Singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun, Plus Bryan Washington
The singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun recently released her fourth album, called \u201cProof of Life.\u201d Raised near Phoenix, Oladokun had aspirations of becoming a preacher before turning to music in earnest. Like many of the great songwriters, she has a way of staring down the hardest parts of life with an offbeat sort of wit. The New Yorker\u2019s Hanif Abdurraqib calls her a \u201cwriter\u2019s writer,\u201d someone \u201cinterested in the lyric as an opportunity to build narrative worlds.\u201d Oladokun talked with him about seeing a video of Tracy Chapman performing in a Nelson Mandela tribute concert: \u201cI was ten years old, watching someone who looked like me play the guitar,\u201d she recalls. \u201cI asked my parents for a guitar that Christmas.\u201d Chapman remained a lasting influence on her as an artist. \u201cYou could just tell that what drove her to open her mouth in the first place was conviction. Belief in her values and belief that if people would only think about this, it would change the world.\u201d While in New York on tour, Oladokun performed \u201cTrying\u201d and \u201cKeeping the Light On\u201d\u2014both from her new record\u2014live at WNYC. Plus, the fiction writer Bryan Washington on the joys of a Houston ice house.