Our Common Nature: When Yo-Yo Ma Came to West Virginia

By Crystal Good | Black By God: The West Virginian

I’ll be honest—when Yo-Yo Ma’s team first reached out about visiting West Virginia, I was skeptical. I’ve been burned by people parachuting into our region, extracting our stories, and leaving. My response included the line: “Good stewards of our precious biodiversity — the history and future of our stories and place — must always be on watch for invasive species.”

Now that I’ve met Yo-Yo and his beautiful team, I can’t believe I sent that. (The New York Times even quoted me on that one—LOL.)

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But what happened during those September days in 2022—and is captured in the new podcast Our Common Nature from WNYC and Sound Postings, produced by Ana González—was different.

They didn’t want to take or stereotype us, but came to learn and give. 

What unfolded over those days and in this podcast became something I didn’t expect: unofficially Black By God, with so many beautiful Black faces gleaming throughout—from Zora Stroud, the first Black woman to retire from WV underground coal mines, and her son, third-generation miner Chris Saunders; Dom Flemons with his banjo, the legendary founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and a Grammy-winning musician, songwriter, and music scholar; to Pastor Michael Farmer from Step by Step who facilitated young, primarily Black and brown youth on the rafting trip; and me, still in awe.

There were plenty more beautiful folks who participated, too, all connected by Yo Yo and his team through nature, music, and story.

Listening will be your entry into holding the long note of this experience, and I hope that some of us will try to recreate it.

We may not have Yo-Yo Ma, but we have plenty of talent, stories, and nature to explore together.

Whatchu know about Black Diamonds…?

Welp, Yo Yo and Anna know a lot. 

Listen to the West Virginia episode here: Our Common Nature: West Virginia.

The full podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts and at ourcommonnaturepodcast.org.You can also hear excerpts and an interview with producer Ana González on Inside Appalachia from West Virginia Public Broadcasting.