An Inside Look at Smithsonian’s ‘Collected’ Podcast Season Two: The Musical Genius of Black Women
In this chat between “Collected” podcast curators, learn more about season two, “The Musical Genius of Black Women,” which dives into notable Black women who made their mark on music.
The Collected podcast’s second season has arrived. This season, titled “The Musical Genius of Black Women,” offers deep dives on several notable women: Ella Fitzgerald, Tina Turner, Donna Summer, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and Beyoncé Knowles Carter. Host curator Dr. Krystal Klingenberg and contributing curator Dr. Modupe Labode sat down to talk about the podcast project and how this season came to be.
KRYSTAL KLINGENBERG: So, what Is Collected?
MODUPE LABODE: Collected is a podcast project from the African American History Curatorial Collective at National Museum of American History. We wanted to use podcast as a way to expand our interpretation of Black history, particularly Black women's history.
KRYSTAL KLINGENBERG: The project started off as a smaller audio project and grew as we decided what the contours of it should be and how we could maximize the possibilities in the podcast format.
Podcasting is a new and different space, certainly at our museum. The Smithsonian is known for physical museums with big and impressive exhibit hall displays. This is a way of reaching people in a medium that is increasingly popular. In the podcast, we do the same kind of work that we do on the floor, which is trying to take big, nuanced concepts and make them accessible and interesting. And in our case, our focus is on stories out of Black history.
We see the podcast format as an evergreen way to reach people. Whereas an exhibit on the floor may have only have several years in its space, this lasts a lot longer.
MODUPE LABODE: Podcasts are their own thing. Collected offers some real opportunities to reach people because of the audio format; it transports extremely well. Not all ideas should be an exhibit. There's lots of different ways in which museums should be communicating.
KRYSTAL KLINGENBERG: We're really proud that in this second season that we've been able to incorporate more material culture into the podcast episodes. Material culture is in the background of everything that we're doing or in the foreground, depending on the project. This is the National Collection, and we're really excited to share what we have.
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MODUPE LABODE: One of the challenges in setting up this season was providing an entry point for listeners on these particular musical figures. Maybe this is music they have listened to or music that their parents or grandparents may have listened to. Maybe they have heard the records but don’t know anything about the person behind them. We hope that the history in these episodes really enriches what people are bringing to their listening of the music.
KRYSTAL KLINGENBERG: Another challenge was figuring out what role we wanted the material culture of music to have in our episodes. I think that we take an expansive view of music and material culture—not just LPs and CDs and cassettes but the music itself—as its own historical material that's worth digging into. The music reveals histories and encapsulates time. I'm always advocating for people to listen more deeply, to listen more actively. That kind of listening is often something that we leave behind in the music classes of our youth. But as you listen more deeply, you may feel more deeply and perhaps think more deeply as a result.
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MODUPE LABODE: What are some of the ideas that informed your writing of the scripts for the season?
KRYSTAL KLINGENBERG: There's been so many things that have influenced the route that I've sent us down this season. We're continuing to fight an old battle for women in music to be recognized for their contributions. Black women in particular have always had to fight for a seat at the table and to be recognized. What does it mean to take it another step forward and say that Black women are genius and look at what those genius contributions might be?
One thing that I really got out of our respective journeys into the stories of these women is that all of them are exceptional in one way or another. But all of them have an ordinariness, too. Their lives, things that they went through, who they were as people—because they were people—should inspire us. They survived; we will survive. They created. You can create too.
Collected receives funding support from the American Women’s History Initiative Pool award program. Listen to “The Musical Genius of Black Women” on all podcast platforms and read episode guides on the Collected website.
By: Dr. Krystal Klingenberg, a curator of music in the division of Culture and the Arts at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Klingenberg’s interests include global Black popular musics, African American music, digital media, and social justice.
Dr. Modupe Labode, a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History since August 2019. She works in two divisions—Political and Military History and Home and Community Life—and her area of concentration is African American social justice history.