Rentner, Simon. "Cellist, Banjoist, and Singer-Songwriter Leyla McCalla Revisits Her Own Root System, on The Checkout", WBGO, December 4, 2017. Accessed January 15, 2020. "Leyla McCalla has traveled a winding path as a musician, from the European classical canon to the folkways of her Caribbean heritage. Born into a Haitian-American family in Queens, she was raised in Maplewood, and brought up in the New Jersey public school system."