AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.
We're joined now by the musician and activist Alynda Segarra, leader of the critically acclaimed
band Hurray for the Riff Raff. When she was just 17, Alynda left home in the Bronx and
began hopping freight trains. She eventually landed in New Orleans, where she learned to
play banjo.
Over the past decade, her band, Hurray for the Riff Raff, would become one of the most
celebrated bands in modern folk music, thrilling thousands of fans at the Newport Folk Festival,
New Orleans Jazz Fest and elsewhere. In 2014, her tune "The Body Electric" was named song
of the year by American Songwriter. NPR declared the song the political folk song of 2014.
Hurray for the Riff Raff's new record, The Navigator, is out this week. Part of it celebrates
Alynda's Puerto Rican heritage. One tune, "Pa'lante," is named after a newspaper published
by the Young Lords. Another tune, "Rican Beach," has been described as an anti-gentrication
anthem.
Well, Alynda Segarra joins us today for a conversation and to share some of her music.
It's great to have you in our studios, Alynda.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: It's an honor to be here. Thanks for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: It's great to see you. So, tell us about your journey.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Well, I left home when I was 17, as you said. I was just kind of like a
rebellious kid that felt like there was this big world out there for me. And I grew up
in the Bronx. I, for some reason, just really felt like—like I didn't belong here, or
anywhere, for that matter. And I really wanted to just kind of escape and see the country
and get to know this America that was very like mythical to me. I was listening to some
Woody Guthrie. I think he definitely influenced me. And I was like doing bad in school. I
just decided to risk it and to go out on the road.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you already playing music?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: No, not really. I was writing a lot of poetry. That's what I was doing,
writing a lot of poetry, going to see a lot of music. I was really involved in the Lower
East Side punk scene. And I was a young feminist, you know. So, it was when I got to New Orleans
when I started playing music, because I started playing music on the street there, busking
and just trying to make some money.
AMY GOODMAN: How did you pick up the banjo?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Well, I first played the washboard, actually. And, you know, the group that I
met there was a lot of other young street kids. And somebody actually gifted me a banjo.
And I learned in a very communal atmosphere, like playing around the campfire and learning
a lot of American folk songs, a lot of like Appalachian songs and blues songs. So I learned
in that way.
AMY GOODMAN: Did you really hop trains across the country?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: I did, yeah, a lot of hitchhiking and train riding to get around. I was always
with a group of kids. We were really just wanting to live on the outskirts of society,
basically. We wanted to get in touch with an America that, we felt like, was hidden.
You know, we wanted to like be in touch with the land, you know, just live this very radical,
like romantic life, I guess.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about who your inspirations have been.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Well, it definitely started with poetry. I was really influenced by beatnik
poetry. Once I heard Pedro Pietri, like Nuyorican poetry, I really—it sparked something in
me. And then, from there, I started listening to folk music. I was really drawn to Woody
Guthrie, because I felt like folk music and his songs were like the songs of the people.
And that's what I wanted to be a part of. That's what made me want to write songs,
you know, was writing songs that were about what I saw and what I experienced.
AMY GOODMAN: I wish Juan were here right now, but one of the founders of the Young Lords
and Democracy Now! co-host—
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —for all of its 21 years, Juan González. Talk about one of the songs on
your album, "Pa'lante."
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Well, "Pa'lante," it took me a while to get to that song. I feel like
I've had—it's taken me this 10 years of songwriting to get there. I grew up, you
know, kind of with this internalized shame, from the media and from popular culture, about
what being a Puerto Rican woman meant. And I think it was this hidden history that I
had to search for that really brought me to writing that song. I wanted to write a song
that was about feeling out of place, feeling like you didn't want to be a cog in this
machine, and then finally arriving at your ancestors and the legacy of your people, and
realizing that you fit in somewhere, you know. And I wanted to just honor the people that
worked so hard so that I could live this type of life, you know, and also to say forward,
to say that we have so much work to do.
