to us in Bland’s voice, prodding us to relive the circumstances of her death and to seek answers to painful questions too long unasked. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33856]

Courtney Bryan’s remarkable As Yet Unheard, a work for orchestra and chorus, commemorates Sandra Bland’s tragic death in police custody in 2013. Using the text of Sharan Strange’s poem, soprano Helga Davis speaks to us in Bland’s voice, prodding us to relive the circumstances of her death and to seek answers to painful questions too long unasked. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33856]

Courtney Bryan’s remarkable "Yet Unheard," a work for orchestra and chorus, commemorates Sandra Bland’s tragic death in police custody in 2013. Using the text of Sharan Strange’s poem, soprano Helga Davis speaks to us in Bland’s voice, prodding us to relive the circumstances of her death and to seek answers to painful questions too long unasked. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33856]

Courtney Bryan’s remarkable "Yet Unheard," a work for orchestra and chorus, commemorates Sandra Bland’s tragic death in police custody in 2013. Using the text of Sharan Strange’s poem, soprano Helga Davis speaks to us in Bland’s voice, prodding us to relive the circumstances of her death and to seek answers to painful questions too long unasked. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33856]

Courtney Bryan’s remarkable "Yet Unheard," a work for orchestra and chorus, commemorates Sandra Bland’s tragic death in police custody in 2013. Using the text of Sharan Strange’s poem, soprano Helga Davis speaks to us in Bland’s voice, prodding us to relive the circumstances of her death and to seek answers to painful questions too long unasked. Series: "La Jolla Symphony & Chorus" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 33856]

Show notes: resonantbodiefestival.org/podcast/2018/helga-davis-show-notes

Kimberly Drew, also known online as @museummammy, is a unrelenting, taste-making purveyor of art, fashion and culture. Her work has appeared in Glamour and W magazines, as well as Teen Vogue and The Fader. Across her varied platforms, from social media manager at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to her powerful blog, Black Contemporary Art, to her influencer Instagram account, Drew strives to shape a brighter future through inspiring art and advocacy. She joins host Helga Davis in this episode to discuss the importance of mental health, what it really means to work in the art world, and how drinking water helps her keep the beat. "You're inundated with so much information. But when given the privilege of time, it can be an opportunity for intense, expansive interaction." -Kimberly Drew Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

Composers and musicians meet in a “speed dating” style at the New Music Gathering at Boston Conservatory at Berklee in Boston, Massachusetts New Music Gathering is an annual three-day conference dedicated to the performance, production, promotion, support and creation of new concert music held at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. This year's keynote speaker is Helga Davis, host of Q2, who discusses this year's conference theme: accessibility. Performances include Matt Marks, Hub New Music, Sarah Bob, and the Boston-based Firebird Ensemble. Hosted by Seth Boustead Produced by Sarah Zwinklis Music Soul House by Rob Honstein Hub New Music She Thinks of Him Adam Tendler Adam Tendler, electronics and vocal Penetration Overture by Matt Marks Matt Marks, performer; Mellissa Hughes, performer OMG I'm Shot by Matt Marks Matt Marks, performer; Mellissa Hughes, performer Dark Flowers; I: Black Baccara by Jonathan Bailey Holland Christopher Chaffee, flute; Joshua Nemith, piano Mud Wrestling at the OK Corral by Eric Moe Firebird Ensemble; Jeffrey Means, Conductor; Sarah Bob, soloist

Teacher, author and speaker, David Kyuman Kim shares the concept of "radical love" in halls and on college campuses across the country as well as on his former podcast, Love-Driven Politics. In 2015, David presented a TEDx Talk on the topic at Connecticut College where he is also a Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies and the Peace and Conflict Coordinator. In this episode, David joins host Helga Davis to discuss the role of community and love in this nation during a critical time in our history. "People are eating a lot of things, but I think those things are eating them alive. Like anger, like enmity, like vitriol, like contempt. You eat those things and they eat you. You consume those things and they consume you. And to go to your neighbors, to as you say make an argument, you're not really making an argument. You're actually inviting them into a different way of life. And that's a powerful thing." -David Kyuman Kim Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

