GREAT GRIEF
WITH NNENNA FREELON
A podcast about loving greatly through grief.
Great Grief for the Holidays
"The holidays and grief often arrive holding each other's hands."
Nnenna Freelon
To say that this past year has been a rough one would be a massive understatement, and yet, we can hardly put it into words. Grief has been and continues to be abundant as we witness the escalation of some of the most gruesome evils begat by the oppressive systems of this world. The brutality and dehumanization, the structural violence, the destruction of communities—it has all been heartbreaking to watch and experience.
The holiday season is supposed to be a festive time, we're told. Gatherings, celebrations, and kind offerings abound. But this year—and every year—it's important to hold space for those whose holiday season is also tinged with, or completely enveloped by, grief. That quintessential "holiday cheer" everyone is expected to feel and display during this time of the year seems so far away for many of us. Whether our grief is personal or collective, anticipatory or ambiguous, socially acknowledged or disenfranchised, we deserve the space to feel it and the time to sit with it. This is what Great Grief invites us to do.
With her podcast, celebrated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon uses story and song to lull us into an intimate exploration of Black women's personal and structural grief—and how Black women are always expected to swallow their grief rather than allowing it to bloom, rather than tending to their grief in the loving company of other Black women.
Scalawag is proud to offer this duology of bonus episodes in partnership with Nnenna Freelon this holiday season. So, come sit, take a moment to breathe, and join us on this journey through grief. This is Great Grief for the holidays.
Grief doesn't celebrate the holidays
Grief cannot tell time. She comes and goes as she pleases. In this episode of Great Grief, Nnenna Freelon remembers the lessons of her grandmother, honors those we've lost, and holds space for our holiday grief with poetry and song.
Grief is in the kitchen
Grief comes to live with us all eventually, and she needs no invitation. In this episode of Great Grief, Nnenna Freelon appreciates the quiet moments shared with her late father and wonders aloud how to curate her space for the holidays now that grief has made a home in her home.
Subscribe and listen to all available episodes of Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon, wherever you listen to podcasts.
Listen to Episode 1 of Season 2 of Great Grief with Nnenna Freelon:
Video by OnlyUs Media.
From the mind and lived experience of celebrated jazz artist Nnenna Freelon, Great Grief is a life-honoring outpouring of word, story, and song that plumbs the depths of her own sorrow after the death of her beloved husband, Philip and her sister, Debbie Irene.
The award-winning podcast Great Grief re-emerged in the summer of 2023 at Scalawag as a dynamic space through podcasts and live events for Black women to indulge our griefs, savor our loves, and mourn in community. Each four-episode season is organized around topics that intertwine our grief experiences, topics like sisterhood, the inevitability of change, and Black love.
We also invite you to explore more stories from Scalawag's ongoing commitment with grief.
In the latest series of Great Grief, Nnenna looks to nature and the cyclical movement of time to delve deeper into loss, creating rituals and making discoveries that help us reconnect with ourselves, each other, and the ones we've lost. For many people, holidays are a time of celebration marked by family, faith, and food. This time of year can also be a period of remembrance. Yes, grief has a seat at the table. But grieving in the holiday season doesn't have to be a solo or solemn affair.
Falling
The changing seasons are an apt metaphor to talk about the shedding, withering, and falling away that accompanies the most painful parts of grief. Nnenna Freelon takes us on a walk through the woods to contemplate autumn and the possibility of renewal.
Read the full episode transcript.Ashes, Ashes
Grief can take us to our knees—right back to the dirt, dust, and the earth, from which all things grow. Nnenna Freelon consults Mother Nature—and a Black woman hemp farmer—to lean into the possibility of growth in harsh environments and bitter seasons.
Read the full episode transcript.The World Since You Left
In this episode of Great Grief, Nnenna Freelon pleads with the moon, the sun, and the leaves about how to get in touch with her beloved Phil again. If grief isn't linear, then maybe sorrow is more than a season—perhaps it's a portal to the unknown.
Read the full episode transcript.Holiday Season
When Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanza and family gatherings of all kinds—the musical, cultural, food traditions—collide against a backdrop of losses, challenges, and major life shifts, the holidays can be a confusing time to welcome grief back home.
Read the full episode transcript.In the first four-episode first season, "Wailing Women," Nnenna Freelon uses music and story to focus on the intimate beauty and irreparable sorrow we know as Black women, with episodes touching on the shock of widowhood, the bittersweet of sisterhood, and the love-hate journeys many of us have with our hair. As we give voice to the wailing women within, we find more than tears. We also find new songs.
When Grief Speaks
Grief is a woman with plenty to say. In the first episode of Great Grief, Nnenna Freelon asks us to consider what happens if we stop running from our grief, sit down, and listen to her for a change. Listen and read along with the podcast transcript.
Read the full episode transcript.Sister Sister
No woman makes it through life without a sister. Through faith, family, and struggle, we inhabit a deep solidarity that allows us to hold one another close, even at the very end. Nnenna Freelon walks us through her journey of losing her sister, Debbie.
Read the full episode transcript.Hairstory
Hair holds our history, personality, identity—and our grief. In episode 3 of Great Grief, Nnenna Freelon visits her mother's beauty salon, where generations of Black women have gathered to discuss their hair—the grief over it, and the grief under it.
Read the full episode transcript.Black Widow
A wife for nearly 40 years, Nnenna Freelon now wonders what to make of the term widow when she still feels the significance of her marriage well after her husband's death in Black Widow, the final installment in the season of Great Grief, Wailing Women.
Read the full episode transcript.
A Grief of Our Own
More press for Great Grief:
Nnenna and Pierce Freelon's individual albums were inspired by a common thread: family grief. The first mother and son to be individually nominated in different categories in the same year call their double Grammy nods a "beautiful coincidence."
— TODAY
"When [Freelon] started putting the podcast together last winter—with the help of an all-Black women team—she realized that of the podcasts that deal with loss, Black women's voices weren't present enough."
— Essence
"Neither the spectre of annihilation that threatened to consume Freelon after her husband's death, nor the gentrification of Durham, nor the ongoing death-dealing effects of the Middle Passage, will keep her from singing these new changes."
— Scalawag
Nnenna Freelon (host/creator) is a Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist, music educator, arts advocate, producer and arranger who has achieved international acclaim in both recording and live performance. Follow her latest updates at: nnenna.com
Andrew Berinson (musical accompanist) is a pianist, composer and educator born and based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Andrew's debut album as a leader, Of Love, was released in April 2019. He performs with his own trio (THRIO) and as a musical accompanist on various projects.
Great Grief is produced for Scalawag by OnlyUs Media, with the support of Scalawag Magazine. From the heart of Downtown Durham, OnlyUs is a media company that seeks to shake up the music industry and what it means to build a legacy by producing revolutionary media, events, and workshops that bring power to the artist. Great Grief was originally produced by Lindsay Foster Thomas, Stacia Brown, and Sean Roux for WUNC 91.5, North Carolina Public Radio.