AMY GOODMAN: But that lead song, "The Navigator"—
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —which tells your story and your navigation through life.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yeah, the idea of "The Navigator" really sparked a lot of concepts for me. You
know, it asks questions like: Who's driving us as a country? It asks questions like: Who's
driving you as you go through your journey through life? Is it your ancestors or your
intuition? And also just the concept of navigating identities and obstacles through society.
I feel like my whole life I was trying to learn: How can I be as free as possible as
a young Puerto Rican woman? How can I, you know, divert these obstacles that are in my
way?
AMY GOODMAN: So, OK, "The Navigator."
ALYNDA SEGARRA: [singing] Today I feel weak But tomorrow I'll feel a queen
I was raised by the street Do you know that really means?
All this hurt I've suffered It just begins again
In a baby girl Or a full-grown man
Tomorrow will come Like the turning of the sun
Over tall buildings And the beating of a drum
It lives in my heart But buried in the past
Here comes the navigator She knows you're fading fast
Oh, where, where will all my people go? The navigator wants to know
Oh, where, where will all my people live? The navigator won't forgive
Oh, where, where will all my people go? Navigator wants to know
Oh, where, where will all my people go? The navigator wants to know, wants to know,
wants to know
AMY GOODMAN: That's Alynda Segarra. She's the lead singer of Hurray for the Riff Raff,
performing in Democracy Now!'s studios "The Navigator." And this is the latest album.
But over the last decade, you guys have had such an impact on all kinds of music, but
on the folk music scene, New Orleans Jazz Fest, Newport Folk Festival. Talk about, back
in 2014, what went into making, to writing, to singing "Body Electric"?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Well, "The Body Electric," at first, I really wanted to kind of respond
to the tradition of murder ballads in American folk music. I feel like folk music is a conversation
through the ages, and I, as a feminist, wanted to put in my voice and say, "This is what
it feels like to be a woman and to be in danger and to be—you know, to be used as a prop,
kind of, for a story that ends with, you know, my death." And so, this was my response song.
But it also—with time, it grew, and it turned into a song that was about being dehumanized
and also having your own body be used as a weapon against you, being told that violence
against you was because you were too, you know, sexy or because of your race or because
of your—you know, your body type. And so I really wanted to just get into that idea
of what that—what that's like to be told that you are the reason for violence against
you, you know, when your own body is turned against you.
AMY GOODMAN: And the title, "The Body Electric"?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: That's a nod to Walt Whitman, to the poem, The Body Electric, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And the way it was received? I mean, NPR called it what? The most political
folk song of 2014. You won best folk song in American—
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Songwriter, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Songwriter.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yeah, I feel like, sadly, there weren't—there were not a lot of
political folk songs going on at the time, you know, so I really—I was hoping to energize
my generation, to say that there's so much that we can talk about right now about what's
going on around us, and that we don't have to be so nostalgic. You know, I wanted to
just add my voice and try to, like as I said, energize people.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's go to "The Body Electric."
ALYNDA SEGARRA: [singing] Said you're gonna shoot me down, put my body in the river
Shoot me down, put my body in the river And the whole world sings, sing it like a
song The whole world sings like there's nothing
going wrong
He shot her down, he put her body in the river He covered her up, but I went to get her
And I said, "My girl, what happened to you now?"
I said, "My girl, we gotta stop it somehow"
Oh, and tell me, what's a man with a rifle in his hand
Gonna do for a world that's so sick and sad?
And tell me, what's a man with a rifle in his hand
Gonna do for a world that's all gone mad?
He's gonna shoot me down, put my body in the river
And cover me up with the leaves of September Like an old sad song, you heard it all before
Well, Delia's gone, but I'm settling the score
Oh, and tell me, what's a man with a rifle in his hand
Gonna do for a world that's just dying slow? And tell me, what's a man with a rifle in
his hand Gonna do for his daughter when it's her
turn to go?
