ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
When you hear the word protest, different sounds might come to mind.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
MICHELLE TYRENE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Sometimes protest sounds like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Shouting) Say her name.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Shouting) Breonna Taylor.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Shouting) Say her name.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Shouting) Breonna Taylor.
JOHNSON: Sometimes it sounds like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FIGHT THE POWER, PARTS 1 & 2")
THE ISLEY BROTHERS: (Singing) You got to fight the powers that be.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Inaudible).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THIS IS AMERICA")
DONALD GLOVER: (Rapping) This is America.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing) Say her name. Say her name.
JOHNSON: Sometimes, it's silent.
FLORIDO: That is the voice of Michelle Tyrene Johnson, the host of Race Unwrapped from Louisville Public Media. The show is in its fifth season, and it explores the way that race is embedded in society, sometimes in ways that we don't even think about. Past seasons have looked at race and language, race and humor, and race and democracy. And this season, Johnson is looking at art and how it has played a part in protest and social change. And Michelle Tyrene Johnson joins me now. Welcome.
JOHNSON: Hi. Thank you for having me.
FLORIDO: So your first episode of this season, which I really enjoyed listening to, you speak with someone who a lot of people might not think of as an artist - Stacey Abrams. She ran for governor of Georgia in 2018. She's a voting rights advocate, but she also writes fiction novels, specifically, that are love stories or thrillers that are actually about bigger social issues like democracy, AI, government, power. Well, why Stacey Abrams?
JOHNSON: Well, I got to be honest. I have a little bit of a political artistic crush on Stacey because I am a former attorney. And so when I found out that, you know, a few years ago, that she also wrote fiction, and I'm a playwright, also, who no longer practices law, but I was like, oh, my God. Like, she's in the community of those of us who have, like, the jobs that people are very impressed by, but that - who do art, who write stories, who tell stories. And I just thought that she would be a really good bridge guest between last season's discussion about voting and politics and democracy and this season talking about art as protest or art as a way of expressing social justice.
FLORIDO: Did she say anything that really got you to think about art in a different way?
JOHNSON: You know, when I talked to her, she said something that reinforced for me that all art is really about storytelling. It just takes a different form.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
STACEY ABRAMS: The fiction writing that I do has always been about how do I take those component pieces of the lives we lead and the people we are and knit them together in a story gives us a bit of education and knowledge, a bit of intrigue and romance. But most of all, how do we create a world that we want to keep visiting again and again?
JOHNSON: That, to me, ends up being what the whole season is about - that it's easy for me as a writer to think about writing something as storytelling, but all art is.
FLORIDO: You mentioned that you are a playwright. Did reporting this season change the way you think about your own work as a playwright?
JOHNSON: Yes and no. I mean, there are probably people who think that I just write about race and racism, and, you know, that probably is 90% accurate. But it just - in doing the season and talking to such a wide variety of people, it just made me realize that, again, art is so unique in how it speaks the language of a protest. I mean, I've been a newspaper reporter. I've been an employment attorney. I've been a diversity and inclusion speaker and facilitator, and now I'm a public radio journalist, right?
And while I can talk about race in all of those professions, there's nothing like writing a fictional play, especially if I'm also bringing in history, that allows me to write about the big-T Truth instead of just focusing on the journalism truth of what happened today. How did that connect to what happened yesterday? How does that predict what may happen tomorrow? You know, with playwriting, and all art, you get to decide what door you're going to walk through to talk about that story?
FLORIDO: What do you hope listeners come away with, broadly, after listening to this season, in terms of how they think about race or protest or art?
JOHNSON: You know, I really want people to just stop and think about how we may all be living side by side, but we're not looking at the world through the same lenses. That, to me, is sort of the bottom line of every season I have of Race Unwrapped is did you think about even one thing differently after listening to this episode or this season than you did before you heard the episode or the season? That, to me, is what the purpose of Race Unwrapped is. It's to help you to be exposed to a different way of thinking about how race impacts a person's life.
FLORIDO: I've been speaking with Michelle Tyrene Johnson. She is the host of Race Unwrapped from Louisville Public Media. Thank you so much for this podcast. I'm really enjoying it.
JOHNSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
