Can you collaborate with your mother, a Pulitzer-winning playwright, and develop your own voice too? Ruby Aiyo Gerber wasn’t too scared to try.

Symone Harcum was a graduate student when she met the mezzo-soprano, who guided her through a field that has traditionally overlooked Black women.

Joy Harjo’s work is rooted in the Native community, a respect that’s shared by the poet and writer Layli Long Soldier.