AMY GOODMAN: That's a song you may know, "The Body Electric." It is Alynda Segarra,
lead singer of Hurray for the Riff Raff. Political songs and music—are you satisfied with politics
being expressed in music, or do you think it's not happening enough?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: I think it's just beginning. You know, I felt like for the last couple
of years, as the Black Lives Matter movement was growing, I was looking around at at least
folk singers around me and wondering where our voices were. And now I feel like there
is definitely more of a push for us to wake up and to sing what's going on around us.
You know, one of my heroes is Nina Simone, and I feel like it's definitely the artist's
duty to talk about the times and to—in scary times, to bring these fears that we deal with
alone into the public sphere. And that's how we can feel stronger and feel like we
can change something, you know?
AMY GOODMAN: So, can you set the scene for us for "Rican Beach"?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Well, Rican Beach is a place in my mind, because in the album there is
a storyline. There is a character and a kind of a play-like story that's going on, and
it's following this character Navita, which is based off of me. And she goes into the
future in her own city, and she realizes that she does not recognize anything. Everything
has been so gentrified, rapidly. And she's looking for her people, her neighborhood,
and she ends up at Rican Beach, which is where they all are. And so, Rican Beach was used
as this—you know, it is a place in my imagination, but it represents what happens when people
are pushed out of the city that they, you know, helped create, this city that they're
responsible for the culture, and they're responsible for the soul of the city. And
it's what happens when you're told, "We don't want to see you anymore." You become
the other, and you are pushed out. And I thought it was an important theme for right now, because
I think it's really easy for people to feel safe and to say, "Oh, these certain people
are being attacked, but I'm safe." But "Rican Beach" kind of makes it—it brings it into
this personal place, saying, "No, they're building a wall around you and all of your
neighbors." You know, so that's what it's about.
AMY GOODMAN: And tell us some of the models of protest and protecting home that inspired
you for "Rican Beach."
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Well, definitely, the water protectors at Standing Rock were very inspirational
to me. You know, I was just watching it, and reading about it, unfold, and felt like it
was so—it lined up so much with the lyrics of the song to say that these—these folks
were saying, "I will put my body on the line. I will be in danger, because that is how much
I care about this land." And also it's about protecting the land for future generations.
And I think that is a theme in the album and a theme in "Rican Beach," saying that I'm
going to protect this place because I want my children to have this space, and I want
them to be able to thrive in this space.
AMY GOODMAN: So, this is an album. It's not a Broadway show.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: No.
AMY GOODMAN: But some have been talking about the way you tell this story with this figure,
oh, some comparisons to Hamilton. Do you mind that?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Oh, I don't mind it at all. I mean, Lin-Manuel is such an inspiration
to me, for sure. I've been a fan of him since In the Heights, because I felt like
he was bringing the stories of Latinx people into this very prestigious arena, you know?
And I felt like when I—I never got to see In the Heights, but when I'd hear the songs
and watch snippets of it, I felt like, "Wow! Those are my people and my stories that I—you
know, and my neighbors, and we deserve to be represented like that, too." So, I hope
to put it on as a play someday.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to go to you singing, here in our studio, "Rican Beach."
ALYNDA SEGARRA: [singing] Man built the railroad Man gotta move
Man made a record Put a needle to groove
Man been up Oh, and man been down
Now man don't want No one around
Well, first they stole our language Then they stole our names
Then they stole the things That brought us fame
And they stole our neighbors And they stole our streets
And they left us to die On Rican Beach
Well, you can take my life But don't take my home
Baby, it's a solid price Comes with my bones
Now all the politicians They just squawk their mouths
They said, "We'll build a wall to keep them out"
And all the poets were dying Of a silence disease
So it happened quickly And with much ease
Well, you can take my life But don't take my home
Baby, it's a solid price Comes with my bones
I may never see you again I may never see you again
But I'll keep fighting 'til the end Oh, I'll keep fighting 'til the end
Well, I'll keep fighting 'til the end Oh, I'll keep fighting 'til the end
'Til the end 'Til the end
'Til the end 'Til the end
AMY GOODMAN: That's "Rican Beach," Alynda Segarra singing one of the songs on her latest
album, The Navigator. A terrible tragedy that happened, Alynda, in Oakland in December.
