This summer, producer Regina de Heer explored diaspora stories through the lens of music. In this installment, she meets someone whose identity is more complex than what we hear in the mainstream:

Nodia Mena is a Lecturer of Spanish in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She gave a TEDx talk a few years ago about her background as a Garifuna person born in Honduras, now living in the United States. Growing up in Honduras, her people’s story was never included in history books.

This is part of our Summer 2023 Music Playlist series. You can listen to the full series on our “Specials” page, and listen to another episode here:

A Song to “Define the Most African Moment of My Life” (7/24/2023)

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“Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. Tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org.

Tell us what you think. We're @noteswithkai on Instagram and X (Twitter). Email us at notes@wnyc.org. Send us a voice message by recording yourself on your phone and emailing us, or record one here.

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

The Blurry Line Between Appropriation And Appreciation

Notes from America with Kai Wright