Roxane Gay + Celisse + Toshi Reagon

Bestselling author Roxane Gay reads a piece called "Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You," about love in the pandemic, and making a home with her wife, Debbie Milman. Songwriter and actor Celisse talks about writing her song, and about properly understanding the work of rock pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharp. Songwriter, composer, and producer Toshi Reagon speaks about how she constructed her song, "You Belong," to echo the structure of Gay's piece, and about the connections between Tharp and pioneering writer Octavia Butler, whose novel Parable of the Sower, Reagon made into an opera. This episode was recorded during a live performance co-produced with Harlem School of the Arts.