Making Room for Herself
Making Room for Herself
Some playlists explain a story. Others tell you something about the person behind it.
Making Room for Herself is a companion to Dr. Nina Denson’s Spotlight Feature, but it isn’t a musical retelling of her journey.
It moves between gospel, R&B, hip-hop, love, worship, reflection, and the songs that simply feel good. There is no requirement that every track explain where Nina has been.
That may be what makes the collection feel most like her.
The feature introduces us to a woman making room for herself after years of showing up for others. The playlist lets us hear some of the music she carries with her.
From the Editor
A good companion playlist should tell us something the written story cannot.
Nina’s does.
Making Room for Herself is not eleven versions of the same message. The music moves between gospel, R&B and hip-hop. There is worship here, but there is also love, longing, confidence and the songs Nina simply enjoys listening to.
That distinction matters.
A person is always larger than the story we publish about them.
Nina can be deeply rooted in her faith and still have Kendrick Lamar, BLXST and Erykah Badu in the rotation. She can turn to gospel when she needs to worship and R&B when that is simply what she wants to hear. Not every song has to carry the weight of her testimony.
The playlist gives us that fuller picture.
As you listen, resist the urge to make every song explain Nina.
Sometimes what someone plays when they have the aux tells you enough.
— From the Editor
The Living Room
Press play before you continue, or let the music accompany your reading.
Liner Notes
Goodness of God — CeCe Winans
It is difficult to spend time with Nina’s story without noticing how naturally she returns to God.
Not only when something works out. She speaks about Him in the parts she did not understand while she was living them too. The career changes. The time with her father. The seasons that required her to be still when she would have preferred to keep moving.
That makes Goodness of God feel less like a song chosen to represent her faith and more like a song that already belongs in the way Nina understands her life.
She can look back at what she would not have chosen and still find God there.
Tender Kisses — Tracie Spencer
There is something fitting about hearing this song in Nina’s collection after hearing her talk about softness.
Nina learned young how to protect herself. She became the woman who could handle things, lead people and fight when necessary. Now, part of making room for herself has meant discovering that she does not always have to live from that place.
Tender Kisses lets us sit with another Nina.
The Nina who loves love. Who wants tenderness. Who can be cared for instead of always being the one doing the caring.
The song does not need to explain a relationship in her life to belong here.
It simply makes room for her softness.
luther — Kendrick Lamar feat. SZA
And then Nina gives us luther.
There is something I like about finding it here, between songs that could so easily be connected to the larger themes of her story.
Because Nina is more than those themes.
She is Dr. Denson. She is a woman whose faith has followed her since childhood. She is an educator, a daughter, a mentor and someone learning to show up for herself with the same intention she has given other people.
And she is also a woman who puts on Kendrick Lamar and SZA because she likes the song.
No deeper interpretation required.
Maybe that is one of the pleasures of being invited into someone else’s playlist. For a few songs, we do not need Nina to teach us anything.
We just get to listen with her.
About This Collection
Curated by
Dr. Nina Denson
Collection
Making Room for Herself
Published
September 18, 2026
Songs
11
Era
1990s–Present
Genres
Gospel • R&B • Hip-Hop
Listening Time
46min 20sec
Collection Summary
A personal collection moving between faith, tenderness, love, reflection, and the songs Nina simply enjoys. Created as a companion to Dr. Nina Denson’s Spotlight Feature, Making Room for Herself offers another way to meet the woman behind the story without asking every song to explain her journey.