Danielle Ponder will be playing for free at CU’s Macky Auditorium next Sunday

Image via Danielle Ponder

The Boulder County NAACP will host its annual Freedom Fund event on Sunday, Feb. 18. The lineup includes Danielle Ponder, a former public defender turned globe-touring singer-songwriter whose newest release, Some of Us Are Brave has been featured on Jimmy Kimmel’s Tonight Show and Late Night with Seth Meyers. Late Night with Seth Meyers.

On this month’s Black Talk, host Michele Simpson talks with Ponder about her career as a public defender and her decision to share what many call an unforgettable voice with the world. Ponder’s music embraces themes of self-love, authenticity, resistance, and justice.

Also on Sunday’s ticket, the Freedom Fund presents Anthony Ray Hinton, who served on death row for 30 years for a crime he was found to have not committed. Michele Simpson discusses Hinton’s memoir and its impact on the students who read it in Simpson’s undergraduate courses.

The Freedom Fund began, nationally, in 1953 as a ten-year program to intensify efforts to complete the job of Black emancipation. Last year’s Freedom Fund event, Boulder’s NAACP presented the Nashville African American Wind Symphony

For more information about Sunday’s event, visit NAACP Boulder County’s website here.

03_08_BLACKTALK Alexis Kenyon

Alexis Kenyon

Alexis Kenyon is an experienced radio reporter with more than 15 years of experience creating compelling, sound-rich radio stories for news outlets across the country. Kenyon has master's degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism in radio broadcast and photojournalism. She has worked in KGNU's news department since 2021 as a reporter, editor, and daily news producer. In all her work, she strives to produce thought-provoking, trustworthy journalism that makes other people's stories feel personal. In addition to audio production, Kenyon runs KGNU's news internship program and oversees the department's digital engagement.