FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | June 15, 2021
On the Issues with Michele Goodwin is a popular, issues and policy-focused podcast featuring feminist analysis, insightful conversations and exciting guests. This is the first podcast from Ms. magazine, a legacy feminist publication. In each bi-weekly episode, host Dr. Michele Goodwin and special guests will tackle the most compelling issues of our times, centering feminist concerns about rebuilding our nation and advancing the promise of equality.
A new episode—I’m So Excited…Celebrating Juneteenth with the Pointer Sisters (with Anita Pointer and Fritz Pointer)—is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and MsMagazine.com.
In this joyous episode, host Michele Goodwin is joined by music icon Anita Pointer of the three- time Grammy Award-winning R&B group the Pointer Sisters and her brother Fritz Pointer, acclaimed professor and historian and former music manager. They celebrate Juneteenth and unpack their award-winning memoir, Fairytale: The Pointer Sisters’ Family Story.
Fritz and Anita Pointer discuss coming of age in the civil rights movement; emphasize the importance of tenacity and learning the hard way; and break down what it was like for their family to finally break through and land award after award—all by doing it their own way. As an added bonus, expect to be serenaded by Anita Pointer!
Their conversation covered a wide range of topics; you can find a full transcript here, as well as a few excerpts below:
“Taj Mahal was the first one to tell us that, you know, you guys deserve credits on this because you do more than just sing the songs. You’re creating…you know, you’re arranging the vocals.” —Anita Pointer
“It started off as 57 years. I wrote them and I published them back in the ‘70s, and now it’s coming to where I think I just have a few more years, and I can recoup my publishing on those songs.” —Anita Pointer
“Getting that top billing is hard, you know? There are some real traumatic times that I mention in the book even. Their first appearance in Las Vegas. I think it was the first, Anita, when June wouldn’t come out of the dressing room.” —Fritz Pointer
“And with the other act…I won’t name any other acts, but when they come in, they get a villa. Beautiful villa, but we didn’t get that, even though we were headlining at Caesars Palace.” —Anita Pointer
“I want to mention…the event at the Grand Ole Opry…when they were met with signs saying keep country white, basically. Keep country country. Keep country white, and they were met with these signs protesting when they were the first.” —Fritz Pointer
Meet the Host of On the Issues: Dr. Michele Goodwin is a frequent contributor to Ms. Magazine and on MsMagazine.com. She is a Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine and also serves on the executive committee and national board of the ACLU. Dr. Goodwin is a prolific author and an elected member of the American Law Institute, as well as an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Hastings Center. Her most recent book, Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and The Criminalization of Motherhood, is described as a “must read.”
About Ms. Magazine: Co-founded by Gloria Steinem in 1972 and published by the Feminist Majority Foundation since 2001, Ms. magazine has been a trusted, popular source for feminist news and information in print and online for nearly 50 years. Ms.’s time-honored traditions of an emphasis on in-depth investigative reporting and feminist political analysis have never been more relevant, bringing a new generation of writers and readers together to share news, analysis, research and strategies for fighting back and moving forward, for shaping the future.
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If you would like more information on the On the Issues with Michele Goodwin podcast, or to schedule an interview with Host and Executive Producer Michele Goodwin or Executive Producer & Ms. Executive Editor Katherine Spillar, please email press@msmagazine.com.
Launched in 1971, Ms. is the most trusted, popular source for feminist news and information in print and online with a tradition of in-depth investigative reporting and feminist political analysis. Ms. is wholly owned and published by the Feminist Majority Foundation.
