Margo Jefferson: We Must ‘Go On’

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2022

⏱️ 71 minutes

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Summary

Today, we sit with author and cultural critic Margo Jefferson. We begin with her new book, Constructing a Nervous System (6:54), an early Ella Fitzgerald memory (11:20), and the said (and unsaid) racial pedagogy of her childhood (16:24), defined by Condoleezza Rice (19:54), Bing Crosby (24:18), and a formative interaction at a high school party (27:49).

On the back-half, we walk through Margo’s entry into criticism (34:27), her role in the emerging feminist movement (36:46), and what real allyship looks like in the continued fight for reproductive rights (40:12). To close, Margo discusses her approach in the classroom at Columbia (41:52), finding ‘temperamental kinship’ in Nina Simone (48:59), Oscar Wilde on the role of the critic (53:15), and how, at 74, she continues to “go on” (1:04:50).

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm Sam For author and cultural critic Margo Jefferson.
0:47.0	Margo was formerly at the New York Times where she won a Pulitzer at Columbia University, she's writing herself. She's published two of my favorite memoirs in recent memory.
1:07.8	The first book is called Negro Land, which charts her operating in Chicago, coming of age in the 50s and 60s.
1:16.0	In her new book constructing a nervous system she blends personal history with cultural critique, writing on subjects like feminism, black power, literature, music, mental health, and more.
1:30.0	Margot and I spoke the day before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
1:35.0	We do discuss the potential ruling, but if you haven't heard our episode with Supreme Court
1:40.2	lawyer Neil Katial from last week, I'd encourage you to seek that out.
1:45.0	Leaving that conversation with Neil, I felt no one wants to be right about something so wrong.
1:53.2	And I imagine many of you feel that way today.
1:56.8	It's a feeling that began with Donald Trump in 2016,
2:00.8	a feeling that persisted with Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation in 2018 and then again
2:07.0	with Justice Ginsburg's passing in 2020. The writing was on the wall, it was clearly there for everyone to see, and yet none of that
2:16.9	writing, none of that forecasting, none of that ease the pain of this decision.
2:22.4	General Wertam, who co-host the show still processing with Wesley Morris,
2:27.0	both of whom have been on this podcast.
2:29.0	She wrote something that
2:33.7	captures the feeling I'm trying to get at. She said, intellectually knowing that something is coming
2:37.3	does not prepare you for the devastation in the body
2:40.8	when it hits.
2:42.1	The 6-3 decision from the Supreme Court was not a surprise.
2:46.3	We knew it was coming, but the devastation in the body, there is no preparation for that. We know this is not about babies because if it was
2:55.9	about babies there would be universal health care. There would be free education.
	...

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