Author Jacqueline Woodson won the 2014 National Book Award for Brown Girl Dreaming, and this past January began her two-year tenure as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature; her latest book Another Brooklyn was a New York Times best-seller. In this conversation, host Helga Davis sits down to talk with Woodson about family – the alternative one she was born into and the one she made for herself. Finding the ones with whom she can connect has been invaluable for her; here she shares how she made her community and how they have influenced her process. "For me the extended family is about having more parenting tools. [...] And then we have to make other decisions, we're a biracial family, right? We're a two-mom family, we're not going to send our kid to a school where they're the only kid of color, or the only kid in the class with two moms or two dads. So we had to, from a very early age, start investigating which schools are going to see my kid as wholly human." –Jacqueline Woodson Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

Director, playwright and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan is widely known for winning the Oscar for best original screenplay at the 89th Academy Awards for his film Manchester By the Sea, and as a co-writer on Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. In this episode, host Helga Davis and Lonergan work through their shared upbringing at the Walden School in New York – exploring memories both charged and powerfully formative – while also exploring daily rituals and what it means to fuel one's creativity. "Without cultural appropriation there is no culture. Especially in this country. I know what it means, but I know that it's misapplied when it's taken to that [extreme] degree and it becomes meaningless. You can't name an artist, a writer, or anybody who puts anything out in any kind of creative capacity, who doesn't appropriate left and right from all kinds of cultures and influences." -Kenneth Lonergan Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

Thelma Golden is the director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, an appointee to President Obama's Committee for the Preservation of the White House, and the recipient of the 2016 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. In this conversation, the first of the second season of our Helga podcast, Golden discusses being taught canon revision with her father growing up, her first memories of seeing the world through art, and the rituals she need to get through the day. "I exist perpetually, but also for me, very beautifully, constantly in motion. And I love that and it's how I think of myself and see myself. So in order to be with myself, I need to find some stillness." -Thelma Golden Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

Stockard Channing and Anna Sale recreate the Review's 1956 interview with Dorothy Parker; writer Idra Novey talks about the taste of the letter "H"; Helga Davis reads Alexia Arthurs short story BAD BEHAVIOR; acclaimed playwright John Guare shares former Review editor Blair Fuller's true story AN EVENING WITH JD SALINGER; and Jeff Gleaves, the Review's Digital Director, recites Elena Wilkinson's poem AFTER THE LOSS OF A LIMB.

Hilton Als is an intellectual omnivore who roots his art and criticism in reality and a search for the truth. A writer, New Yorker theater critic, curator, photographer, director and professor, Als’s work gracefully slips between genres to comment on contemporary American politics, pop culture and the African-American experience and to place the current condition in a longer history. In this tenth and final episode of the first season of Helga, Als and Davis talk about what he learned living next to Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, and how to get comfortable owning your anger and art-making. "Don’t worry. Don’t be good. Be ruthless in making the most beautiful thing you can do." -Hilton Als Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

Playwright and stage actress Sarah Jones dexterously hops from one character to the next. In her one-woman shows, she seamlessly slips into characters of different class, race and gender backgrounds. Her award-winning multi-character performances cover topics such as sex work, post-9/11 America and racism in the healthcare system and illuminate the differences and strengths between one another. Jones and Davis talk self-worth and self-love in a culture that teaches self-alienation. "Hurt people hurt people. But guess what? Free people free people. And if I can find the space within where I am free no matter what, where I can find the Mandela on my own scale. All of a sudden, I am a free radical. In a good way. [...] And by the way, this does not elevate me to sainthood. I am messy. I still get in the car and be cranky if the traffic, etc. But just to see it. Just to have enough space and a pause. Get still. What is so unforgivable about this moment?" -Sarah Jones Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

