♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> The phenomenal Ayanna Gregory, playwright, songwriter, singer next on "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, diverse representation and perspectives, equity, and inclusion is critical to meeting the needs of our colleagues, customers, and communities.

We are focused on our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion both inside our company and in the communities where we live and work.

Together, we want to make a tangible difference in people's lives and in our communities.

Wells Fargo, the bank of doing.

American Petroleum Institute.

Through API's Energy Excellence program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental and sustainability progress throughout the natural gas and oil industry around the world.

Learn more at api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to ensuring your money, health, and happiness live as long as you do.

♪♪ ♪♪ >> Ayanna Gregory, a singer, activist and truth teller, continues the powerful legacy of her legendary father, Dick Gregory.

Ayanna is a daughter of the movement.

She's dedicated her life to using art and activism to inspire lasting change, equality and compassion.

In the 1950s and '60s, Dick Gregory broke boundaries as a comedian, activist, and civil rights leader, using humor as a powerful tool to expose racism and inequality in America.

Gregory was on the front lines, marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., protesting injustice with other leaders of the era like Malcolm X, heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali, and more.

Gregory even ran for president, challenging the nation to see itself with honest eyes.

Ayanna Gregory has dedicated her life to honoring her father's legacy and building upon it.

But Ayanna's approach is her own, blending music, storytelling and truth with a unique tenderness that invites people of all backgrounds to listen and learn.

Through her programs in schools, prisons and communities, Ayanna connects with young people who feel disconnected and overlooked.

She tells the stories of the struggle and resilience passed down through generations, reminding us all that the fight for justice is ongoing.

>> We're really blessed to have the phenomenal Ayanna Gregory.

Welcome to "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Dr. Chavis.

>> Look, we could do a whole series on the Gregory family.

Dick Gregory, Lillian Gregory, 11 children.

Ayanna, you personify all of what your father stood for and continue his legacy.

Where were you actually born?

>> Chicago.

>> Chicago?

>> Mm-hmm.

>> When did you move to D.C.?

>> Let's see.

I moved to D.C. in 1990 to go to Howard University, and then I just never left.

>> You know, I do want to spend a few moments just talking about your father.

I want to remind the audience of how your father took comedy and made it a social-change agent.

>> Absolutely.

>> And you heard what Bobby Kennedy said about eight weeks ago.

He said 30 years from this year, a Negro can become president.

So treat me right.

I'll get in there and raise taxes on you.

[ Laughter ] I mean, don't get me wrong.

I wouldn't mind paying my income tax if I knew it was going to a friendly country.

[ Laughter ] And we have a lot of racial prejudice up north, but we're so clever with it.

Take my hometown, Chicago.

I mean, you can't see it just going in there.

When the Negroes in Chicago move into one large area and it looked like we might control the votes, they don't say anything to us.

They have a slum clearance.

[ Laughter ] >> And then after he became a social-change agent, you know, your father -- I used to hear Dr. King talk about your father.

And, of course, the Evers family -- Medgar knew your father.

>> Yes.

>> And I remember when he made that transition from just purely being a comedian to being a 100% activist and leader in his own right.

>> Yes.

>> As his daughter, what do you remember and what do you want to affirm as the evolution of Dick Gregory?

>> Daddy was a master teacher, and I'll say is a master teacher.

And he moved...

He would always say "fear and God do not occupy the same space."

So he moved with a level of fearlessness because he knew that he was moving in the spirit of right.

>> But the minute we walk through with dignity and demand respect that the Constitution tell me... it's supposed to be some secret plot.

Listen, the white folk, some of them complain in this country about us.

And you wouldn't believe listening to them, we was kidnapped.

I mean, you think we came over here on a 14-day visa.

[ Laughter ] >> And so I think that was really, you know, I mean, with all the death threats and the assassination attempts on his life, the phone taps, all the things we grew up with, where we were always, you know, we were in imminent danger.

And at the same time, we felt untouchable because we understood the sacred work that he was doing and that my mom was doing, and that we were doing.

>> The sacredness of the freedom struggle.

>> Yes.

>> The sacredness of standing up for freedom, justice and equality.

>> Yes.

>> So you grew up in the movement.

>> I grew up in the movement.

>> And I know you have a current play called "Daughter of the Struggle."

>> Yes.

>> Tell us about "Daughter of the Struggle."

>> "Daughter of the Struggle" is really about growing up as a child of the civil rights and human rights movement.

And it's from the perspective of the children.

You know, we watched our father go all around the world, and at the same time, people knew who my dad was, but they didn't know about these 10 children, and they didn't know about Lillian Gregory, who was also marching and getting arrested, oftentimes pregnant.

