Canadian musician Allison Russell talks and sings about the abuse she endured from her racist adoptive father — and about how she learned she was worthy of being loved. Her 2023 album is The Returner. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the TEd Radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of.
Complaints about people using the pronoun they.
To refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Terry Gross.
This week, we're featuring some of our favorite interviews of the year.
Today we hear from musician Alison Russell, who sings original songs in a powerful voice that rings out.
Some of her songs are about a subject that many people feel they have to keep secret.
She was physically and sexually abused by her adoptive father through her childhood until she left home at age 15.
She has a song about one night when she was in high school and had to escape him.
She ran to the home of her girlfriend, her first love, and tapped on her window, asking to be let in.
As we learn in other songs, some night she escaped him by sleeping in a park or a cemetery or sheltering in a cathedral.
She also has songs about learning she's capable of being loved and re entering her body after having had to mentally detach from it to survive.
Her mother is white, her biological father is black, and her adoptive father is is a white racist.
She sings about that, too.
After performing in bands for many years, she now records under her own name.
Her first solo album, Outside Child, released in 2020, ₩1, a Juno Award, the canadian equivalent of a Grammy for contemporary roots album of the year.