Thirty-six people die at a fire that ripped through this converted warehouse where people
went to perform electronic music concert, and it was a real sanctuary.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what it meant to you and why you chose to sing about it
and write a song about it?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Well, I really—I felt like those type of—those type of spaces, DIY
spaces, especially intentional queer spaces, are where I've felt for the first time like
safe and protected and, you know, represented, I guess. As I was growing up, when I felt
like I didn't belong anywhere, it was those types of spaces that helped me feel like a
full human being, I guess, and also helped me find community, when I was feeling incredibly
alone, and a place to share ideas and a place, as I said, to really put like my feminist
ideals into practice. So when this tragedy happened, I felt like the younger me was suffering,
and I thought of all the younger kids out there who, especially in this climate right
now, need a place to feel like being queer, being female. You know, it's a sanctuary
that we really need. So, I wanted to dedicate the song to these people that we lost and
to the kids out there who felt like their sanctuary was, you know, destroyed, basically.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Alynda Segarra singing "Hungry Ghost."
ALYNDA SEGARRA: [singing] Ahh Ahh Ahh Ahh
I've been a lonely girl I've been a lonely girl
But I'm ready for the world Oh, I'm ready for the world
I've been a heart for hire I've been a heart for hire
And my love's on a funeral pyre Oh, my love's on a funeral pyre
When will you When will you help me out?
You can't even pick me out of the crowd Ohhh ohh ohh ohhh ohh ohh
Ahh Ahh Ahh Ahh
I've been nobody's child I've been nobody's child
So my blood started running wild Oh, my blood started running wild
I've been a hungry ghost I've been a hungry ghost
And I traveled from coast to coast Oh, I traveled from coast to coast
When will you When will you help me out?
You can't even pick me out of the crowd Oh, and I
I don't need you anymore So then why am I standing at your door?
Ohhh ohh ohh ohhh ohh ohh Ahh Ahh
Ahh Ahh
I've been a lonely girl I've been a lonely girl
But I'm ready for the world Oh, I'm ready for the world
Well, I'm ready for the world Oh, I'm ready for the world
Well, I'm ready for the world Oh, I'm ready for the world
Oh, I'm ready for the world Well, I'm ready for the world
AMY GOODMAN: Alynda Segarra, singing "Hungry Ghost," to remember those who died in December
in Oakland, California, in what was called the Ghost Ship. I wanted to ask you about
Pedro Pietri—
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —who was such an inspiration to you, and the whole leader of the Nuyorican
movement.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Why was he so significant for you?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Well, as a Nuyorican, I grew up really feeling in the middle of this—you
know, the land, of the island, you know, where my father came from and where my family had
come from, and then here I was, this city kid. And I think it was really important to
read the work of a Nuyorican poet, who was speaking to my environment that I was experiencing.
When I read Puerto Rican Obituary when I was in high school, you know, I had read beatnik
poetry, I had read Allen Ginsberg. But this was the first time I was like, "This is the
building I live in. These are my neighbors. This is the reality that I'm facing, and
that this is the reality I see as my future and that I want to try to find another way."
I felt very suffocated by it, you know? But I did feel this relief when I saw it in print,
and I felt myself represented in that way. And, of course, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe has
been a haven, and I would go there, when I was in high school, and hear works of other
poets. So, I'm just really glad it's still here.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's go to the late poet Pedro Pietri reading his landmark poem, Puerto Rican
Obituary.