When soprano Julia Bullock took the stage recently to sing the legacy and history of Josephine Baker, the groundbreaking African-American singer and performer who fought in the civil rights movement, she didn’t dress it up. There was no marcelled hair, no banana skirt. Just a woman using her voice to speak truth to power and telling the story of a woman who paved the way. Her star ascending, the Juilliard-trained Bullock and Davis talk about what can and can’t be processed through performance and what it means to find your voice and your place in the world. "One of the best things that my teacher from Juilliard and from Bard taught me is: Start from zero every morning. Don’t wake up and say to yourself, 'Oh right, I had so good yesterday.' Don’t think about the past. Don’t think about where you’re wanting to go later. Just start from zero and deal every day with the body that you’ve got. And that might be the best lesson that I’ve ever been taught by anyone." -Julia Bullock Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

For conductor Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, an attentive and hungry audience is one of the essential parts of creating a transcendent musical experience. That’s why he scatters his Musica Viva choir at All Souls Church on the Upper East Side throughout the church. So the audience is in the middle of the action. In this conversation, Davis and Hernandez-Valdez talk about the challenges of managing both choirs and audience, the meditative qualities of live choral music, and the capability of music to transcend daily life to a spiritual plane. “In a way it’s like soul saving. I really see music as a spiritual experience. For some people a religious experience. When you’re in the middle of a piece of music that is really really meaningful, you’re transcending human life. You become one with your spirit.” -Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

Alan Gilbert believes that conducting an orchestra is a process of “letting go together.” When the energy between a conductor and an orchestra is right, he says, it’s almost impossible to tell who’s leading who. After eight seasons at the helm of the New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert is ready to step down. In his wake, he leaves a formidable legacy of experimentation that expanded not just what an orchestra can and will do, but who it’s for. Gilbert and Davis sat down in his office to talk about what he means by serving a community, the moments in performance he lives for, and how maybe he could've benefited from throwing tantrums and showing his stress more. “You have to set something motion that is so inevitable that it goes that way and you don’t have to continue to do anything in order for it to go that way, because that is the only possible way it could go. And then you just follow. But what you’re doing is that you’re following something that you created. You’ve set it in motion and it’s exactly what you want but you don’t have to look as if you’re making it happen as it happens.” —Alan Gilbert on successful conducting Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

Solange is determined to express herself fully and with integrity. The musician, singer and songwriter has been writing music since she was in the fourth grade.  In this episode of Helga, Solange and host Helga Davis retrace the pop-star’s journey from being a young mother in Idaho with a major-record publishing deal, to self-autonomy and accountability in the music business. The two also discuss the themes behind her recent album, A Seat at the Table, of living authentically and of owning your voice, body and art while being black and beautiful in contemporary America. "Working out how to develop those tools through my art and through the conversation of my music to where now I actually feel much better, much more equipped to have those conversations. I actually had to go through the rage and the frustration and the mourning and the protest and the meditation through the album to get to the other side, to be able to have those conversations, no matter where I'm being targeted. I can stand firm in that and strong and with my shoulders and my head high." —Solange Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on Facebook.

Violin soloist Jennifer Koh has never cancelled a gig. Even when she had pneumonia, bronchitis and strep throat... at the same time. That drive comes through in the intensity of her live performances and the fierceness of her determination. In this conversation, Davis speaks with her colleague in the recent revival of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's epic opera Einstein on the Beach about the toll her exacting performance takes on the body, the empathy required for a truly transcendent live show, and trusting that your personal perspective and experiences will resonate for others.p> “You can just feel the edge of somebody’s hair. You’re with them and they’re with you. It’s a shared empathy and shared visceral communication.” -Jennifer Koh on being in the moment. Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on facebook.

