Season 2 - Ep 3 Frank Waln: Music as Medicine

Works in Progress

Frank Waln: Hip-Hop, Heritage, and Healing

In this episode of Works in Progress, Lakota music artist, public speaker, and educator Frank Waln joins ArtLab director Bree Edwards to explore the medicinal power of music in constructing futures from the rubble of colonial violence. Drawing on his formative relationship with sound, Frank traces the lineage of hip-hop to experiences of displacement and resilience among communities of color in America—revealing how this legacy opened pathways for him to celebrate and share his indigeneity through storytelling, ceremony, and music.

We also discuss Frank’s multi-year residency at the Harvard ArtLab, where he deepened his hip-hop practice until an unexpected discovery reshaped his creative trajectory: a hair sample belonging to his great-grandmother was found in the Woodbury Collection at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography. This painful revelation became a turning point, leading to a collaboration with the Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP) and the Harvard Divinity School (HDS). Together, they hosted a gathering inspired by the Lakota Wiping of the Tears ceremony—creating space for collective mourning and renewal among Native peoples at Harvard.

Join us for an intimate conversation about hip-hop as healing, the intersections of art and ancestry, and how Frank Waln continues to create from both grief and hope at ArtLab and beyond.

Frank’s ArtLab residency page: https://artlab.harvard.edu/directory/frank-waln/
Frank’s personal website: http://frankwaln.com/
Frank’s instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/frankwaln/
Works in Progress is recorded and produced in ArtLab’s Mead Production Lab, located on the traditional territory of the Massachusetts people, the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston and Cambridge. The show is hosted by Bree Edwards, produced by Kat Nakaji, and edited by Luke Damrosch—theme music . Theme music is by Kicktracks.
For more information about the show, the ArtLab, and the artists featured, visit artlab.harvard.edu. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching @ArtLabHarvard.

Thanks for joining us for Works in Progress. We hope these conversations give you a glimpse into the creativity, collaboration, and experimentation happening at ArtLab. To learn more, visit artlab.harvard.edu.

The podcast is recorded in the Mead Production Lab at the ArtLab in Boston, Massachusetts.

Hosted by Bree Edwards
Audio by Luke Damroch
Production by Kat Nakaji
Research by Sadie Trichler & Ria Cuéllar-Koh

Design by James Blue & Sonia Ralston