Dr. Hannah Thuraisingam Robbins
speaker
194 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 22 May
Dr. Hannah Thuraisingam Robbins’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.
Appearances
She came to believe that she was chosen by movie executives so that they could capitalise on her perceived racial ambiguity.
And that made her work and the profile of her success understandably contentious for a really long time.
And yet the peaks of her career, and I would say her story more generally, were always in community with other Black artists and
Meanwhile, she balanced pouring her fortune into grassroots movements.
She got involved in national organising and she was essential in helping up and coming black performers make choices about their contracts, their working conditions based on her experience.
Lena Horne became a star because she was crowded by support and whatever storm she was weathering.
Unlike many others, she was willing to admit her mistakes and to grow intellectually in public.
Her story shows the appeal of having had a figurehead, but also the limitations of having one person embody such a diverse community of people.
And Horne really tried to pay that investment back to others, but while making the most of the platform she was given.
I would say her custodianship and her commercial impact paved the way for public acceptance of a lot of Black artists, including the megastardom of Diana Ross, who took over from Horne as the world's most photographed Black woman.
Her survival and endurance was remarkable, but it was also sometimes messy.
She reminds us to embrace the complex stories behind the successes and that however exceptional and isolated people tried to make her, she relentlessly returned to her people, her values, and to paying her luck forward.
Or travel with us to 1920s New York to meet Celia Cooney, the bobbed-haired bandit, a celebrity armed robber with a plan.
BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts.
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