Banjo Maestro Rhiannon Giddens Has Broken Many Musical Barriers. Now She Is Working with Beyoncé.

It’s been a busy period for the pioneering musical artist Rhiannon Giddens. She won a Pulitzer Prize for her opera Omar, about Omar ibn Said, a Muslim scholar in Africa who was sold into slavery in the 1800s. She released a remarkable musical video for her song “Another Wasted Life” featuring 22 people who were wrongly incarcerated. And now her banjo playing can be heard on “Texas Hold ’Em,” the new hit single by Beyoncé, who recently became the first Black woman to top _Billboard_’s Hot Country Songs chart. In October, Rhiannon Giddens spoke to Democracy Now! about her remarkable life, from her work in The Carolina Chocolate Drops to her new album, You’re the One, which features a song inspired by Kalief Browder.