⭐ Subscribe to the Drafting the Past newsletter FREE for book reviews, publishing news, and more. Upgrade to a paid subscription and get exclusive content, ad-free episodes and articles, and more perks. Your support enables us to keep making episodes, publishing reviews, and shining a spotlight on nonfiction history books.
In her new book, Freedom’s Gate, Soyica Diggs Colbert focuses on the young adult friendships of five Black woman artists—Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Abbey Lincoln, Miriam Makeba, and Nina Simone—and the New York nightclub that offered them a performance venue, a platform, and a place to connect with their friends. It’s a group biography that explores the importance of friendship in developing the women we now remember as iconic Black artists and Civil Rights activists.
Listen to the episode to learn:
Why her biography of Lorraine Hansberry led to a group biography
How she prioritizes writing even with a busy schedule as an administrator
Why keeping up on new music and plays is crucial to Soyica’s process
The role of timelines in crafting the narrative
Her approach to translating music and performance to the page
How she focused on the texture and uncertainty of these young women and their friendships, before they became icons
ABOUT THE GUEST
Soyica Diggs Colbert is the Idol Family at Georgetown University. She is a recipient of the Guggenheim fellowship and the author of the award-winning book, RadicalVision: A Biography of Lorraine Hansberry and the new book Freedom's Gate. She has also held Colbert’s writing has been featured in the The New York Times, Washington Post, Public Books and American Theatre. She has been interviewed on NPR and commented for the New YorkTimes, USA Today, CNN, and the Washington Post. She was an Associate Director at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. and served as a Creative Content Producer for The Public Theatre’s audio play, shadow/land. Her research interests span the 19th-21st centuries, from Harriet Tubman to Beyoncé, and from poetics to performance.
📚 Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links. When you purchase books through these links, a small portion of your purchase helps to support Drafting the Past (not to mention independent bookstores and authors!).
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
DTP Media LLC. Innehållet i podden är skapat av DTP Media LLC och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
