“They were smiling and dancing to not get killed.” Harmony Holiday, a writer, dancer, and archivist, reflects on the songs and silences of Black performers. She speaks with the hosts, Nikita Gale and Alexander Provan, about Black musicians whose songs and struggles reflect the ongoing trauma of the “African holocaust,” from Albert Ayler to Kanye West to Holiday's father, the soul singer Jimmy Holiday. They discuss the pressure on Black performers to cater to white audiences as well as the impulse to seek a form of expression (and of being) that is chosen and not imposed by force.