Afropop Classic
Closeup September 18, 2018
Afropop Classic August 16, 2018
This spring, Afropop returned to Fes, Morocco, for the 23rd annual World Sacred Music Festival, a sumptuous spread of music from across the globe that blurs the boundaries of what is sacred.
Closeup August 14, 2018
Afropop Classic August 9, 2018
Afropop radio show on 2018 Brazilian music, with focus on carnaval in Salvador.
Hip Deep August 2, 2018
Ned Sublette takes a group of travelers, including you, to multiple sites in western Cuba to analyze the musical impact of what Ortiz called the "Cuban counterpoint" of tobacco and sugar.
Closeup July 31, 2018
Closeup July 17, 2018
Closeup June 19, 2018
Hip Deep June 14, 2018
In this program, we explore the phenomenon of trance through a survey of musical and spiritual traditions, discover how different cultural and spiritual ideas are expressed musically, how the mathematical complexity of mbira dzavuzimu music may lead to Shona spirit possession, and how experiments in neural imaging give us insight into how the brain works in a state of trance.
Afropop Classic June 7, 2018
Closeup June 5, 2018
Afropop Classic May 31, 2018
Closeup May 22, 2018
In this Afropop Closeup, correspondent Dan Rosenberg talks with Calypso Rose about using music as a weapon for social change.
Afropop Classic May 17, 2018
Hip Deep May 10, 2018
Lagos and the Rise of Nigerian Afrobeats tells the story of the birth and development of this scene straight from the influential and foundational figures who lived it including 2Face Idibia, Iyanya, Yemi Alade, Adekunle Gold, Flavour and more.
Hip Deep May 3, 2018
Beneath the gloss of Nigeria’s contemporary pop, older roots styles, mostly derived from Yoruba tradition, still thrive.
Afropop Classic April 5, 2018
Afropop dives into the rock-inflected music scene in Recife, Brazil.
Hip Deep March 15, 2018
Building on prior Hip Deep explorations of the origins of house and techno in the American Midwest, “Roots and Future” explores how a community of (primarily) black British musicians, fans, D.J.s, and radio pirates recreated dance music in the United Kingdom during the 1990s and 2000s.
Afropop Classic February 22, 2018
Closeup February 6, 2018
Nigerian musicians almost all have stage names and in this audio program we explore the history of why that is.
Hip Deep February 1, 2018
How jazz music came back to Africa, South Africa in particular, by way of America.
Afropop Classic January 25, 2018
As Afropop turns 30, we take a stroll down memory lane to enjoy some of the extraordinary live recordings we brought to the public radio community in the 1990s including Thione Seck in Dakar, Gerardo Nunez in New York, Abdel Aziz el Mubarak in London, Lobi Traore in Bamako, a carnival comparsa in Cuba and David Rudder in New York. Co-hosted by Georges Collinet, Siji Awoyinka, and Sean Barlow.
Closeup January 23, 2018
The songs of Betsayda Machado, the leading voice of Afro-Venezuelan music, address many of the most painful topics of daily life of her country: hunger, poverty, shortages of basic medicine, and deadly street riots – stemming from the current economic and political crisis in Venezuela.
Hip Deep January 11, 2018
This program presents a musical portrait of Bamako in the wake of crisis. We explore the precarious lives of griots in today’s Bamako, focusing on the upbringing and education of children in these hereditary families of historian-entertainers.
Closeup January 9, 2018
Amal Hussein and Hamdi Mohamed have a lot in common. Both were born in Kenya, where their parents fled as refugees during the Somali Civil War, and both came to Boston when they were just a few years old. They’re both poets — and equally important for this story — both their grandmothers are poets...
Closeup December 26, 2017
Underneath the streets of New York City, in the tunnels and stations of the busiest subway system in the country, there is a thriving music scene. Amidst the noise of passing trains, we meet Papa Fara, a Cameroonian xylophonist and singer, who plays for tips and captures the love of strangers and makes friends with his quick, warm smile. But, behind the smile and beautiful melodies, something is troubling Papa Fara. There’s a reason he’d rather be underground.
Afropop Classic December 21, 2017
In this program, we explore the new "Afropolitan" sounds of Paris, from concert halls to studios, from the heart of the city to immigrant neighborhoods in the banlieues.
Hip Deep December 14, 2017
In recognition of the end of Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule in Zimbabwe, we are rebroadcasting our program on the career of Thomas Mapfumo during the Mugabe years.