>> I got to shake your mother's hand, salute her.

>> Yes.

Yes, sir.

>> 11 children.

>> 11 children, you know.

And so she's raising us.

She's also in the line of fire, you know, pregnant with twins, seven months pregnant in Selma for two weeks.

And that's just one of many times, you know, so the play really deals with what it was like for this one family to come up in the movement and to ultimately put it all on the line.

>> You authored the play?

>> Yes.

>> And you perform in the play?

>> Yes.

So there's music, there's storytelling, there's movement.

But it's a powerful play.

I talk about my sisters Lynne and Michele when they were four and six years old, marching for fair education in Chicago, thrown in a police car in the paddy wagon at four and six, put in jail.

I talk about my sisters Paula -- >> 4-year-old and 6-year-old put in the paddy wagon?

>> Yes, yes.

Petrified.

But there they were, and that they get to tell that story.

My sisters Zenobia and Paula in Greenwood, Mississippi, marching, met with, you know, officers, federal guardsmen with guns pointed right at them with the Ku Klux Klan, scared, Paula telling my daddy, "I'm not going over that bridge," and my father saying, "Fear and God do not occupy the same space.

You're going to cross that bridge and there is no other option."

So those moments, I then embody those moments and really, because the play becomes an intergenerational piece, because the elders who see the play, they're very emotional because they've lived it, and the young folks are like, "Wait a minute, y'all did that?"

And it's like, "Yes, and you are the continuum."

We are the continuum of the movement.

So really wanting them to see that this is not some dead history in a book.

This is living, breathing history.

>> That's a great segue, Ayanna.

You're the perfect person to answer this question.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> From your vantage point, explain the importance of the intersection of culture with social justice.

>> When we talk about culture, we're talking about a way of life, the way a group of people interacts with their natural world, their physical world, as well as, you know, their social world.

And so it's our belief systems, our customs, the music, the art, our concepts of spirituality.

And so when I think about social justice, particularly in this country, you know, our culture was stripped from us as Africans in America.

And so our fight for social justice ultimately has been our fight to restore the respect of our culture in the natural order of things because our dignity was stripped.

We were stripped of our dignity.

We were stripped of our language, our God, all of these things.

And so as we have emerged as freedom fighters and folks who just really wanting to be recognized in a dignified way and live as humane human beings, it has been a natural part of the existence of Africans in America, whether we are on the front line or not that we are in this fight for social justice.

So, you know, the ways in which, you know, we think in terms of struggle.

We talk about Black folks.

We're always thinking in terms of got to struggle, the struggle, the struggle that oftentimes we don't know what it's like not to struggle because it's been a struggle since our ancestors were forced to these shores.

And so when we talk about social justice, we're talking about our fighting for our right to exist, not in an assimilated society, but to say, "I don't have to disintegrate who I am.

I don't have to be," you know, you have white supremacy that has weaponized our culture.

And so I feel like as we begin to reclaim our culture, that part of that is being recognized as human beings, and as Daddy always said, when we was freeing us in the civil rights movement, we was freeing everybody else.

And so it was a movement of humanity.

It wasn't a movement of color.

And so that has just become a natural integration of our lives.

You know, and again, I know that not everybody's on the front line.

There's a lot of fear, you know, even, you know, we talk about Dr. King and you think about the people who were not in alignment with Dr. King.

Dr. King, we were just talking about what they have made of him now.

It's like he's Santa Claus.

It's like, no, no, no, no.

You know, you talk about what you would have been done -- been and done at a certain time, not understanding the climate of the day.

And so, you know, it takes those brave souls who can be able to not be popular in their time, just as we see what's happening now, you know, in the world with genocides and, you know, folks standing up and being condemned, but social justice requires courage.

It requires us to know that we're on the right side of history, all the while being unpopular in that moment.

It requires us to give our lives if necessary.

>> You are a distinguished playwright, actress, singer, performer, woman not just of America, but the world.

After all of what you've been through, your family, what you lived, your lived experience, what gives you that energy that pushes you to continue?

>> I would say three things -- our ancestors, our elders, and the children.

Our ancestors for what they sacrificed for the foundations that they laid, for the wisdom that they carried and that they... they live in us.

Our elders because they are, you know, not only living libraries.

They did the work.

And our children, because they have no fear.

And even when they don't know they're ready for something, they're ready.

They're fearless.

And if you give them the right perspective, if you allow them to know the truth, they're going to fight for the right things.

And so I'm doing it for the young people.

I'm doing it for the ancestors.

I'm doing it for our elders.

>> What's been the response, particularly of the young people, how responsive they are to your music, to your plays, just your presence?

