13. "Washing Blood While Singing the Blues" with Ruth Naomi Floyd

Music is a universally loved language of expressions and melodies. But what if the music you love, create, and share gets mislabeled by your own church and community? In this episode of Where Ya From?, musician Ruth Naomi Floyd shares her story of growing up in Philadelphia and caring for the wounded and alienated and how that, paired with her faith, led her to unapologetically create jazz music that blends theology and justice.

Guest Bio 

Ruth Naomi Floyd is a vocalist and composer who has created a discography that highlights theology and justice with a multi-faceted progressive jazz ensemble sound. She lectures and performs her music internationally and has been a presence and is active in the areas of the arts and justice throughout her career. Ms. Floyd’s recent body of work is the “Frederick Douglass Jazz Works,” and she received a National Endowment of the Arts Project Grant in 2021 for her new body of work, “The Frances Suite.” She is also a music educator who is the first African American woman to establish a university jazz program. She is currently an artist-in-residence with Temple University. Floyd lives in Philadelphia, where she continues her creative work and justice work.

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