Banjo Maestro Rhiannon Giddens Has Broken Many Musical Barriers. Now She Is Working with Beyoncé.

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Democracy Now!

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4.7 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2024

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

It’s been a busy period for the pioneering musical artist Rhiannon Giddens. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her opera Omar, about Omar ibn Said, a Muslim scholar in Africa who was sold into slavery in the 1800s. She released a remarkable musical video for her song “Another Wasted Life” featuring 22 people who were wrongly incarcerated. And now her banjo playing can be heard on “Texas Hold ’Em,” the new hit single by Beyoncé, who recently became the first Black woman to top _Billboard_’s Hot Country Songs chart. In October, Rhiannon Giddens spoke to Democracy Now! about her remarkable life, from her work in The Carolina Chocolate Drops to her new album, You’re the One, which features a song inspired by Kalief Browder.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is democracy now, democracy now.
0:05.0	Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.
0:09.0	I'm Amy Goodman.
0:10.0	Another Wasted Life.
0:12.0	That's the name of a remarkable new song by the Pulitzer Prize winning,
0:17.0	Grammy-winning artist, Rianna Giddens.
0:20.0	She released a video of the song on October 2nd
0:23.0	to mark International Wrongful Conviction Day.
0:25.9	The song was inspired by Caliph Browder,
0:28.6	a Bronx resident who died by suicide in 2015
0:32.2	at the age of 22 after being detained at Rikers Island
0:37.2	jail from nearly three years after being falsely accused at the age of 16 of stealing a backpack.
0:46.0	He was held in solitary confinement for two years and was repeatedly assaulted by guards and other prisoners.
0:54.0	In the video for another wasted life, Rian and Giddens features 22 people who are wrongly incarcerated.
1:01.0	Together, they collectively serve more than 500 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit.
1:07.0	The video includes two men, David Bryan and Tyrone Jones, who each spent 40 years in prison.
1:14.4	Another seven of the men each spent over 25 years locked up after wrongful convictions.
1:21.4	Ryan and Giddens made the video in partnership with the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
1:26.5	This is an excerpt.
1:27.5	Another day, another youth
1:36.4	Another story mango truth
1:51.1	The commentary true the commentary uncoup then full of cloudy green. agree.
	...

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