Editor's note: This profile of Danielle Ponder, a prominent voice in the protests over Daniel Prude's death by Rochester police,was first published Feb. 3, 2017. She is currentlySpecial Assistant Public Defender, Diversity and Inclusion Officerfor the Monroe County Public Defender's office.
In the confluence of music and social awareness, DaniellePonder is Exhibit One in Rochester. A powerful soul singer, she’s one of the most-recognized voices in Rochester.
As a Monroe County public defender, she’s a voice for those who can’t afford to stand up to a system criticized as systemically rigged against the poor. She backs up these words through her own, hands-on community activism.
“Honestly, for as long as I can remember,” Pondersays, “I can’t think of a time I wasn’t involved in something.”
She'sa kid from the poor side of town who now travels the world; Europe, Africa and most recently Asia, where she’s fascinated by the region’s spiritualism. She’s the daughter of a church pastor who sings about a woman’s sensuality; asister whose brother spent 20 years in prison, and now she writes songs about injustice. A34-year-old woman of conundrums and firsthand compassion whoseems to be everywhere, as witnessed by the thick file of her whereabouts that has accumulated over the years.
There she is in 1999, a junior at Wilson Magnet High School, sorting through donated clothing at the West Street Salvation Army as part of the Wilson Community Connection.
From 2016:Danielle Ponder is empowering tomorrow's people, today
There she is in 2006, performing on a stage in the square at The Susan B. Anthony House, in celebration of the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.
There she is in 2009, the lead singer of the hip-hop soul band Black August, singing “Criminalized.” Her song about a criminal justice systembolstered by subjective terms such as “probable cause” and “reasonable suspicion” unfairly targeting city youths.
There she is in 2011, waiting for the results from the bar exam after graduating from Northeastern University law school in Boston.
There she is in 2014, at the Teen Empowerment annual luncheon. A former honoree of the group, which recognizes two or three people in the community who have made a positive impact on young people struggling in the city, Ponder had been working with the Officeof Mental Health on eliminating racial disparities for young people of color. She helped develop The Cultural Broker Program, to help create a path through the social barriers.
There she is in 2015, with her new band Danielle Ponder & the Tomorrow People. Touring Europe, playing gigs in Brussels and Paris.
And there she isin 2016, performing at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival. Then releasing a six-song EP,Blow Out the Sun. Songs of “personal empowerment and personal liberation,” is how she describes it.
Danielle Ponder was inevitable.
"She's an amazing member of our community," says Doug Ackley, Rochester director of Teen Empowerment. "She's so incredibly valuable to the present and future of Rochester."
Choosing multicultural inclusiveness
“There were times that were much better than others,” Ponder says. “His income was unstable, there were food stamps. When he got big contracts from the city, it was good times. My parents would take the family to Florida, Disney World."
Ponder was 16 when she wrote her first song. “A Heart Without Love.” To this day, she can still recall the words. Although she would rather not. What experience did she have to qualify as an authority on this matter? “I definitely didn’t know what love was, I was a late bloomer,” she says. “I hadn’t even kissed anyone at that age. I was just imitating other singers.”
Listening to Ponder today, the assumption is that those influences were icons such as Aretha Franklin.
“Ironically, I was falling in love with Susan Tedeschi,” Ponder says. “I can’t remember where I first saw her, but it was with my cousin, who was wild about how she played guitar. I loved her because she had this great raspy, bluesy voice. So I kind of took a weird route to the blues, with this white woman introducing me to it. But from there, I tracked down other blues women like Big Mama Thornton. And alternative music. Alanis Morissette. Fiona Apple. Lauryn Hill.
"Lauryn Hill was a big influence.”
A wide palette of stylesthatled to Black August. Her cousin, Denise Reese, who had been so affected bySusanTedeschi’s playing, handled the electric guitar with the blues-rock intensity of Jimi Hendrix. A rich mix of musical cultures. When the band deemed itself good enough to perform for audiences, Black August played at white and black clubs alike.
Black August’s multicultural inclusivenesswas the band’s choice. It was not a product of Ponder’s environment. That’s something she wrestles with to this day.
“If you walked a few blocks down Bay Street, closer to Culver, it was completely different,” she says. “That’s one interesting thing about being poor in America. It’s so easy to see the wealth.”
