Nwaka Onwusa On New RRHOF Exhibit ‘It’s Been Said All Along: Voices Of Rage, Hope & Empowerment’

Nwaka Onwusa
 – Nwaka Onwusa
Nwaka Onwusa, vice president and chief curator at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. She joined the Rock Hall in 2019 as director of curatorial affairs.

Nwaka Onwusa knew the power of music to affect change long before she joined the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame just more than a year ago as director of curatorial affairs. She was appointed in September to vice president and chief of curatorial affairs, after playing a role in developing various Rock Hall exhibits, including “Induction All Access: Photography by Kevin Mazur” and “The 2020 Hall of Fame Inductee Exhibit.” Onwusa is now making an indelible mark with a new Rock Hall exhibit, “It’s Been Said All Along: Voices of Rage, Hope and Empowerment,” highlighting artists’ voices for change in messages of equality, respect, and empowerment for people of color.

Pollstar: How did “It’s Been Said All Along” come about?

Nwaka Onwusa: It came along, not as a knee- jerk reaction by any means, but definitely a reaction to current events – our response as a museum, as a cultural institution, to the social stice that’s been happening as of late across the country. Music has played a critical part in every revolution in this country. This music goes back to before the Civil War. [In the Revolutionary War], the band was right out in front before the soldiers. Music is leading the charge as an inspiration. 

Tell us about the “rage, hope and empowerment” segments of the exhibit. 

Obviously, it is the rage helping empowerment. We’re at a point where we have a new generation of leaders and thinkers coming up. It’s a reflection. We wanted it to be impactful. I wanted it to be impactful. These are Black voices that are saying it. These are Black bodies that are being targeted, insulted, murdered. 
And this is why I felt that it was important to highlight Black musicians specifically in this exhibit to bring some sort of peace, bring inspiration, bring hope, bring cases of empowerment, and also to let our audience know that it is OK to cope with that rage. So many songs have captured rage. Nina Simone captured rage with “Strange Fruit.” It’s done so beautifully. Looking at what’s happening in the world around us; that’s where you get. It’s how I came up with the title. This is not a joke. It’s not a game. There were many days where I would cry. This was heavy, heavy shit. This is real life. 
It’s an outcry, like it’s been said all along. It’s the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll. These messages have been carried forward and it’s time to listen. It’s time to wake up. To me, I feel like now that we’ve been seeing it, what next? What is humanity? We’re all trying to figure out what’s next. We have this crazy election. What’s next? 
So, not to politicize it, but as our human spirit, how we can come together and cope with these feelings? We can do that through music. That’s the impetus and that’s where the exhibit came from. That’s where the narrative derived out of. 
Real pain, a real conflict and a real struggle, but still maintaining hope and empowerment for a better tomorrow. Which is what we all are wanting right now. 

Nina Simone
 – Nina Simone

How do you approach such issues as a curator?

As curator, it’s not just my job. This is my passion. This is my activism as well. Being a part of the Rock Hall, we are a beacon here not only in our city and our community of Cleveland, Ohio, but for the world. 
And so that’s why you need Nina Simone’s quote to “live big and bright.” In this exhibit, we show it is our duty as artists and to be a reflection of the time. 
It would have been doing the community a disservice if we didn’t use it as such a powerful force. You talk about the power of rock ‘n’ roll and the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll and how it moves us to either tears or to happiness or to change. 
How is the Rock Hall functioning in this time of COVID-19?

We are really blessed. We’re fortunate that we were open in a time of COVID, and right now we are operating through one-ticket entry. We have temperature checks for visitors. We’re maintaining a level of vigilance, and especially right now where you’re seeing cases rising across the country; globally, actually. And we’re maintaining a level of vigilance when we open. We took advantage of our plaza. We are able to support local musicians by having them perform outdoors. 
Folks who aren’t able to get to Cleveland can experience it virtually. You can see the exhibit and you can take a virtual tour. You can have art, artifacts, and spotlight a deeper dive into learning more about certain songs. And these are moderated and instructed by different professors and musicians and photographers. 
There’s also an educational component to the “It’s Been Said All Along” exhibit?

We’ve seen a major increase in the use of our educational component of “It’s Been Said All Along.“ For parents who are teaching from home, teachers who were obviously teaching remotely at this time, can hold that meeting for you and include part of our exhibit. It is a powerful resource for parents, teachers, educators, all alike. And it’s free. 
Educators and commentary from musicians, along with our librarian archives, are available for public use. It’s an amazing educational component. 
What is the through line from the artists you spotlight, from the earlies to latest?
Nat King Cole
 – Nat King Cole

I feel like it’s the evolution of what these emotions are and how they can be displayed musically and how they’ve been displayed musically through the years. Going back to Nat King Cole, who was the first Black artist to have a TV show but still was subject to Jim Crow when he toured, to Tom Morello and Fantastic Negrito. 

Let’s talk about Nat King Cole. People think of him as the Black Frank Sinatra.

He was an activist. That’s what you look at, the history behind his music and it’s in its place in culture. But, you know, Whitney Houston got flak for not being “Black enough” in the Black community. 
It’s the same kind of thing that Nat King Cole experienced. This man is singing in the ’40s during the height of Jim Crow. We talk about “Soul Train” a lot, but we don’t talk about Nat King Cole’s variety show. He was the first African-American man to have a show in the country, when advertisers didn’t want Black artists, and he was one of the biggest stars of that time. Black stars couldn’t go on on TV in those early days because we couldn’t get support. It was like, “Hey, it’s getting a little too dark on Madison Avenue!”
This man was very powerful, he broke down so many hurdles and barriers for Black musicians. There needs to be more celebration around his life and his impact and what he meant to music. We celebrate him as an early influence, like Billie Holiday made. It’s the narrative, the power of music that conveys across that ether. That’s what it’s about.