© 2024 Blue Ridge Public Radio
Blue Ridge Mountains banner background
Your source for information and inspiration in Western North Carolina.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A.yoni Jeffries Is An Afro-Indigenous Hemp Farmer Whose ‘Potential Gon’ Pay’

Durham-based musician A.yoni Jeffries understands discouragement. Her latest album, “Potential Gon’ Pay,” was delayed three times this year. But the 25-year-old never stays discouraged for long. In the interim, while she awaited a new release date, she focused her attention on a new endeavor, Handèwa Farms, which she launched in December 2019 with eight partners. 

Host Anita Rao talks to Durham-based artist A.yoni Jeffries about her new album, "Potential Gon' Pay," and her new farming venture.

Many of them, including herself are of Afro-Indigenous descent. Hemp has been the farm’s primary crop this year, an intentional choice meant to destigmatize the plant and its uses. She pushes boundaries in her music, too. Jeffries joins host Anita Rao to talk about farming activism and “Potential Gon’ Pay,” which is finally available for streaming and purchase.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG_1LmOv-iM&ab_channel=AyoniJeffries

 

Copyright 2020 North Carolina Public Radio

Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
Stacia Brown comes to WUNC from Washington, DC, where she was a producer for WAMU’s daily news radio program, 1A. She’s the creator and host of two podcasts, The Rise of Charm City and Hope Chest. Her audio projects have been featured on Scene on Radio, a podcast of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University; BBC 4’s Short Cuts; and American Public Radio’s Terrible, Thanks for Asking.