The Blurry Line Between Appropriation And Appreciation
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2023
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This summer, producer Regina de Heer explored diaspora stories through the lens of music. In this installment, she meets someone whose identity is more complex than what we hear in the mainstream:
Nodia Mena is a Lecturer of Spanish in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She gave a TEDx talk a few years ago about her background as a Garifuna person born in Honduras, now living in the United States. Growing up in Honduras, her people’s story was never included in history books.
This is part of our Summer 2023 Music Playlist series. You can listen to the full series on our “Specials” page, and listen to another episode here:
A Song to “Define the Most African Moment of My Life” (7/24/2023)
Tell us what you think. Instagram and X (Twitter): @noteswithkai. Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or going to Instagram and clicking on the link in our bio.
“Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My Diaspora story, that's a tall order, but I will tell you a song. |
| 0:08.6 | I grew up with my white family and the American self. |
| 0:11.8 | There weren't any other someone's around, so I didn't grow up knowing much of my culture |
| 0:15.9 | other than summer visits to the island. |
| 0:17.9 | It happened to us DC, the knowledge that I don't belong here, I don't belong there. |
| 0:23.7 | It is my destiny as part of the diaspora to always be on the go and to carry my home |
| 0:29.3 | on my shoulders with me. |
| 0:30.7 | As I've grown up and learned more about myself, I feel more and more connected to that side |
| 0:35.7 | of me and I'd love to explore more about it and have the melody that transports me to |
| 0:40.9 | my enchanting country, if this feels like home and in the song there's also a feeling |
| 0:47.6 | of longing and of affection towards our different homes. |
| 0:59.3 | It's Notes from America, I'm Kai Wright, and Happy Labor Day Weekend. |
| 1:15.8 | It is the unofficial end of summer, sadly if you ask me, and that means it's time to |
| 1:21.3 | wrap up the second annual Notes from America Summer playlist project. |
| 1:26.6 | So I'm joined once again by our producer Regina DeHir, hey Regina. |
| 1:30.5 | Hi Kai. |
| 1:31.5 | So you've been asking listeners to share songs that represent their personal diaspora |
| 1:36.6 | stories all summer, and you've been taking those submissions and creating Spotify |
| 1:40.5 | playlists that listeners can stream. |
| 1:42.4 | Yes, we've made three playlists so far, and they're available to stream right now at |
| 1:48.2 | www.nyc.org slash playlist. |
| 1:52.4 | They are really special, so listeners, if you missed it, go check it out. |
... |
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