"Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, it’s uplifting, it’s encouraging, it’s strengthening."
-ARETHA FRANKLIN

News

Milestones: Celebrating the Culture
New Podcast Episodes Now Available From WBGO Studios


NEWARK, NJ (January 11, 2023) – WBGO Studios is proud to announce the release of new episodes of its popular podcast, Milestones: Celebrating the Culture, hosted by Angélika Beener beginning this Friday, January 13. The series dives deep into conversations with a variety of guests from the jazz music industry and beyond to celebrate landmark moments for the culture through in-depth exploration of music, artists, authors and more. Every episode of Milestones offers listeners a unique look at these important cultural moments through the candor and soul of the exchange between guest and host.

Host Angélika Beener is a renowned journalist and jazz historian who has been covering jazz for over two decades. Her interviews are engaging, insightful, and thought-provoking. In each episode, she takes listeners behind-the-scenes as she talks to her guests about their journey in music, what inspires them creatively, and how they’ve made it to where they are today. Milestones is now available for streaming at wbgo.org/studios. It is also available on all major podcasting platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and more.

WBGO is dedicated to celebrating jazz music and its many forms. By bringing the Milestones podcast to WBGO and now launching new episodes under the WBGO Studios umbrella, the public radio station hopes to honor those who have made significant contributions to the world of jazz music while inspiring others to pursue their own musical dreams with passion and dedication.

New episodes are released every other Friday and can be found on all podcast platforms and through WBGO’s website.

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Welcome to the new Kultured Child!

Thank you for visiting my site! I’m so excited to debut my newly renovated website, complete with a brand new look and some new content! Lots more content to come, including some exciting interviews and a brand new merch shop!


MONK @ 103

So honored to have my short essay featured on the official Thelonious Monk website in honor of his 103 birthday. 
The essay focuses on his visit to Palo Alto, CA in 1968 at the invitation of a young, jazz enthusiast during a tumultuous and violent year in American history. Monk performed at the teen’s high school, and thanks to a black custodial worker for the school, it was recorded and now it’s available globally for the first time, ever.


Conversation with Jon Batiste

Check out one of my latest essays for TIDAL, “A Very Powerful Thing Our Ancestors Gave Us”: A Conversation With Jon Batiste
In a new single and in the streets, the pianist and bandleader furthers the great tradition of black American protest.


Meshell Ndegeocello on James Baldwin

I sat down with singer-songwriter-producer Meshell Ndegeocello to talk about James Baldwin for TIDAL’s Songs of Protest & Healing. Ndegeocello discusses her new project, The Gospel of James Baldwin, and how the literary icon influences and informs her own life.
Visit tidal.com/magazine


Tribute to Pete Rock

Check out my tribute essay commemorating legendary producer Pete Rock on TIDAL.
Excerpt: As hip-hop entered its second decade, the art of the sample was evolving and Rock was among the pivotal producers who were mining the archives of black music of the ’60s and ’70s — most notably black improvised music, a.k.a. jazz, and its ceaseless possibilities. But Rock’s tastes were sweeping, and he created an original soundscape using hues of not only jazz but soul, funk, rock, blues and his hip-hop forebears. His music was and is distinctive, esoteric, soulful, raw, deep, pensive, funky and sophisticated. Its brilliance lies in its palpability — in the stunning way it gets to the marrow of black essentiality. 


Kultured Child