Henry Threadgill wants to know how to build the house. Whether it's Moby Dick or jazz composition, the 72-year-old jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist has spent his life figuring out what goes into building the greatest works of arts. At three years of age, he started teaching himself to play piano by mimicking the boogie-woogie on the radio. From there, he set to figuring out how to compose his own music. Recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Threadgill talks with Helga about giving license to your imagination in order to create, the life energy that connects a performer to his creations, and pushing yourself to go beyond excellence to greatness. “People have different names for the life force in them. But it’s energy. The only thing that science seems to be able to tell us about energy is you can’t destroy it. You can change it but you cannot destroy it. So wherever you house it, it’s only being housed until it has to change.” –Henry Threadgill This conversation contains explicit language that some listeners may find offensive. Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on facebook.

After moving to Detroit from New York and separating from her husband, My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden decided to change her last name to Nova. The frontwoman for the indie-rock band, singer and composer talks to Helga Davis about about her upcoming album and Southern roots, about leaning into vulnerability, and why being uncomfortable is crucial in art-making. She also talks about why it was important for her to escape the art scene and rub shoulders with construction workers, and what it means that her new name translates to "new song." “Vulnerability is I think one thing that I, we, I am so afraid of. We want control or perceived control and I think art-making is like subjecting yourself to this admission that you don’t have control. So I think that many, or maybe all, of my decisions are motivated by challenge, and in a way where I find where my vulnerability is, is the exact place that I need to lean into.” –Shara Nova Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on facebook. Watch: Inside Shara Nova's Mystical Detroit Home, from the web series Q2 Spaces.

From the home of the Peabody Award-winning Meet the Composer, Q2 Music is proud today to launch the first season of a 10-part podcast, Helga. Hosted by internationally acclaimed singer Helga Davis, Helga features probing conversations with creative and performing artists who have fiercely unique voice and a stake in the matter of social change. The premiere episode features opera and theater director Peter Sellars, one of the most all-around inspiring people you'll ever come across. The acclaimed, unconventional Sellars invites himself and audiences to embrace challenge and push their emotional and spiritual boundaries. His outlook on life and creativity is informed by the belief that hell is just a branch of heaven when correctly viewed. Davis and Sellars talk about his work with the Flexn dancers and Bach's St. Matthew Passion, his sister who runs a dance machine arcade for teenagers in Las Vegas, and how he still isn't sure what he's been put here for. “The actual script of your life is way better than the script you wrote. What you had in mind is just not interesting compared to what happened. And always what happened is way deeper, way more challenging in one way but always way more pleasurable in another, because you do have to surrender and you just have to enjoy falling forward and not being able to catch yourself.” –Peter Sellars Subscribe to Helga on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow Helga Davis on facebook. Watch: Helga Davis hosts "Peter Sellars and Friends from The Greene Space at WQXR."

Q2 Music is thrilled to offer an advance listen to Helga, a new podcast that features conversations with diverse, uncompromising and socially conscious artists across the creative and performing arts spectrum. Launching next week with two episodes — acclaimed opera director Peter Sellars (Monday, Nov. 14) and singer and My Brightest Diamond bandleader Shara Nova (Tuesday, Nov. 15) — Helga's first season will continue with 10 episodes released Mondays through Jan. 9. Get a sneak peek of excerpts from the first few episodes in the audio above, and please help new audiences discover Helga by giving the show a rating and review on iTunes. “Artists play an important role on the front lines of social change, often confronting issues in ways that touch people more intimately than political rhetoric. I couldn’t be more excited (and nervous!) to launch this podcast, and to speak with artists across the creative spectrum who display a radical autonomy in their work, and actively push against their place in the larger community and culture — and show us how we can too.” — Helga Davis Subscribe to Helga on iTunes. About the host: Helga Davis is a sought-after vocalist for anyone who had something experimental or difficult to communicate. She has collaborated with noted musicians including Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Nona Hendryx, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Shara Nova and Paola Prestini — who in 2012, wrote the chamber opera Oceanic Verses for her. During that year, she was also chosen from among 40 performers to star as principal in the international revival of Robert Wilson’s and Philip Glass’s landmark opera Einstein on the Beach. Read more.