I saw you down in Selma, Alabama, and everybody was standing still.

You could hear a pin drop... >> Mm.

>> ...at your performance at the bridge crossing, the Selma to Montgomery bridge crossing.

So tell us -- give us a sense of how people around the country and actually around the world, because you also do work in Africa... >> Yes.

>> ...responds to your creative genius.

>> I will say I'm grateful for my gift of song because honestly, specifically with the youth, that is my passport to reach them.

When I go to a school and I'm doing a motivational assembly, the first thing I do is sing.

And then I got their attention and then I can talk to them.

But yeah, I've been to schools where principals have been like, "This is a really tough group.

You may have some trouble," and I would say 99.9% of the time you can hear a pin drop because I'm talking to these young people about the truth of who they are, about the truth of who they are.

And I'm not talking to them about making a living, getting a job, making money.

I'm talking to them about living, about their purpose, about their core, about the truth of who they really are.

And that gets their attention because oftentimes they don't hear that.

They're being taught to fit into a system, into a machine that could care less about them, could care less about their spirit, about their heart.

And I talk to them about who they actually are.

And so I always get their attention.

I talk to them about ancient African civilization.

I talk to them about how we focus on... this society wants us to think that our history began with slavery.

So I'm going to start way before that.

>> Of course.

>> So it gets their attention because it's now information they haven't heard before.

And then it's coming with a fire and a force.

And I'm getting them up.

I'm doing call and response.

I'm getting them off their feet, moving.

They're not supposed to stay in a box.

My father was always against school as it exists in this society.

So we just get them out of the box and say, "We want you to really live.

Now tell me what you want to do."

And so they're very responsive.

And even in other countries.

I spend a lot of time in Jamaica.

And so I've been traveling to a lot of schools.

And initially I was a little apprehensive about sharing.

I didn't know how the civil rights story and my personal family's stories within the civil rights movement would translate.

And one of the elders who was taking me to the schools, he said, "I need you to tell these stories, even if you think that they won't understand."

And I'm so glad he made me do it because the students have all these questions, and then they begin to understand the connection between their national heroes, Marcus Garvey, Sam Sharpe, Nanny and Kojo of the Maroons.

They begin to make the connection and realize, "Oh, as African people who were stolen from the continent as we existed in the Americas, as we existed in the Caribbean and North America, South America," they begin to make the connection of how we are related, even though our accents may sound different, that we are all the same.

>> So you're also a master storyteller?

>> Yes, sir.

>> And in your songs I detect you're singing, but you're also telling the story?

>> Yes.

>> Can you explain to the audience the importance of having a narrative that's authentic, based on one's lived experience?

>> Absolutely.

I'll give you an example.

I used to work at an after-school program at Martha's Table, a team program, and the young people were -- there was a program run by the director, Tim Jones at the time, called Crushed I.C.E.

And it was a hip-hop program.

It gave the young, mostly boys, but some girls too, an opportunity to express themselves through hip hop.

Now, all they were doing initially was just imitating what they heard.

Just thuggin' out, talking about the ice and, you know, the gold and the platinum chains and, you know, how many girls they had and all this, you know, disrespectful stuff about misogynistic lyrics about women and a life they had not lived.

And we begin to talk to them and say, "Let's talk about your life.

Let's talk about your world, the things that you're afraid to talk about, you know."

And so then they began to -- the months that we spent with them, they began to talk about the things that they were really interested in.

And Tim Jones has obviously carried it on much longer than I have.

I was just a part of it for a year or so.

But I bring that up to say that when you give someone else -- when you give these children a narrative that is unnatural to them and is harmful to them, they're going to latch on to it because it's the narrative they've been given.

And when you open up that space and offer that there's another way, that there's another connection that they can make to what's really authentic to them, it becomes a whole different experience.

And then it doesn't just become them rapping, it becomes them healing.

It becomes them cleansing.

It becomes them reaching for something more.

So now they're rapping about, you know, the fact that, maybe their father had been in jail, but they're not glorifying that.

They miss their dad.

They're talking about the concepts of worthiness that they're dealing with.

They're talking about that "Wow, I grew up in a war zone in the hood.

But I really want to be, um...

I really want to be an entrepreneur.

I really want to be a doctor.

I really want to be a freedom fighter."

And then we can deal with those things that are natural to them.

And so once we set the stage and allow them to be who they are and get that other stuff out of the way, then the truth and the genius and the authenticity of who they are can come up.

>> Ayanna, there are many school districts today that are cutting out music, cutting out culture, even -- They don't have school bands.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> What's your feeling on the importance of the educational experience incorporating culture?

