Preview | Shirlette Ammons
Preview: 4/3/2025 | 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Hip-hop artist Shirlette Ammons blends her eastern NC roots with her love for her local community.
Shirlette Ammons is a Peabody Award-winning producer, poet and hip-hop artist based in Durham, NC. On her latest album, “Spectacles,” she blends aspects of her eastern North Carolina roots with her love for her Triangle-based community to explore the concept of spectacle: how we see, what we see and how we’re seen. Shirlette is joined on stage by a full band and Raleigh’s own Rissi Palmer.
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Shaped by Sound is a local public television program presented by PBS NC
Made possible through support from Come Hear NC, a program of the N.C. Music Office within the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Preview | Shirlette Ammons
Preview: 4/3/2025 | 30sVideo has Closed Captions
Shirlette Ammons is a Peabody Award-winning producer, poet and hip-hop artist based in Durham, NC. On her latest album, “Spectacles,” she blends aspects of her eastern North Carolina roots with her love for her Triangle-based community to explore the concept of spectacle: how we see, what we see and how we’re seen. Shirlette is joined on stage by a full band and Raleigh’s own Rissi Palmer.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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- Grew up singing in the church choir and all that quintessential Black southern stuff.
I really do credit all that for the person I am creatively, just that isolated, beautiful, loud solitude that is just the country.
♪ I was born in '74 but I'm circa '88 ♪ ♪ That's when the weather changed ♪ ♪ To the day we're destined to create ♪ ♪ And I ain't the type for playing it ♪ ♪ Waiting in the water ♪ - [Announcer] Join us Thursdays for new episodes of "Shaped By Sound."
♪ I never settle, I set the stage ♪
Shirlette Ammons: “Battalions”
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Clip: 4/3/2025 | 6m 17s | Shirlette Ammons’ song “Battalions” calls for the protection of civil rights. (6m 17s)
Shirlette Ammons: “Corner Pocket”
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Clip: 4/3/2025 | 3m 40s | Shirlette Ammons performs “Corner Pocket,” a touching story of family, friends and camaraderie. (3m 40s)
Shirlette Ammons: “Lyfted/Earth Segue”
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Clip: 4/3/2025 | 4m 40s | For this performance, Shirlette Ammons seamlessly combines two songs, “Lyfted” and “Earth.” (4m 40s)
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Clip: 4/3/2025 | 2m 53s | Shirlette Ammons performs her song “Short,” which examines her relationship with her father. (2m 53s)
Shirlette Ammons: “Spectacles”
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: 4/3/2025 | 3m 27s | In the song “Spectacles,” Shirlette Ammons explores how we see, what we see and how we’re seen. (3m 27s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
Support for PBS provided by:
Shaped by Sound is a local public television program presented by PBS NC
Made possible through support from Come Hear NC, a program of the N.C. Music Office within the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.