PEDRO PIETRI: They were always on time They were never late
They never spoke back when they were insulted
They worked They never went on strike
without permission They never took days off
that were not on the calendar They worked
ten days a week and were only paid for five
They worked They worked
They worked and they died
They died broke They died owing
They died never knowing what the front entrance
of the first national city bank looks like Juan
Miguel Milagros
Olga Manuel
All died yesterday today and will die again tomorrow
passing their bill collectors on to the next of kin
All died waiting for the garden of eden
to open up again under a new management
All died dreaming about america
waking them up in the middle of the night screaming: Mira Mira
your name is on the winning lottery ticket for one hundred thousand dollars
All died hating the grocery stores
that sold them make-believe steak and bullet-proof rice and beans
All died dreaming hating and waiting Dead Puerto Ricans
Who never knew they were Puerto Ricans Who never took a coffee break
from the ten commandments to KILL KILL KILL
the landlords of their cracked skulls and communicate with their latin souls
Juan Miguel
Milagros Olga
Manuel From the nervous breakdown streets
where the mice live like millionaires and the people do not live at all
AMY GOODMAN: That's Pedro Pietri reading Puerto Rican Obituary. And Julia de Burgos,
her importance to you, and who she was, Alynda?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Well, I just recently started to research Julia de Burgos, and she just
became this feminist icon to me. You know, she was just so independent and such a poet
and also was kind of a wandering spirit, so I really felt this kinship to her. And to
learn about her really opened up this idea to me of what Puerto Rican women have always
been, even though it's been hidden from us. You know, the representation of us is
often overly sexualized or, you know, very—it's not really in an artistic realm. And so, when
I learned about her, I felt like it was this healing that happened, where I was like, "Wow!
I make sense," you know? Like this is my poet—my poet mother. So I really wanted to mention
her, and I wanted to spread the word about her from young Latinx women out there who
need someone like that to look up to.
AMY GOODMAN: I also wanted to ask you about Sylvia Rivera—
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —because I was just down at the Stonewall Inn, a mass protest of thousands—
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —people protesting Trump around everything from the Muslim and immigrant ban
to his position on trans people. Sylvia, who bridges Young Lords—
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —and one of the leaders of the Stonewall uprising that was really the
beginning of the modern-day gay, lesbian, trans movement.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Yes. Sylvia Rivera is such an inspiration to me. You know, her—she
just really represents to me this intersectional future that we need to strive for. Here's
a trans woman who fought for the rights of—you know, she was on the front lines of this movement.
And I feel like she really—she speaks to how, when we—when we go to those of us—our
brothers and sisters, who are the most oppressed, who are the most in danger, when we focus
on them and we fight for them, we are all free, you know? And she's another icon,
that once I found her, it was this link in my mind of Puerto Ricans have always been
rebellious. Puerto Ricans have always been standing up. And I wanted to spread the word
about her.
AMY GOODMAN: You ran away when you were 17 years old. What do you tell other young people
who feel disillusioned, alienated, alone? What do you say people—what do you suggest
people do?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: I say that to turn to art and music is how I survived. And I feel very
lucky that I also had, you know, an alternative community. I had a community of artists and
dreamers and radicals that I could rely on, who told me that I wasn't crazy, you know?
And that's what I hope that young kids right now, who are feeling so scared about the future,
can turn to each other and turn to us artists and to know that we are here, and we are representing
them, and we care about them. And also, I think it's really—as much as the internet
can be harmful, it can be really a way to communicate and to feel not alone. If you
live in a rural area, I would say, search for your people. Search—if you're a Latinx
young woman, search for groups who are fighting for you. And you can see yourself, and you
can see people who care about you, you know?
AMY GOODMAN: You've always been fiercely political and also personal. Do you feel your
music shifting now in the era of Trump?
ALYNDA SEGARRA: I feel it's definitely a time to be brave. You know, I feel like I—when
the election happened, I was very afraid, like many people. And I think it's OK to
say that I was afraid, you know, because I want—I want us to all share that together.
But to be—you know, you have to be afraid at first in order to be brave. It's really
a time to put all these ideas that I always had into practice. And I look to my idols—you
know, like I look to Nina Simone, I'll look to bell hooks, I look to Sylvia Rivera and
Julia de Burgos—to give me strength and to just continue the work that I've been
trying to do.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, thank you for that work, that artistry, that bravery.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Alynda Segarra, lead singer of Hurray for the Riff Raff. Thanks so much for
joining us.
ALYNDA SEGARRA: Thank you.
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