Soyica Diggs Colbert on the Radical Community of the Village Gate
Podcast: LARB Radio HourPublished On: Sat Nov 07 2026
Description: Eric Newman and Kate Wolf speak with Soyica Diggs Colbert about her latest book, Freedom's Gate: Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Abbey Lincoln, Miriam Makeba, and Nina Simone Live at the New York Nightclub That Shaped the Civil Rights Movement. The book traces the intersecting lives and careers of these five legendary Black artists who honed their craft and found community at the Village Gate, a New York nightclub that became an important gathering place for artistic experimentation and the political currents of the Civil Rights Movement. Colbert discusses what made the Village Gate such a unique space, how the women she profiles in the book learned from and leaned on each other, and what lessons we might take in the present from this engrossing mid-century history.
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