Her world exploration was launched through a high-school program called Students in Africa.“It really changed for me when I came back, that trip really blew my mind,” Ponder says. “In Ghana, I saw this giant, new city of people. In Senegal, the same thing.”
The experience inspired her to create what she called her “African-American History Camp.”
“I used my dad’s church,” she says. “I went around the neighborhood with fliers, I think we recruited 12 kids.” Ponder’s sister would pick them up, her aunt madelunch. “I had a telemarketing job at the time, I poured all of my paycheck from that into it,” Ponder says. “My relatives volunteered, we took the kids to see the Douglass statue, I had a woman I met in Nigeria who happened to be visiting here come speak. After two weeks, we had a graduation ceremony.
“I still see some of those kids to this day. I hope it had an impact on them.”
African-American History Camp was combating a mythology, Ponder says. “All we learned in school was that we have a history of being slaves, and didn’t have any history before slavery.”
Ponder’s own teacher on that history had been living under the same roof. “My older brother considered it always his job to educate me on social issues,” Ponder says. “When I was 8, he drew a map of Africa on his door, which my mom probably hated, and told me, ‘This is where our people come from. This is why our streets look like they do.’”
But those streets caught up to Dwayne Ponder. He was convicted of robbery, a gun was involved. Under three-strikes-and-you're-outsentencing guidelines, he went to prison.
“I think information can make you very angry, sometimes,” Ponder says of her brother. “Other things can happen. The knowledge he gave me empowered me, but it frustrated him. My brother was existing as a black male;it’s easier to get caught up in a certain crowd. I was much more sheltered, much more protected. My father wouldn’t even let me walk out to the car without one of my brothers going with me.”
After two decades, most of it in Attica, Dwayne Ponder was released from prison this summer.
“What do you do after spending 20 years of your life in prison?” Danielle asks.
Follow his father’s path. Dwayne and his younger brother, Elijah, started their own company, Quality Touch Remodeling. "I happened to get lucky," Dwayne says. "I had good family, good friends, support. They pushed me in the right direction."
“I can’t believe, in such a short time, how many customers they have," Daniellesays. "People are supporting him, probably because they know his story. I have a friend who probably didn’t need any work done, but he asked, ‘How about putting some siding on my house?’
“It’s really just beautiful.”
It is not beautiful for everyone.
"You can definitely see how class and race play an important role in how you gettreated," Dwayne says.
In her role as a Monroe County public defender, “I have to argue on each of these clients’ behalf,” she says. “As soon as I meet this person I have to start telling their story. I’m sitting with them in court and have to whisper to them, ‘Do you have any kids? Are you a single mom?’ Just to get them released from custody.” The answers may help convince the judge to not set bail that is unattainable for those living in what has been ranked by some studies as the third-poorest city in the country.
These people are the small potatoes of crime. Petitlarceny and criminal mischief. Some of the cases are dismissed at arraignment, some charges are reduced and a plea is taken. Throughout theprocess, Ponder will be telling their story.
A storytelling process she compares to songwriting. Songs such as “Criminalized.” Ponder may not have known much about love when she was 16, but now she's had plenty of experience to qualify as an authority on the criminal justice system.
"I feel like Danielle has a unique opportunity to reflect on her experiences inthe community she grew up in,and put it through the lens of our courts," says Ackley, who says he witnessed her growth and development through her years of board and volunteer service at Teen Empowerment.
"There's a lot of injustice in our society, and she is striving to find justice," he adds.
A trans-Atlantic connection
While visiting friends in Europe last fall, Ponder was surprised to find a museum with an exhibit on the Black Panthers activism of the 1960s and ’70s, and today’s Black Lives Matter.
“It was amazing,” she says. “All the way in Brussels, people cared about the Black Lives Matter Movement, and what was happening a thousand miles away in America."
That evening, after the museum had closed to the public, the staff threw a party. Ponder was invited to sing. She chose “Criminalized,” and these lines:
I have faith in the power of the people
The human need to be treated as an equal
There is only so much the bucket can take
Before the bucket fills and the bottom breaks
“People came up afterwards, thanking me for performing it,” shesays. “I don’t know what it is about music. But it seems to connect people.”
More on Danielle Ponder
July 2020:Danielle Ponder returns to Public Defender's Office to bolster inclusivity, diversity
April 2020:Danielle Ponder selected as one of best NPR Tiny Desk performances
March 2020:5 Rochester social media influencers you should be following