"Now is the Time that Artists Must Get to Work" - Zilla Jones' The World So Wide
Season 6, Episode 79
As a result of Zilla Jones’ The World So Wide, slated for publication with Cormorant Books on April 26, 2025, Linda reflects on opera (specifically Verdi’s La Forza Del Destino) – historically an elitist art form, but one that Felicity Alexander, the protagonist of Jones’ novel, in part challenges and overcomes through the very successes of her career. The trajectory of that career takes a darker turn when she finds herself in Grenada during the 1983 American invasion of that country – not an untimely revisioning of history in view of the current American political situation (27:40; 28:50).
Linda also speaks about Verdi’s La forza del destino with Renata Tibaldi as Leonore and her father's love for opera (2:15), before she turns to the interview with Zilla Jones to speak about the following:
Opera’s potential as an artform vs. its polarizing, and its elitism as art form (3:20; 12:30); Kathleen Battle (18:46; 19:00)
Arts vs. politics (13:30), and the uses of art in a time like this (6:00; 31:45)
Other authors: Shani Mootoo (Season 3, Episode 26, 6:00); Dionne Brand, Salvaging the Wreck (16:03); Sara Ahmed’s What’s the Use? (5:00; 6:15); Toni Morrison (31:50); Robinson Crusoe (16:15)
Decolonization and racial politics (12:15) and the novel as a colonial construct (16:15)
Felicity as mixed-race heroine (17:30; 33:20; naming of, 39:30)
Grenada (history of, 20:45, and its “Revo,” 23:10; Red Sky Revolution, 23.20); the history of the Panama Canal (27:40)
Jones' research for the novel (24:35)
Gender and racialized motherhood (34:10)
Executive & Sound Producer: Linda Morra; Associate Producer: Maia Harris; Music by Raphael Krux ("The Madness of Linda") and Kevin MacLeod ("Natural Vibes").
