Senator Raphael Warnock, "Bittersweet," Ray Johnson Photographs, Fantastic Negrito Listening Party, Juneteenth Events, Juneteenth Cooking

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock joins us to discuss his new memoir, A Way Out of No Way: A Memoir of Truth, Transformation and the New American Story. The book chronicles his childhood in Savannah, his time as a senior pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the runoff election that earned him and Senator Jon Ossoff seats in the Senate, officially handing control of the body over to the Democratic Party.

Susan Cain taught us all to understand the power of introverts with her huge hit book Quiet. Now she is back to discuss how we get through pain by exploring sadness, grief, mortality and impermanence with her new book Bittersweet.

The late artist Ray Johnson is best known for spreading his multimedia collages through the U.S Postal Service. However throughout his career, he was thought of as, "New York's most famous unknown artist." Recently, 137 disposable cameras Johnson used in his final years were discovered, revealing thousands of photographs of new collages never seen before. The Morgan Library & Museum will display some of these photographs, alongside some of his mail art, in a new exhibition called, Please Send to Real Life: Ray Johnson Photographs, which opens today. Curator Joel Smith joins us to talk about the discovery, the mystery of Ray Johnson, and why his legacy and work matters.

In 2020, while looking back through his family tree, Grammy-winning musician Fantastic Negrito learned that his seventh-generation grandparents had been a white indentured servant from Scotland and an unnamed enslaved man, living in a common law marriage in 18th-century Virginia. The discovery inspired Fantastic Negrito to write an album about their union, titled White Jesus Black Problems. Fantastic Negrito joins us for a Listening Party.

June 19th marks the date in 1865 when the news of emancipation reached enslaved Black people in Texas, and has been commemorated as Juneteenth ever since, finally becoming a federal holiday in 2021. WNYC Newsroom culture and arts reporter Precious Fondren joins us to talk about some of the ways Juneteenth is being celebrated across the city.

Food writer Nicole A. Taylor has written a new cookbook, Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations, inspired by her years observing the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. Before the holiday, now officially recognized by the federal government, Taylor joins us to talk about the history of Juneteenth cooking, as well share some recipes for main dishes, desserts, and special drinks you may want to try out this weekend.