Sneak Peek: Vijay Iyer Podcast

Vijay Iyer: I think coming of age, especially as a South Asian American, the child of non-Western immigrants, so much of my life was about proving that I was American. So much of my artistic life has been about that, has been about claiming a seat at the table, claiming a right to be an artist in public in this country, in particular. It couldn't be taken for granted. It had to be built, it had to be claimed, it had to be seized, in a way. It had to be defined, it had to be articulated in those years, in the ‘90s and early 2000s, what is it to be an artist of color, and particularly someone with roots outside the West, in a time when there hadn't been very many such people visible in public, except for, of course, the vast legacy of black music and black musicians, who have been the backbone of American culture for as long as there's been American culture. So, part of it for me was like “What is my relationship to all of that? What do I have to offer it?