>> Oh, it is everything.

And they're doing that because they know it works.

They know that they're cutting out the things that they know work, in my opinion.

I believe that a lot of the cultural enrichment programs, the arts programs, I mean, these things are saving children's lives, are opening up their worlds, expanding their whole concept.

>> So if they're saving children's lives, why do you think they're being cut?

>> Because I think that this educational system is set up for our children to fail.

I think this education -- education system is set up in concert with the criminal injustice system, you know, so that we're tracking young -- >> The pipeline.

>> The pipeline.

Yes.

That, you know, school to prison pipeline.

And so if you can keep children focused on their behavior and start labeling them ADHD and all of these things that don't allow them to be who they actually are, to find their own genius in the art, in the music, in the world, then we can, you know, vilify them and criminalize them.

And so I think it's just a part of a natural plan that has been in place, you know, for decades, if not more, to keep our children in a place where they are not activating their true genius.

And so we have an opportunity and a responsibility to make sure they get the right information and the right opportunities, independent of these school systems.

My father said -- I can't remember.

No, it may not have been my father, but somebody who talked about it, and maybe it was Malcolm X.

You know, we may be the only people that allow our enemy to educate our children.

And so, you know, just the i-- and Daddy always talked about, you know, we opt for education over liberation.

If your education is not about liberation, that's -- if your education doesn't take you to an understanding of the knowledge of yourself and you learn about everybody else and oftentimes false information about everybody else, then how on Earth would we expect our children to have any sense of worthiness to be and exist in the world as the great beings that they are If we're not being -- if they're not being taught about who they are?

>> That's very interesting.

I'm sure you have attended and I have attended numerous -- I can't lose the count -- of educational conferences.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> But I very rarely get invited to a liberation conference.

>> Come on now.

>> That's very telling.

>> Talk about it.

>> So one of the things I wanted to ask you, you've written your own songs, but what is your favorite song?

>> Today, you know, oftentimes I say I don't have a favorite, but I would have to say "Ballad for my Father (Tribute to Dick Gregory.)"

It's the first song that I ever wrote about a person, you know, and this was about my father.

It was very, very difficult to write this song, to try to fit in five minutes or less what that man means to me.

And when I tell you the first time he heard it, he cried.

And he got on stage and he said, "Malcolm, Medgar and Martin never got the chance to hear their children talk about them."

And I didn't know how much that would mean to him until it happened, until I saw those tears coming down his face.

>> Can you sing one verse?

>> Sure.

♪ 1932 ♪ ♪ Somehow, Mama knew ♪ ♪ God had a plan for you ♪ ♪ With a light around your head ♪ ♪ Someone tried to hurt you ♪ ♪ But you made them laugh instead ♪ ♪ Funny man, superstar ♪ ♪ Change of plans ♪ ♪ The movement called ♪ ♪ Ten kids and a wife ♪ ♪ But human rights became your life ♪ ♪ Like all the other universal pearls, Daddy ♪ ♪ You belong to the world ♪ ♪ Golden heart, brilliant mind ♪ ♪ So ahead of your time ♪ ♪ Black man with the keys in your hands ♪ ♪ Oh, you opened up the way for a new day ♪ >> Oh, that's fantastic.

I know your father, Dick Gregory, would smile from heaven to hear his daughter sing that song.

>> Thank you.

>> Before we end, you've seen a lot of the world.

>> Yes.

>> You've seen a lot of America.

Ayanna, what gives you your greatest hope for the future?

>> Our young people, seeing their fearlessness, seeing their fire, seeing their sense of love and connectedness.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

I would say the children, our youth.

I just -- I'm so proud of them.

They are fearless and so courageous.

And they're ready for change.

They're ready for a new day.

They're ready for a new season, a new era of love and light.

And I believe in them.

And it gives me so much, knowing -- not just hope, but knowing that we're going to be alright.

>> Ayanna Gregory, we really have been blessed with your presence.

Thank you for joining "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Dr. Ben Chavis, thank you so much.

I love you.

>> For more information about "The Chavis Chronicles" and our guests, visit our website at thechavischronicles.com.

Also, follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by the following.

At Wells Fargo, diverse representation and perspectives, equity, and inclusion is critical to meeting the needs of our colleagues, customers, and communities.

We are focused on our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion both inside our company and in the communities where we live and work.

Together, we want to make a tangible difference in people's lives and in our communities.

Wells Fargo, the bank of doing.

American Petroleum Institute.

Through API's Energy Excellence program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental and sustainability progress throughout the natural gas and oil industry around the world.

Learn more at api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

At AARP, we are committed to ensuring your money, health, and happiness live as long as you do.

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