Best Of: Delroy Lindo / Tayari Jones on ‘Kin’

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: Fresh Air Weekend centers on Delroy Lindo’s first Oscar nomination for playing Delta Slim in Sinners, exploring his character work, the film’s Black musical history, and Lindo’s reflections on racial othering, the BAFTA slur incident, and his forthcoming memoir. The episode then reviews Alvaro Enrigue’s revisionist Western Now I Surrender and features Tayari Jones discussing Kin, a novel about chosen family, grief, and how her family history and civil rights upbringing shaped her writing.

Main Topics: Delroy Lindo’s role in Sinners and first Oscar nomination (Priority: 5/5): Lindo discusses portraying Delta Slim, a blues harmonica player in 1930s Mississippi, and how Ryan Coogler expanded the role after Lindo asked for more presence in the film’s second act. Blues, history, and the emotional roots of music (Priority: 5/5): Lindo explains that the film’s music was informed by Blues People and Deep Blues, and that his character’s humming in a lynching scene reflects how music can emerge when words fail. Race, public incident, and personal memory (Priority: 4/5): He addresses the BAFTA incident involving a racial slur, the support he received afterward, and recalls an early childhood experience of being racially othered at age five in England. Memoir, Windrush history, and honoring his mother (Priority: 4/5): Lindo says writing his memoir has been healing and is deeply tied to revisiting his mother’s life, the Windrush generation, and his desire to tell a story about a Caribbean Black woman. Alvaro Enrigue’s Now I Surrender as revisionist history (Priority: 3/5): Maureen Corrigan reviews Enrigue’s novel as a hallucinatory, self-aware Western that reconstructs the histories of conquest, Apache displacement, and Geronimo’s surrender. Tayari Jones on Kin, illness, and chosen family (Priority: 5/5): Jones explains how a creative blockage, Graves disease, and post-pandemic reflection led her to write a novel about two motherless girls whose bond tests the meaning of kinship. Writing as identity and discipline (Priority: 4/5): Jones reflects on her childhood, her civil rights-activist parents, Spelman College, and how taking writing seriously—through teachers and audiences—helped define her as a writer.

Key Arguments: Delroy Lindo argues that Delta Slim’s added screen presence mattered because the character was introduced so dynamically that the later script needed more development. Lindo argues that the humming in the lynching scene is meaningful because music often appears where language cannot capture pain. He frames the BAFTA incident as something that could be transformed by Black community support into a positive affirmation rather than just a negative event. Lindo contends that the Windrush generation is underrecognized and deserves broader cultural acknowledgement for helping rebuild Britain after World War II. Tayari Jones argues that she wrote Kin by abandoning a forced, topical project and returning to a more intuitive, playful process. Jones argues that kinship is not limited to blood; the novel asks whether chosen family and emotional bonds can be equally defining. Jones emphasizes that her parents’ civil rights activism and her own childhood in Atlanta shaped her imagination, themes, and sense of responsibility as a writer.

Data Points: Oscar nominations for Sinners: 16 - The film leads all films this year in nominations. Oscar nominations in Delroy Lindo’s career: 1 - Lindo says this is his first Academy Award nomination after a 50-year career. Years of Lindo’s career: 50+ - He is described as having shaped film and theater for more than 50 years. Lindo’s age at first racial othering: 5 - He recalls being racially excluded in England as a five-year-old. Year Lindo earned his master’s degree: 2014 - He received an MFA? master’s from NYU in 2014. Year Lindo earned his undergraduate degree: 2004 - He received his undergrad degree from San Francisco State University. Windrush arrival year referenced: 1948 - Lindo describes the Empire Windrush carrying Caribbean migrants to England in June 1948. Approximate number of passengers on Empire Windrush: 300 - He says the boat transported approximately 300 Jamaican, mostly Jamaican, men. Year Lindo’s mother arrived in England: 1951 - He says his mother arrived in England in 1951. Age when Jones started college: 16 - Jones says she went to Spelman College at 16 after skipping grades. Publication year of An American Marriage: 2018 - Jones notes the novel brought her national prominence. Years of Atlanta Child Murders: 1979-1981 - Jones references the period covered by her debut novel and childhood memories. Minimum victims in Atlanta Child Murders: 28 - Jones states at least 28 Black children, adolescents, and adults were murdered.

Pivotal Quotes: "Be not overcome of evil. But overcome evil with good." — Delroy Lindo: He reads a biblical text after discussing the BAFTA incident and the positive support that followed. "When there are no words, that's where the blues comes in." — Delroy Lindo: He explains the humming moment in Sinners as an expression of pain that music can carry. "Who is your kin? Is it blood or something more profound?" — Tayari Jones: This frames the central question of Kin and its exploration of chosen family.

Implications: The episode highlights how art, memory, and history intersect: film and fiction can restore erased voices, process racial harm, and redefine family and belonging. It also underscores the value of Black cultural lineage and the demand for more nuanced representation.