Lauryn Hill was 22 years old, pregnant with her first child and had two albums with the Fugees under her belt when she started writing the songs that would become her 1998 solo debut. “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” a personal LP that touched on relationships, neighborhood, faith and pride, arrived with a bang: a chart record for first-week sales by a female artist. It went on to sell 8 million copies in the United States, earn five Grammys and become the defining artistic statement of the year, as well as of Hill's career.

The first sound on the album is a school bell calling a classroom to order, followed by a teacher taking attendance and conducting a loose forum about the nature of love. The conversations, which appeared in interludes throughout the album, took place with a class populated by neighborhood children and an educator, Ras Baraka, who went on to become the mayor of Newark.

Clockwise, from top left: Tamika Marshall, Shaquan Sutton, Aleesia Simmons and Taryn Lucas. Bryan Anselm for The New York Times; Mark Makela for The New York Times; Bryan Anselm for The New York Times; Johnathon Kelso for The New York Times.

As the album celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, Ike Sriskandarajah, a producer for The New York Times podcast “The Daily,” set out to track down as many of the featured children as possible. They spoke about how their ideas about love shifted over the years, Hill's landmark album and the hometown they call New Jerusalem.