The Believer

How, for over 50 years and often through song, Sesame Street has been helping kids from every strata of society to comprehend difficult topics and learn how to behave compassionately when faced with racism, serious illness, death, and more.

The world was broken in half, but music, music could be the bridge.

“Names are choices—just usually not ours.”

“A meditation on a period of weakness with no known cause.”

“I think attention, or the lack thereof, during one’s career has the potential to make or break one’s journey. And during the times when there was less attention on me, it was just what I wanted and needed. But what happens when you have something that propels you from one level of celebrity to another is that it’s almost like you get to reinvent yourself.”

“At exactly 1:05pm, the Prius was outside my Airbnb, as was Chuck, in a pressed white shirt and pastel turquoise shorts. He treated me to a tuna sandwich at a nearby bakery. We then drove back and sat down for three hours of conversation in the secluded bamboo-walled yard, which happened to be right next to where he attends his AA meetings.”

“I didn’t know how to write about my sister’s death—so I had AI do it for me.”

“I see rehearsal space, rehearsal tapes, dressing rooms, cooking sessions, woodsheds, after-hours performances, and backstage as Black sacred spaces, places where we are most like ourselves.”

An immersive theatrical performance reveals a side of Ciudad Juárez rarely seen by outsiders.

“Can we fall in love completely without completely losing ourselves?”

“I don’t want my part to get skipped over, but I still don’t know how to write directly about what went down between me and M. All I can do is worry a detail like an R&B singer worries a line…For years I’ve cherished a clip of Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin singing on Soul Train.”