"It obviously sucked in the moment, but I've been able to thrive and really go after my dreams even stronger because people told me that I couldn't," singer-songwriter Madison McFerrin told WNYC's cultural critic Rebecca Carroll. McFerrin was responding to an early setback at the start of her career, when she was asked to deliver the National Anthem at a campaign event for Hillary Clinton. The performance didn't go as planned, and McFerrin became the target of an onslaught of harsh criticism on social media, but most notably from Snoop Dogg. 

McFerrin, who is the daughter of celebrated vocalist Bobby McFerrin, said she chose to see the incident as a learning experience and has kept the lesson with her as she moves forward in her career. "Knowing that I could get to the other side of that, and still walk on two feet and keep my head high, really helps push me when I have other moments of feeling self-doubt." She also looks to black women artists who came before her for strength and inspiration, and created the Sissieretta Series, which McFerrin is currently hosting as an artist-in-residence at The Jerome L. Greene Space, with this in mind. Named after Sissieretta Jones, the first African American woman opera singer to perform at Carnegie Hall, and later went on to create her own vaudeville show for other black artists, McFerrin's series similarly seeks to build community and create opportunities for other artists of color. 

"No one would give her an opera contract," McFerrin says of Jones. "She took matters into her own hands, and was like, 'You know what? If you guys aren't going to give me this opportunity, I'm going to give it to myself. And provide this platform to other black folks to be able to showcase our talent when nobody wanted to acknowledge that we had talent.'"  

Information about Madison McFerrin Presents: The Sissieretta Series is available here, McFerrin's new EP, You + I, is due out December 4.