EXCLUSIVE: Nikki Giovanni Talks Love And Radicalism On New Conversation Show, ‘Generational Anxiety’

A compelling new weekly talk show has come to shake up cultural thought and continue a legacy set in the 1970s.

Led by host and cultural commentator Bianca Vivion, Generational Anxiety, airing Tuesdays on ALL ARTS app, pairs creatives, artists, and activists from various generations to lead provocative discussions about the most important hot-button social issues facing our society today, as well as the ever-changed state of art and culture.

Inspired by James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni’s still-relevant two-hour dialogue, broadcast via The WNET Group’s variety-talk show SOUL! in the early 1970s, Vivion set out to highlight and recapture the art of deep, uninterrupted conversation between educators, cultural experts, and personalities from different schools of thought and varying age groups.   

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“I created ‘Generational Anxiety’ as a love letter to my generation,” Vivion said her four-episode series on the ALL ARTS forum. “This is a show that invites viewers of all ages and backgrounds into a kind of social living room and says, ‘You are seen. You are heard. You are welcome here.’”

In this exclusive clip, Vivion sits with legendary poet, activist, and cultural philosopher Giovanni and The New Yorker television and culture critic Doreen St. Félix to discuss the concept of love. Giovanni delves into the radical act of growing where you’re planted through adversity and making change where you stand rather than “escaping” your surroundings for a new horizon.

Simultaneously launching to air on ALL ARTS just as Generational Anxiety begins is that classic conversation between Giovanni and James Baldwin in 1971, later published in book form as A Dialogue.

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Additional conversational pairings will include American documentary photographer Joseph Rodriguez speaking with Nigerian-Canadian creative director Josef Adamu about how masculinity and identity are represented in America, Trinidadian-American novelist Elizabeth Nunez and Trinidadian-British writer and filmmaker Che Applewhaite discussing the expression of a desire for home through language and film, and Grammy-winning musician esperanza spalding speaking with jazz drummer Savannah Harris on the regenerative power of music.

“I created Generational Anxiety as a love letter to my generation,” Vivion continued. “By bringing together iconic artists with the voices of the future, I believe we can begin to find clarity on some long-debated social issues and heal some of the divisiveness that has plagued public discourse over the last few years.”

You can watch Generational Anxiety via the ALL ARTS app starting November 8 at 8 pm EST HERE.