In a deeply intimate conversation, Stone Written host Dr. Rhon (@DoctorRMB) sits down with grammy nominated American jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon to discuss her new book and album, exploring how jazz improvisation, deep listening, and ancestral presence shaped her journey through loss.

They reflect on grief’s non-linear nature, the healing power of creativity and community, and the ways memory, music, and everyday rituals open pathways from sorrow to hope.

Sources:

• Nnenna Freelon's website
• Nnenna's stunning guidebook, Beneath the Skin of Sorrow: Improvisations on Loss (Duke University Press, 2025)
• Nnenna's latest album, "Beneath the Skin" (Origin Records, 2025)
• Support the Sonja Haynes Stone Center (linktree)

On International Podcast Day (September 30th), Stone Written celebrates the power of storytelling at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Research in Black Culture and History. Host Dr. Rhon shares seven lessons she’s learned since stepping into her role at UNC–Chapel Hill, from why “those who know, know” isn’t enough, to how platforms like this one help us tell our story before someone else gets it wrong. This episode is a brief but timely love letter to the stories that shape us—and to the people who make them worth telling.

Sources:

• The Power of Podcasting: Telling Stories Through Sound by Siobhán McHugh (Columbia University Press, 2022)
• 100 Best Black Podcasts
• The Sonja Haynes Stone Center Linktree

Host Dr. Rhon speaks with artist Mark Anthony Brown Jr. and curator Ming Joi Washington about The Book of Mark a solo exhibition at the Stone Center that explores spirituality, ancestry, and diasporic practices through photography, sculpture, and time-based media.

The conversation covers their collaborative process and trust-building, the influence of Black church traditions, tensions between artistic integrity and the market, and efforts to make art accessible. The exhibition opens September 2025 and runs through the fall semester.

Sources:

• The Book of Mark exhibition catalog
• more about the artist, Mark Anthony Brown, Jr.
• more about the curator, Ming Joi Washington
• The Sonja Haynes Stone Center Linktree