What Does It Mean to be Free?
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2023
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ayana Mathis joins us to discuss her new novel, The Unsettled. It’s an intergenerational story centered around one Black family’s struggle to find freedom in the 1980s. Like her previous work, migration and movement are major themes in the book. But this time, her characters are at a crossroads, unsure of their next step in search for self-determination. Ayana breaks down the characters in her gripping novel, the questions which torment them, and her own journey grappling with those themes.
During this episode, Kai refers to a previous episode about our Future of Black History series featuring Saidiya Hartman: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/episodes/beautiful-experiments-left-out-black-history
Check out more about our Future of Black History series here: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/projects/future-black-history
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 | How would you define freedom? |
| 0:04.0 | I do want to find freedom to be able to be in my own body in any space at any time. |
| 0:09.7 | An extension of my ancestors, like what they didn't have for freedom, I do wholeheartedly |
| 0:15.6 | I multiply it to honor them. |
| 0:17.4 | Oh my gosh, it's heavy as feeling like your obligation is your own happiness and well-being |
| 0:24.9 | as the ability should do what you want to do but not in a way that would hurt somebody |
| 0:31.8 | else for me to dance, as to be accepted for who you truly are and no one's saying anything |
| 0:37.9 | about it. |
| 0:38.9 | As a soul that is free from suffering, as no limitations put upon a person, as being |
| 0:45.1 | able to speak without permission. |
| 0:47.4 | It shouldn't be, can I? |
| 0:48.8 | It is what it is, I woke up, I'm free. |
| 0:54.9 | It's Notes from America, I'm Kai Wright, welcome to the show. |
| 1:14.8 | Iana Mathis published her first novel in 2013. |
| 1:18.3 | It was an intimate and wrenching family story stretching across generations and set in |
| 1:23.7 | the midst of what's known as the Great Migration, the movement of millions of black people from |
| 1:28.1 | the south to the north and the west throughout the early 20th century. |
| 1:32.1 | The book became a New York Times bestseller and NPR called it One of That Year's Best |
| 1:36.5 | Reads. |
| 1:37.9 | This week, Iana Mathis publishes her second novel. |
| 1:41.1 | It's called The Unsettled and it's again an intergenerational story of a black family |
| 1:45.8 | but while migration and movement remain a theme, we now meet our characters at a crossroads |
... |
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