Danyel Smith, Mariecar Mendoza
From formerly enslaved poet Phyllis Wheatley to Mahalia Jackson to Tina Turner, brilliant Black women have been instrumental—indeed, foundational—in creating America’s pop music. Former Billboard editor Danyel Smith’s “Shine Bright” is an ode to the songbird geniuses that have been hidden in plain sight. In this conversation between Smith and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mariecar Mendoza, we’ll celebrate a musical lineage as life-affirming as it is awe-inspiring.
