The Power and Purpose of Wailing

Throughout time, wailing has existed as both a deeply personal and profoundly collective experience. It is an innate human response to intense emotion, capable of moving the body, resonating through the voice and shaping the spaces we share.

Our cultural context often determines when and why we wail. Some societies encourage public expression while others favor restraint and privacy. Some practice ritualized forms — such as mourning ceremonies — that carry symbolic meaning beyond raw emotion. This brings us to wonder how these expressions of body and voice intersect with the brain’s processing of emotion, memory and social connection, and what these experiences reveal about our shared humanity.

Choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, founder of Urban Bush Women, has spent over 40 years blending modern dance, African diasporic forms, theater and spoken word. The group’s works are rooted in cultural memory, community practices and personal narratives. Kelsey Martin is the executive vice president of autism and neuroscience at the Simons Foundation. She has spent her scientific career trying to better understand the neural mechanisms underlying human emotions and memory, and how our experiences shape who we are.

The two have shared a creative thought partnership in the lead-up to Zollar’s world premiere of On Contemplation of Wailing. The forthcoming piece explores how we express compassion and support for our shared humanity through the ways we gather, disperse and come together again, and how we see each other collectively and individually. Join them as they sit down with Radiolab Senior Correspondent Molly Webster for a conversation that will examine wailing at the intersection of collective creative expression and neuroscience.

Martin joined the Simons Foundation in 2021 and is the executive vice president, autism and neuroscience. She previously served as dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, as chair of the UCLA Department of Biological Chemistry, and as a professor in the UCLA Department of Biological Chemistry and the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. Her research addresses the cellular and molecular biology of long-term synaptic plasticity and memory, with a focus on experience-dependent regulation of gene expression in neurons. Her lab has discovered signaling molecules that travel from stimulated synapses to the nucleus to impact transcription. They have also provided insights into the translation of synaptically localized mRNAs during synapse formation and plasticity.

Zollar earned her B.A. in dance from the University of Missouri–Kansas City and her MFA from Florida State University. In 1984, she founded Urban Bush Women (UBW), a company dedicated to using cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. Zollar has created over 34 works for UBW and choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philadanco, and international collaborators, including Compagnie Jant-Bi. Her recent projects include Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of American Popular Music, Daniel Fish’s Most Happy in Concert, and Houston Grand Opera’s Intelligence. She is a MacArthur Fellow and recipient of multiple lifetime achievement awards. Zollar also serves as the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor and Nancy Smith Fichter Professor of Dance in the School of Dance at Florida State University.

Webster is the senior correspondent at Radiolab. After completing a degree in biology, Molly pursued science journalism, writing for outlets such as Scientific American and National Geographic Adventure. Her ability to comprehend and totally immerse herself in complicated issues has helped Radiolab investigate international surrogacy, the price of a human life and an unexpected piece of ancient pottery. She has adapted her audio and written work for the stage, performing at venues ranging from BAM to TED. A frequent guest host on Radiolab, she developed, produced and hosted our first-ever special series, Gonads — a critically acclaimed podcast and live event series about the parts of us that make more of us.