{"id":15017,"date":"2026-08-28T07:34:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T07:34:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:34:53","slug":"im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why do the Texan innovator\u2019s records take so long to make? \u2018It\u2019s important to gather the data,\u2019 she says: the death, dating and dopamine behind her exquisite comeback alongside the Alchemist<\/p>\n<p>Erykah Badu needs the lights down <em>low<\/em>. The singer, producer, actor and registered doula shuffles into a private room at London\u2019s Soho hotel and quietly asks for some changes to the atmosphere: lights dimmed, soft seat. A green juice would be great.<\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, Badu was out last night with Dave Chappelle, sitting with the comedian at a grand piano and playing songs into the wee hours. She looks mischievous when she thinks about the impromptu party, but declines to go into detail about what, exactly, went on. Instead, the 55-year-old smiles at me, eyes wide, her gold teeth glinting in the low light: \u201cOh yes,\u201d she says slowly and quietly, like some kind of mysterious warlock. \u201cIt <em>was <\/em>a late one \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2026\/aug\/28\/erykah-badu-before-the-world-blows-interview\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2026\/aug\/28\/erykah-badu-before-the-world-blows-interview\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\">Read More<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/4a441f7f54792d65da39ff73b7f190f790de7609\/0_177_3707_2965\/master\/3707.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=bb4927231c6a64fab50a87f2c2cd62f1\" title=\"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years\" \/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do the Texan innovator\u2019s records take so long to make? \u2018It\u2019s important to gather the data,\u2019 she says: the death, dating and dopamine behind her exquisite comeback alongside the Alchemist Erykah Badu needs the lights down low. The singer, producer, actor and registered doula shuffles into a private room at London\u2019s Soho hotel and&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian - Cultural Left<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian - Cultural Left\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why do the Texan innovator\u2019s records take so long to make? \u2018It\u2019s important to gather the data,\u2019 she says: the death, dating and dopamine behind her exquisite comeback alongside the Alchemist Erykah Badu needs the lights down low. The singer, producer, actor and registered doula shuffles into a private room at London\u2019s Soho hotel and&#046;&#046;&#046;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cultural Left\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/culturalleft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-28T07:34:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/4a441f7f54792d65da39ff73b7f190f790de7609\/0_177_3707_2965\/master\/3707.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=bb4927231c6a64fab50a87f2c2cd62f1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Administrator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@culturalleft\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@culturalleft\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Administrator\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/94cf8075fda504f02a6c2fba01de1a33\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-28T07:34:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":188,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/3707-euiW8o.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Uncategorized\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian - Cultural Left\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/3707-euiW8o.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-28T07:34:53+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/3707-euiW8o.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/3707-euiW8o.jpg\",\"width\":140,\"height\":112},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/28\\\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cultural Left\",\"description\":\"Culturalising Democracy - Democratising Culture\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Cultural Left\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/cropped-CYLTURALLEFTLOGOGOOD2023.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/11\\\/cropped-CYLTURALLEFTLOGOGOOD2023.png\",\"width\":484,\"height\":190,\"caption\":\"Cultural Left\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/culturalleft\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/culturalleft\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tiktok.com\\\/culturalleft\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/culturalleft\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/94cf8075fda504f02a6c2fba01de1a33\",\"name\":\"Administrator\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0c0d5f0a3d7f6884da2d98fe3f64332dca5d4ff5b0898d8656adccc76a4d90a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0c0d5f0a3d7f6884da2d98fe3f64332dca5d4ff5b0898d8656adccc76a4d90a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0c0d5f0a3d7f6884da2d98fe3f64332dca5d4ff5b0898d8656adccc76a4d90a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Administrator\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/culturalleft.org\\\/cl\\\/author\\\/administrator\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian - Cultural Left","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian - Cultural Left","og_description":"Why do the Texan innovator\u2019s records take so long to make? \u2018It\u2019s important to gather the data,\u2019 she says: the death, dating and dopamine behind her exquisite comeback alongside the Alchemist Erykah Badu needs the lights down low. The singer, producer, actor and registered doula shuffles into a private room at London\u2019s Soho hotel and&#46;&#46;&#46;","og_url":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/","og_site_name":"Cultural Left","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/culturalleft","article_published_time":"2026-08-28T07:34:53+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/4a441f7f54792d65da39ff73b7f190f790de7609\/0_177_3707_2965\/master\/3707.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=bb4927231c6a64fab50a87f2c2cd62f1","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Administrator","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@culturalleft","twitter_site":"@culturalleft","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Administrator","Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/"},"author":{"name":"Administrator","@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/#\/schema\/person\/94cf8075fda504f02a6c2fba01de1a33"},"headline":"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian","datePublished":"2026-08-28T07:34:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/"},"wordCount":188,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3707-euiW8o.jpg","articleSection":["Uncategorized"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/","url":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/","name":"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian - Cultural Left","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3707-euiW8o.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-28T07:34:53+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3707-euiW8o.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3707-euiW8o.jpg","width":140,"height":112},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/2026\/08\/28\/im-an-ever-changing-vessel-erykah-badu-on-defying-definition-life-as-a-birth-and-death-doula-and-her-first-album-in-11-years-culture-the-guardian\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u2018I\u2019m an ever-changing vessel\u2019: Erykah Badu on defying definition, life as a birth and death doula and her first album in 11 years Culture | The Guardian"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/#website","url":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/","name":"Cultural Left","description":"Culturalising Democracy - Democratising Culture","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/#organization","name":"Cultural Left","url":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-CYLTURALLEFTLOGOGOOD2023.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-CYLTURALLEFTLOGOGOOD2023.png","width":484,"height":190,"caption":"Cultural Left"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/culturalleft","https:\/\/x.com\/culturalleft","https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/culturalleft","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/culturalleft"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/#\/schema\/person\/94cf8075fda504f02a6c2fba01de1a33","name":"Administrator","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c0d5f0a3d7f6884da2d98fe3f64332dca5d4ff5b0898d8656adccc76a4d90a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c0d5f0a3d7f6884da2d98fe3f64332dca5d4ff5b0898d8656adccc76a4d90a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c0d5f0a3d7f6884da2d98fe3f64332dca5d4ff5b0898d8656adccc76a4d90a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Administrator"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl"],"url":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/author\/administrator\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturalleft.org\/cl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}